Carnaval Oruro Style!

Aftermath of a globo/espuma (water balloon/foam) war. During pauses in the parade we would either initiate globo wars with, or do the best to defend ourselves from, other spectators watching the parade. Actually the globo/espuma fighting can be really fun if you want to play. I never actually initiated any fights with anyone, but if somebody tried to get mess with me I had no qualms about going after them. I didn´t care if it was just a little kid! haha...I can´t tell you how good it felt to espuma some punk kid right in the face after all I went through last carnaval! And I should also mention that the spectators are much more respectful of the dancers in Oruro. If you tried to throw a water ballon at one of the dancers you would be publicly humiliated.

Los Diablos (the devils) getting ready to dance.

Every group of dancers some a few hundred strong, has a band backing them up. A lot of the band members don´t look so good. A combination of exhaustion from walking the parade route with their heavy instruments and drunkenness (mostly drunkenness). But this band was pretty awesome. Sharply dressed and full of energy.

These dancers are performing the Tinku. My favorite Bolivian dance. It´s basically a reenactment of a fighting ritual that the Tinku people still do to this day (to the death!). Both the music and the dance is really high energy and really exciting to watch.

And last but not least... my favorite Carnaval character the Oso! It´s supposed to be a bear, not a deranged giant rat.

More to come...

New Years in Buenos Aires!

I didn´t get to do too much sightseeing since I was only in town for a few days, but we did manage to check out the Recoleta. A little city of mausoleums. Some sparkling new, obnoxiously huge and made of black polished granite (can not even begin to imagine how much something like that would cost) and others, like the the one above, hundreds of years old crumbling apart but full of character.

We celebrated New Years Eve with a rooftop BBQ. It was so hot and humid! We were wiping off sweat while watching the fireworks ring in the New Year. All the girls were looking cute in there dresses and heels while the boys were all shirtless a drinking beer...real classy guys. The girl in blue is my awesome site mate Julia and the shirtless man is her boyfriend Dan, another Tarija volunteer. Check out my cast. All that for a little broken finger!

A huge crowd was gathered in front of the Casa Rosada, the Argentinean equivalent of the White House, holding up pictures of loved ones (the majority of them very young) and banners with sayings like ¨Never Again¨. A tragic nightclub fire the year before had killed over a hundred people. Basically the place was ridiculously packed full of people and when a fire broke out they ran for the emergency exits only to find them chained shut, trapping them inside. The trial for the club owners was taking place that week and the people wanted to make sure their friends and family members were not forgotten.

Sippin´ on a McDonald´s soda on the Subte (subway). I felt like I had been teleported 20 years into the future. Bought the very hippy t-shirt in one of the many cutesy cheap little boutiques in Palermo. Argentineans are very stylish people.