Although Carnaval is one weekend, its celebrated the end of January and you could still see kids throwing water balloons at the end of February. Carnaval is the main celebration right before the beginning of Lent. It's generally celebrated with costumes, masks and parades. Of course this is accompanied with tons of alcohol and other things that are generally given up during Lent. Two Thursdays before the official guys night out, and the Thursday before is the ladies night out. Men weren't allowed into several of the bigger bars until after midnight, and several of the bars had sexy male dancers.
The next afternoon I left to head to Oruro for the weekend. Oruro has the biggest celebration in Bolivia, including a massive two day parade that is over 5km long. For us, just getting to Oruro was an adventure in itself. About a week before Carnaval, many of the major roads between cities and to border towns were blockaded. I believe the reason was a protest of a new tax structure for busses and commercial vehicles. So it was a bit more complicated than just taking a bus to Oruro. We had the get past the blockade between Sucre and Potosi.
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| Getting ready to walk through the blockades |
First, we took a taxi to the beginning of the blockade, about half an hour away from Sucre. Then, as its got dark, we walked through one side of the barricade. From there we were able to take a bus for about fifteen minutes to get to the other side of the barricade. After walking across to the other side, we wandered around in the dark negotiating with the various drivers who could take us to Potosi. These drivers also knew it was late at night and we didn't have many options to get to Potosi. Expensive transportation. Eventually, we found a bus that has all the seats full. We managed to convince the driver to let us sit in the aisle and front of the bus next to him. So with that we were in Potosi by midnight, found a van and we were in Oruro by four am.
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| View from my seat |
We stayed in the living room of a Bolivian family's house on mattresses on the floor. After about five hours of sleep, we were up and ready to see the parade! We had tickets in a specific section of bleachers called the Green Zone. It was definitely the most enthusiastic section around. There was lots of beer, jumping around and dancing. Instead of water fights like in Sucre, the thing in Oruro seemed to be shooting each other with big cans of soapy foam. It didnt feel great to get in your eyes, but it wasn't too bad.
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| Even the military weren't safe from the foam |
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| Little kids took advantage of every break in the parade to kill each other with foam |
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| The adults were serious about the foam too |
There would be a band playing for every few groups of dancers. And the costumes were AMAZING. They never repeat the costumes year to year for each group, and the colors and styles came from various regions of the country. And they walk/dance for hours! In weird shoes and super heavy clothes. I suspect there was some alcohol consumption on the dancers parts as well.
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| One of the many many bands |
Actually, the alcohol comsumption was not subtle at all. I think I was most impressed by the guy managing to play his tuba and drink a beer all while marching in step with his group.
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| Group selfie! |
Suffice to say, we spent the majority of Saturday and Sunday hanging out with the other people in our group and enjoying the parade. If anyone ever offers you an alcohol called Fernet..... beware. It's the weirdest tasting alcohol I may have ever tried. I can't say it'll become a regular thing. Also, its amazing how much ones spanish improves after a beer or two. Everyone around us was so incredibly friendly and welcoming. I was truly suprised at how few gringos were at the biggest Carnaval festival in Bolivia.
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| Action shot! |
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| So many gorgeous women |
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| And crazy masks! |
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| We were a bit taken aback by the black facepaint, but its not meant with any sort of disrespect, just that this tribe from the jungle is traditionally black. |
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| More weird masks |
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| They would stop and pose if they saw you with a camera |
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| They were holding little spinner/rattles made out of a dead armadillo-like rodent |
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| How do they even see? |
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| More women dancing |
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| He was walking fairly slowly, no dancing for this wise man |
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| Dancing in a circle |
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| This was our entrance to our bleachers |
The energy only got more intense as the night went on. Saturday night had some of the most elaborate costumes I've ever seen, complete with lights and sparklers. The costumes that were bears were particularly popular. In Spanish, bear is 'oso,' so whenever they went by, our group would chant "AWESOME" which sounds similar to 'Oso.'
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| Glowing costumes at night |
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| They were totally cool with people hopping the fence, dancing with them, giving them beers and taking selfies. |
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| I got to wear a hat from one of the best bands in Bolivia. He also took my beer. Haha. |
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| This is what our bleachers looked like by Sunday afternoon. Note all the women holding up their sleeping men. =P |
Sunday was a bit calmer than Saturday, and we spent most of the evening standing in the street with the parade. The next day we were up early to take the bus back to Sucre. Thankfully there were no blockades and we arrived in the evening back in Sucre.
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| Oso! Oso! |
