Fiesta San Sebastián

Continuing through Chile's central valley, we came across lots of huasos riding along the road before coming upon a massive festival at the roadside. All the huasos were dressed traditionally, wearing flat rimmed straw hats, ponchos over waist jackets, as well as boots with spurs. Parking up to explore, we initially thought it might be a rodeo as there was so many horses everywhere. We followed the crowd through mazes of market stalls to find a big outdoor mass at the end with the bishop of Linares giving out blessings..! It turned out to be a massive religious festival in honor of San Sebastián, the patron saint of farmers, where devotees make a pilgrimage for a week to pay favors and send orders to the saint in the small village of Panimávida. There was no rodeo to be found but huasos ride through the streets and have their photos taken and put up on display. Being the only tourists we really stuck out amongst the crowd but enjoyed wandering through the stalls eating homemade chips, grilled meat and melon lemonade. That evening, we drove on further to Salto De Laja, a touristy town situated by a waterfall. We parked up at camping la Isla, an island campsite along the river that was filled with locals swimming and enjoying Sunday picnics and BBQs.

22/01- 23/01Read more