Carnaval

To my avid readers, I profusely apologize. I have been horrible about keeping this updated and so much has happened, so don't worry you have several exciting blog posts to look forward to, assuming I will have time in the future to write them.

I have been kind of avoiding writing my post about Carnaval but here goes:

A few weeks ago was Carnaval. Carnaval is a huge deal here in Bolivia, it is a holiday filled with partying, food, espuma (foam), water balloons, and borrechera (drunkenness). We started off the holiday right the Thursday before Carnaval with Día de Comadres, ladies night. One of our spanish teachers showed up to class that afternoon with giant fake eyelashes and super high heels so we knew right away that this holiday was serious business. Unfortunately my host sister had a lot of homework that night so I went to Mandarina, a discoteca in Cochabamba, with Maddy, Line, Tasha and Tasha's host sisters. We quickly made a new friend, Laura, who stuck with us the whole night. Before we took our taxi home Maddy and I split a pizza (mozart) so overall it was a great time.

That Saturday we met up at 4AM to get our bus to Oruro where we were going to watch the most famous parade for Carnaval in Bolivia. My host family had left for Oruro the night before so I called a taxi and met up with the group. It was less than enjoyable to wake up so early, but alas, the crowds were going to be huge and we needed to beat the traffic. We arrived at a hotel there, ate breakfast, dropped off some of our stuff, then headed to our seats to watch.

The parade was incredible, so many colors in these amazingly intricate costumes. My host sister is really interested in photography so she got a photo pass to be in the street with the performers so I got to see some of her closer-up photos. Apparently some of the costumes cost upwards of $2,000 (yes that is US dollars) and they make new ones every year! It is craziness! The music was loud, there was tons of espuma and water guns, and lots of good cheer.

After we ate lunch in the hotel I was starting to get a little warn out. I tried to meet up with Olivia and Maddy to walk around bit and ended up getting caught in a crowd in which I couldn't move at all. I don't think of myself as particularly claustrophobic or afraid of crowds but this was unpleasant. But just wait, while I was stuck in that crowd behind the bleachers some guys thought it would be hilarious to start peeing off the top bench. Thats right, they were peeing onto innocent people who couldn't move out of the way! Rude. So anyway, after this I was covered in sweat, foam, beer, and possibly (I'm still trying to tell myself it didn't get on me) urine. Carnaval was starting to be a little less enjoyable.

Luckily, I met up with Olivia and Maddy and they knew that food was the only way to make me feel better. We got some street food and 2 liters of rum and coke for 10 Bs (that is about $1.50, and yes it was indeed 2 liters) and headed back to keep watching the parade.

Me, Laura, and Abby

Olivia and Maddy in their festive hats

About a half hour after we went back to our seats I saw police running through the street in the middle of the performers. It took me a few seconds to realize that something was definitely not right. I looked down the street to where the police were running and saw that a pedestrian bridge that crossed over the parade had fallen. I immediately realized that there were people in the stands below that bridge and most likely performers crossing underneath, not to mention I had seen from the window of the hotel earlier that the bridge was full of people watching.

The bridge before it collapsed

The view from the hotel

I immediately went into panic mode and started watching what was happening, I just shut off what was happening around me and freaked out. I knew that my host family was somewhere in the crowd but I had no idea where. It was completely horrifying to be less than one block away from something that I was sure at that point was a terrible accident. Eventually our group left the stands and went back to the hotel. It took a while, but I was able to get in touch with my host family and was reassured that they were all okay. Needless to say, the feeling of the day shifted completely and we left on a much more solemn note than when we had arrived earlier that day.

I had never before been so close to such a huge accident. It turns out that four people were killed on the spot and according to my host mother two more have died since. There were more than sixty people injured, the large majority of them people from poorer backgrounds who were on the bridge to watch because they couldn't afford to buy a seat. I guess there has been a lot of criticism both of crowd control and poor construction of the walkway. I don't know or care whose fault it was, it was just a life changing experience to witness such a horrifying accident.

By the time we got back to Cochabamba I was so emotionally a physically exhausted all I wanted to do was get in to bed. BUT, I managed to shower. Getting my sheets dirty with dried espuma and possibly urine was too much even for me.