Pass the Ferrero Rocher

I just met the Spanish Ambassador

12th October in Chile is Columbus Day, marking the date that Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas. It is a national holiday in many South American countries, as well as in Spain. So to celebrate, we went along to an open day at Estadio Español - a sort of country club for Spanish ex-pats (and their descendants) in Santiago.

It was a really fun day, with lots of traditional dancing and costumes from each of Spain's different regions. Each region also had a stand, serving local food and manned by natives of that area.

Dancing a Jota from Aragon

It didn't take us long to find the stand from Aragon and we both looked on rather wistfully when we saw its giant picture of the basilica in Zaragoza alongside the River Ebro. We sampled a really tasty tortilla and then Carlos started chatting to a man in front of the stand who was wearing an "I'm from Aragon" badge. He turned out to be the president of the Aragonese ex-pat club and when Carlos told him he was from Zaragoza city, he was met with "Hombre!", open arms, an enormous smile and the biggest bear hug I've ever seen.

We were then paraded around the Aragonese area and introduced to numerous people, one of whom was the Spanish Ambassador to Chile, with his wife and his aide! Of course, I didn't realise this until Carlos translated to me later, which was probably just as well!

The Aragon stand