Day 70 Rest Day in Torres del Paine: New Years Eve

December 31, 1999

Rain and drizzle continue throughout the night and of course there is the wind, but by morning it is calm. So the rain just stays in the area and does not move on.

We are the tent all day. Emerging only occasionally, same as the other campers. Rachel passes a silver tent that has lines going to all the trees nearby. A Chilean man has a homemade gill from a barrel and is fixing pollo asado. "Smells good" Rachel says. He waves her to the camp, she looks at the grill, he slices a chunk of meat off. "It is good" Rachel says, it was nice and juicy. We are starving ourselves for tonight's News Years Eve Buffet.

We decided to attend the $90/pp NY celebration at the Hosteria. After all this is year of Y2K referring to a widespread computer programming shortcut that was expected to cause extensive havoc as the year changed from 1999 to 2000 .

At 8pm we are the first to arrive. The event is to start at 8 and we are too hungry to be fashionably late. Then 2 other people are here, also looking like campers, and we ask them to take our picture.

We have an aperitif of Pisco Sour, the Chilean's National Drink. Tastes very much like a Margarita minus the ice and salt. We watch as the chefs finish the final preparations of setting up the food.

We wait...

... and wonder how long we have to just look at the food.

Finally, the service begins. There are 10-20 different appetizers and salads. One table has a giant ball of ice with a cooked king crab on top. Patrick takes soup, Rachel salad, and both try the various appetizers: crab on crackers, rabbit pate, cold turkey and scallops.

We are at a table for 2 but next to us are 2 tables together with 10 people each. The kids at the table are the first to pick up the noise makers and mask and string confetti that is at each table. One boy at some point during eating decided it was his mission to pop every single green and white balloons that decorated the circle of poles and above the doorway and windows.

After the appetizers we start for the main entrees: lamb, venison, goose, roast beef and potatoes. We have a bottle of red Santa Cruz wine. Live entertainment is a man with a guitar singing Spanish songs except for Peter Paul and Mary's Song "Blowing in the wind". That must be for all the gringos that complain about the wind.

The boy has popped every single balloon in the room except for above us, and when he started to look at our balloons, Rachel says "no" and an adult shoos him away.

Then the dancing starts, the buffet tables are broken down and the Americans start a conga line. You can usually tell the Americans, they're the ones usually with something on their heads (like a lampshade). The Latinos dance with salsa quite sensual, the Americans hopped.

The desserts are in a side room: cream puffs, fancy cakes, ice cream, chocolate mousse and a big table with assorted cheeses, crackers and grapes.

At midnight, the champagne glasses and bottles have been passed around. The countdown starts in Spanish, then everyone celebrates the New Year. We walk around greeting and wishing a Happy New Year to people from Chile, Espana, Italy, Japan, Britain, and American.

The party moved outside to watch the "burning of the old year" a dummy hanging from a scaffold. Because of the drizzling rain, the fire is slow to burn up, so the dummy is thrown on the fire. There were about 3 fireworks.

We return to our tent; the dancing is to continue on into the early hours. We are happy to be in the campground further away from the salsa beat. The campground has tents scattered, each lit, the most we've seen this late. People all found their own way of celebrating the New Year and the New Century.

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	1
Comment on this entry	Comment	0