The Foam Festival

---

MORNING

I woke up with bad stomach cramp, had a spell of diarrhoea and I could only eat bananas, melon and papaya and drink a café con leche for breakfast. Ronald insisted we travel to Tiwanaku today, about an hour away from La Paz, which we had planned to go to yesterday. Yesterday I’d insisted I just needed a day to catch up with the usual jobs so I could enjoy the rest of my trip and today I really felt I couldn't travel to Oruro for the festival which we had planned to see. Although it wasn't serious I felt very weak, I barely ate a thing during the day and every now and then I would get a very bad pain in my stomach and then it would pass.

In the afternoon we went to watch the festival of Oruro (again part of 'Carnaval') on the TV in a restaurant where Ronald ate a full menu whilst I sat and watched. The festival, which included a parade of dances from all regions in Bolivia was fascinating. I regretted not having seen it but I was glad I saw it on TV. Ronald reassured me that there would be other festivals whilst I was in Bolivia and that we would hunt them down.

Well we didn't have to hunt much. We decided to go into the centre of La Paz where it seemed all the chidren throughout the centre, and some adults were spraying each other with water pistols, cans of foam and throwing water bombs. There were vendors everywhere selling plastic waterproofs, cans of foam and water to recharge the pistols. I insisted we join in the fun, after all we were only young once. We bought a can of foam between us and went on the attack with it. Well I was ruthless and became one of the children saying to Ronald 'get him' and 'get her' and pointing. As soon as I started spraying foam on people who looked like they were 'game' for it, I was getting water thrown directly from a bottle down my back, soaked to the skin by water pistols fired by mischievous children whose grins made me even more inclined to look for potential victims, my eyes and mouth were covered in foam which periodically I had to wipe off whilst I found secret places to hide where children weren't looking to get me. I gave as good as I got, I'm sure of that.

I came out soaked and smelling of bubblegum foam, with a face covered in white and blue foam, and I looked like little red riding hood caught in a snow storm. Ronald on the other hand had been attacked but not nearly as much as me. At first I thought it was because I was a tourist so they were singling me out but later I realised that the fact that I had been running about with foam in my hand shouting 'get him' , falling about laughing had made me an easy target. Ronald on the other hand had remained calm and had left me with the foam so they had left him alone. And of course the more foam you have had sprayed on you, the more people think you are up for being sprayed again and again. If you put a plastic poncho on, are soaked to the skin with foam, carrying a water pistol, laughing and have a bag full of water bombs then you are most certainly the most desirable target in the city centre.

Later soaked to the skin I composed myself. We walked back to the hostel and I bought some souvenirs. On the way back we heard a brass band playing so we stopped to find out why. Behind them was a new shop, the business they had just opened. All of a sudden outside of the shop, a row of firecrackers and explosives went off. Ronald explained that each new owner had a way of blessing their business and this was one of the ways - playing instruments, making a lot of noise and setting off explosives. This seemed as bizarre to me as the blessing of car ritual, the sacrificing dehydrated animals to cure an illness and the blessing of Alasitas using incense.

I went to shower and change at the hostel. Later that evening we went out to visit the Vice President's Palace, the Bank of Bolivia's central building and we saw live theatre in the main square. As soon as I had armed myself with foam I immediately forgot about my stomach ache and I was feeling much more like myself, I even managed to eat a tiny part of a hot dog at Alasitas. After laughing so much how could I not feel more like myself? I had been in my element, I was a child at heart.

---