Carnaval of La Paz 2015

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We checked out of our hostel in La Paz and headed to Carnaval 2015 to watch the parade, with the aim of leaving for Tiahuanacu in the afternoon. Carnaval was amazing. There were lots of bands there each playing different instruments to different rhythms depending on the national song of their community, people were dancing and wearing different costumes. We had waited a long time for it to start, found a place with a good view of the parade whilst not getting wet and for a whole hour watched kids (and plenty of adults) all wearing disguises from superman to Clockwork orange, racing around spraying each other with foam, water pistols and throwing water bombs. The parade consisted of groups of communities from La Paz, dressed in themed and very colourful costumes, dancing to a band which would march with them. The first group to march were red and green Cucumbers’ playing trumpets, the second were a clan dressed in black, driving by with fancy cars and motorbikes, later there was a group dressed as dogs, then penguins, then pirates, then yellow cucumbers, Peppa pigs and a whole lot of costumes that I didn’t recognise. All groups were dancing to a different tune and all people in the carnival whilst performing were getting sprayed with foam, hit with water bombs and sprayed with water pistols. Every so often somebody would fire a firecracker into the air to mark the end of a dance.

The carnival went on for a few hours and in between the groups dancing to music, the general public would be marching, mainly kids spraying foam in each others faces or launching water bombs into the crowd. Nobody was safe from getting wet. Anybody going about their normal business nearby or anybody passing by or anybody watching the parade could get sprayed or soaked, including indigenous women. Everybody took it well and got into the spirit of the carnival. Even the police who were managing the crowd were quite happy to get sprayed in the face with foam

All along the road there were people selling plastic waterproofs (which were worn by many), cans full of foam, big powerful water pistols of all different types, and extra water for people who needed to refill their water bottles during the parade. Occasionally there would be a group of kids passing through the crowd together all dressed as different characters from Clockwork Orange, or from a horror film. These ones would go along shouting and throwing water bombs not only at the people in the parade but anyone in the crowd. Ronald and I were standing quite a few metres up above the parade but plenty of water bombs hit people around us and we got some of the spray on us. Ronald got hit by a water bomb in the neck, a water bomb exploded just in front of my feet and soaked the bottoms of my jeans and one exploded on my bag with full force.

The best part was the hour before the parade started when the street was a mass of people enjoying the water fights. It was an aqua comedy. Ronald and I kept pointing out different hilarious scenarios. Plenty of people were getting foam sprayed in the face and in the mouth, Ronald kept saying to me things like ‘Look at Scooby Doo over there he’s eating foam’ and I’d reply ‘wait there’s another one, look at Superman he’s got it in the eyes’ and I’d point out a little kid who everybody was spraying with foam and he had a fully loaded water pistol which he couldn’t use because he couldn’t see anything.

I took lots of photos zooming in on people’s confused and surprised expressions – such as the ones caused by people having been hit by a water bomb. They had looked around to see where it was coming from, then got sprayed in the face by somebody else with foam and then got sprayed by a 5 year old kid dressed as superman with a powerful water pistol all within the space of 5 seconds. It was also fun to see people around us who hadn’t come prepared with waterproofs, who believing they were watching the parade at a safe distance, were getting water bombed in the face after a group of kids had thrown water bombs metres into the air. The look of surprise and laughter on peoples faces was precious, and each time one exploded all the crowd would laugh, both adults and children would look around at the person who’d got soaked and laugh again.

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