Carnaval en Oruro

The weekend, yet again, unsurprisingly, proved to be, well, ridiculous (And I will try not to use so many commas...). Carnaval is the celebration before Lent, a big party with everything you want before a long time where you can´t have anything you want (well, not really, but that´s the idea). To get it out of your system, I suppose.

The drive was a little treacherous but more so gorgeous. These mountains are so different than ones I have seen before. We zig zagged for about 4 our 5 hours until we got to Oruro Friday night. Oruro thrives off of Carnval, they say the population triples on this weekend. All of Bolivia comes to share in the celebration, which is built around a 21-hour parade. Yes, 9 am to 6 am. Dance groups from EVERY city and pueblecito come in ornate and crazy costumes, in every color imaginable, with marching bands of middle aged men to match. A lot of the costumes represent a historical group of people in Bolivia, for instance the Morenos--the African slaves forced to work in the mines, or either a religious symbol, like los Diablos. Everything tells a story, whether it be about the past or present, Catholicism or traditional religion. It allows for stories from all different facets of Bolivia to come together to celebrate being an incredibly complicated and diverse country. Me encantan los osos. Qué lindo.

When there is a break in the parade, and their are many, the other STANDARD of Carnaval occurs: waterballon and foam fights. If you don´t want to get wet, you better cover yourself in plastic, but better yet, don´t show up. It´s not just teenagers trying to make trouble, its everyone from age 3 to 90. Not that everybody likes getting wet or foamy, but if you go to Carnaval, you either love it or put up with it. The street is lined with stands to watch the parade and waterballoons, ¨Globos¨come from every direction. Under the stands and side streets are full of Globo vendors, selling bags of balloons full of water, as well as aerosl cans of foam, like shaving cream, and of course water guns. After lunch, I decided there was enough parade left for me to watch and I spent the afternoon with a few of my fellow estudiantes having globo fights against whoever. We had two foamers and 3 or 4 globo-ers and were mostly a defensive crew but from time to time, we doused the gringo or european lingering idly. It felt good to be 7 again. The evening was spent sort of wandering around and eventually back at the parade. Oruro is crazy, too hard to describe by blog. It is safe to say, I don´t need to be wet again for awhile, but too bad because Cochabamba´s Carnaval is this weekend, and I have seen to many globo-ers already not to be hit on my way home.

PS. i wanted to post some pictures but i have been having trouble uploading pictures. will do as soon as i can.