Carnaval in Oruro

I'd been told that Carnaval is a really big deal in Bolivia and everyone said that Oruro was the place to go. The town is situated at just over 12,000 feet about half way between Cochabamba and La Paz. It doesn't have a whole lot going for it other than it is the most popular place to go for Carnaval, so once a year it swells to ten times it normal population for the weekend. The school organized for nine of us to stay with a family. They put mattresses in the living room and all of us stayed in the same room. We actually wouldn't have minded having more people in the room as we would have welcomed the body heat in the freezing nights.

The first night we bought our seats for the next day's parade. Me being me I had to have something weird happen. While we were waiting to get our tickets, a very intoxicated man came over to me and started to try to pee on me. It wasn't that I just happened to be where he wanted to pee, he was actually aiming for me and still tried to as I walked away. Everyone else got quite a kick out of it while I was just happy I'd been able to avoid the urine.

We spent the evening walking around and guessing what the next day's festivities would include. My family had explained what Espuma was and I had decided I was going to have nothing to do with it, that was until I needed revenge. Before Espuma existed everyone had thrown water balloons at each other, but because of a water shortage it was no longer allowed, this is where the masterminds behind Espuma entered. Espuma seems to be much like shaving cream, unfortunately I can tell you that it tastes like soap, but it is flammable, which seems more than a little dangerous seeing as we were all soaked in it by the end of the evening and the entire next day. It seems that everyone is fair game in the Espuma war even if they are not holding any themselves.

The Carnaval parade was in full swing when we got there at nine and was still going strong when I left about ten. The majority of it was dancing groups with intricate and beautiful costumes. There are also marching bands intermixed every so often. In the morning we found our way to our seats which were half way up a set of bleacherish things, but there are no isles in these bleachers and your feet go where someone else's backside goes. This would be uncomfortable for Bolivian sized people, but for us long legged Westerners it was a constantly moving jigsaw puzzle for how we would fit and how often we had to move to avoid having our legs asleep the entire time. The real fun came when we had to visit the toilet. Yes, the toilets were bad, but I am talking about getting out of our seats. Because there were no isles to walk down and it was absolutely packed you had to somehow squeeze yourself under the seats and swing yourself down the ground. Getting back up was even more of a treat, but definitely all part of the carnaval experience.

As if a man trying to pee on my was enough weirdness for the weekend I of course had to have something else happen. Michelle, one of the girls from the school, was seated behind me and looked down to her feet and my back to see a man's head. He quickly smiled up and her and then licked the small of my back that was exposed and ran away. Yep, I attract the weird ones!

Carnaval in Oruro was everything I expected it to be. Now I can't wait to experience the Cochabamban equivalent next week.