Carnaval Festivities

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Carnaval is over and I think the 3 days could be summed up with the words, costumes, music, water, foam, dancing and LOTS of drinking. Copious amounts of beer has been consumed in Bolivia this weekend. The beer and dancing combo meant that the performance of the latter steadily declined over the weekend, but made watching all the more enjoyable! A memorable moment would be watching a guy stumble drunkingly across the road whilst holding his groin area... there was no way he was going to be able to find a toilet... and he didn't! Behind a jeep (and right in front of the parade) was sufficient for the occasion. It was awesome to watch the dancing - particularly because everyone dresses up for the occasion in their sparkly dresses or semi-clown costumes. Its great to be able to watch the skirts swirl.

Carnaval (which has been named the biggest annual cultural event in Bolivia) has something to do with Pachamama (mother earth) and the Tio Supay (uncle god of the mountains)... although apparently the Spanish Catholics didn't like the ceremonies so the Bolivians substituted the Virgin Mary for Pachamama and the Devil for Tio and the Spanish let the traditions continue. We've heard that the dances symbolise a battle between good and evil. Every year they spend 3 days (and nights) dancing and during that time there are a lot of festivities and it is very difficult to stay dry!

We spent some of Carnaval in Sorata - a town 3 hours from La Paz at 2700m - with our friends Scotty & Lisa. Sorata became a hive of activity over the weekend and the town plaza became a dancing square. There were many cans of foam being sprayed and so many water balloons flying that we had to be on guard ... and with our hair colour, we were easily identifiable targets. We went for a day hike and came across many kids with florescent water guns, water balloons and foam... an interesting sight in rural Bolivia. We would be walking along and all of a sudden bombarded from above by water balloons. We even got ambushed by some guys who jumped out from behind their mudbrick huts with water balloons and buckets of water... we sprinted up the road, hotly pursued and only managed to get slightly wet.

During that same walk we got slightly off track (not helped by the non-descriptive advice of the locals to 'go down') and then the weather turned bad and it started pouring (being right in the middle of rainy season). We got back on track but were so far away from Sorata and so very, very wet. We were so glad when 3 hours into the return trip we were offered a ride in the back of a ute. It was a 30 min ride involving hanging onto a few poles whilst being thrown up in the air by all the potholes, but we were happy as it saved us at least another 3 hours walking, and it only cost 50c each! By then Sorata had turned into a mudbath, but the festivities continued.

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Photos

Sniper
The Sorata town plaza.