The real Carnaval

So I feel bad about the cryptic nature of my Carnaval description. Carnaval, as celebrated throught South America is the last ditch revelty before Lent (which actually hasn't been to drudgy cuz I forgot to give something up and my family still eats meat which I wish they wouldn't...bring on the trucha!) In Bolivia it is celebrated for about a month -- three weeks before Ash Wednesday and one week after. For those non-Catholics in the room, Lent is the period where Jesus lived for 40 days and nights in the desert, fasting, and resisting all sorts of temptations. As such, Catholics give up meat and things like beer or chocolate which can get pretty miserable. Anyhoo the day before Lent starts is a particular day of revelry (Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Martes de Cha'lla) In Bolivia there are several interesting traditions which I will try to explain even though it's my first Carnaval experience and I probably didn't understand half of what my family told me.

1. TRADITIONAL DANCES Each department (state) has their own dance. For example, there is the TInku which is basically ritualized fighting with some real-live bloodshed.

There is also the capporral,
which according to Lonely Planet simulates the treatment of slaves in the mines where they were forced to wear rattles on their legs. My brothers, who danced in our local entrada, danced this.



A treat for me in the Curso (big large city-wide parade of dancers) were the dancers of Afro-Bolivian heritage. Minroties of any non-Bolivian type or rather rare here and I tend to break into spontaneous applause when I see some. In fact when I show my photos from home I get some gasps at all the different types of people I know. A little bit of EEUU exchage. ANyhoooooo these dancers were phenomenally talented. Also there were dancers from the Chaco. Hot. Just hot. During tech week I learned the girl part which is basically just swishing and twirling while the guy part is more like American clogging...and again is just hot. Sigh.

2. CHA'LLA. On Martes de Cha'lla my family decorated our house with serpentina and globos. I found this a bit confusiing because it was a lot of work and no one actually came to see it. Who decorates if they're not gonna have a party? We also threw pink and white confites on the roof. Confites are pure balls of sugar with annise and are unfit for human consumption. I know cuz I tried one. Cha'lla is just an offering to Pacha Mama or Mother Earth. It can take a few forms but the two most popular are 1.spilling a little for your homies (dumping some booze on the ground) and 2) burning a llama fetus in your backyard. (En serio.) The fetus is burnt with offerings of incense, coca leaves and more confites. The ashes are then buried. People often do this to consecrate new houses or cars. Setting a fire under a car doesn't seem that wise but hey these are people who use electric showers.

3 LAPACHO (????) Also on Martes de Cha'lla is a traditional dish of cabbage, a very thin slab of unidentifable meat, the ubiquitous papas, what appears to be 10 day old rice all topped in a yellow garlic sauce with locoto...really hot peppers. It's also supposed to involve a pear. It almost made me cry.

4. COPLAS -- Picture some very sloshed old people in traditional dress having a rap- off (ala Eminimem in 8 mile...sorry for the folks who won't get the refernece) Now make it in Quechua, VERY loud and off-key and with not so subtle sexual undertones and you'll have a copla. At least this was my experience in our town festival. (But us gringas got to dance and the family's copla won second prize)

5. GLOBOS, ESPUMA,and PUNKS -- As I have whined about before, a significant portion of carnaval is pelting people with water balloons (sometimes with dye or poop inside). Also an annoyance is espuma, a shaving-cream like substance which is a particularly effective distraction during a pickpocketing, especially when it's in your eyes. (not my wallet, but I saw it)

Just to specify. I didn't have any serious pooping problem. I think it was a smidge of food poisoning. Stoopid fast food chicken. Next up is a description of tech week.

"Cheer up donkey"