Now that is why I bought a small wallet that I can fit little into

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Starting the day rather late due to going on to a bar the night before until 4AM, I received a call from my friend Kevin telling me about a festival going on near the black market on La Paz, so I asked Linnea and Alejandro if they wanted to go as well and they were up for it as well. It was the Festival de Gran Poder, not actually sure why they were celebrating, but I wasn't complaining. The streets were filled with people playing music, dancing, and participating in their favourite pastime, drinking beer. It was pretty interesting to watch, however, after about half and hour, Linnea was not feeling so well (probably from the night before) so they went on home and left me along to find Kevin. I kept trying to call him but I could never figure out where he said he was, so I decided to follow the parade by myself. While watching the parade from Avenida Buenos Aires, a not so good area of town, I was first spit on. I knew this was a distraction for robbing someone, so I kept on walking. Then I came to a point where I was surrounded by five men and I couldn't move, I thought it was traffic as there were so many people around, but I was definitely wrong as I found out later. Later when further away, I looked at the ground from some odd reason, and noticed that my key clip, which had nothing on it to begin with, was hanging out of my pocket and I didn't even have to check my pocket to realize that I had become La Paz's newest victim to pickpocketing. After preparing myself for it for some time, I didn't upset me as much as I thought it would. The only thing that creeps me out that someone was in my pocket and I didn't know. It may sound weird, but I am impressed at how well they did it. I even had a zipper on my pocket! All I ended up losing was a bit of cash and my Bolivian bank card. At least I wasn't hurt in anyway.

So some lessons learned from today, don't go to a festival with anything and always stick around with people you know. If you are crowded by a whole bunch of people, move your hands to where your most important goods are as well!

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Photos

Selling beer on the streets
At a cost of 5 Bs (70 cents) a can.

Big bags of coca leaves
You won't see this in Canada!

Festival de Gran Poder
Lots of people seem to be enjoying themselves with what they enjoy most, beer! (Located in the black market of La Paz)

Look at all that confetti in the air
I think this is where they got my wallet out of my pocket.