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Published: August 18th 2005
I spent another couple of days in Samipata, enjoying the peace and the sunshine but there was no ATM and I was running out of money and time so I thought I should head back to the city. I´ve only been in Santa Cruz for one day and I planned to leave for Brazil today but I´ve already had to delay until Tuesday! I had a nightmare day yesterday trying to organise posting stuff, travel plans and getting supplies and by the end of the day I´d pretty much acheived not that much at all! Oh well, nevermind, its really hot here and now that I´ve explored the city a bit further its really quite nice. Last night I went to a concert in the stadium in the city with two really fun irish girls from my hostel. Juan Gabriel, a singer from Mexico was playing and he´s absolutely huge here. Hes kind of South America's answer to Tom Jones but with the popularity of Robbie Williams. The newspapers today said that there were 20, 000 people there. the stadium was packed and there were loads of screaming women who had clearly dragged their husbands and boyfriends with them. There was
a couple sitting next to me and I was teasing the guy about being there and he insisted that he wasn't a fan, he was just there because his wife wanted to come!
Juan Gabriel was very old and a bit sleazy. He did dancing like Tom Jones and everytime he moved the crowd went mental. The posters and tickets had pictures of him that were clearly taken about 20 years ago but he really knew how to work the crowd because everyone, even the guy next to me, was loving every minute. At one point Juan stopped singing and let the crowd sing for him (a bit like robbie williams did at murrayfield when the crowd sang Angels) Spanish is a really musical language anyway and to hear so many thousands of people all singing together was just brilliant. The atmosphere in the stadium was fantastic. At one point the stage filled up with mexican dancers and guys with huge guitars and sombraros. It was a great show and there were fireworks for the really passionate songs.
When we arrived we had to queue for ages (we had the cheapest seats) but there were plenty of people selling beer
so we were happy. We were the only tourists there, everyone else was local. There were loads of kids selling lightsticks, flashing stick things and other tat. The lightsticks were 2 for 1 boliviano (imagine how much you´d pay at home) and we also bought bandanas with "Juan Gabriel" written in gold glitter. How tasteful. Alot of the locals were asking us where we were from and why we were there and our bandanas got plenty of laughs and funny looks (we only saw about 3 other locals wearing them. There was a huge police presence and we seemed to be a source of amusement for them also. Juan did'nt come on stage until about midnight (we queued from 8pm and sat in the stadium from about 11pm) but he kept singing until really late although we gave up and left at about 3am. Every so often the crowd would get a bit carried away and start chanting "Autonomia Autonomia Autonomia!!" and it was getting more and more frequent. The region of Santa Cruz is the richest in Boliva and they want economic autonomy becasue they don't like having to share their wealth with the poorer (alot poorer) areas of
Bolivia in the West. It's a bit of a sensitive issue, especially with the revolution happening and Bolivia not having a government just now and Juan was encouraging them alot too so we wanted to leave before there was any trouble.
So all in all it was a great night but today I'm knacked, I'd planned to do loads today but almost everywhere is closed. Its the only place Ive been in Bolivia where everything closes on Sundays so my washing and errands will just have to wait until tomorrow! Meanwhile I´'m off to lay in a hammock in the sunshine at my hostel!! My hostel is absoolutely gorgeous, theres a beautiful courtyard full of plants and flowers and it also has toucans and a little parrakeet that live in the courtyard. One toucan in particular steals bread from my plate at breakfast! Cheeky sod!
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Mum
non-member comment
Knickers
Hope you didn't throw any knickers at him like they do at Tom Jones concerts sounds they you had a good time! Great to talk to you on the phone. Love Mum xxxx