05.03.11 Oruro Carnival, Bolivia

Back in La Paz we booked a 24hr (4am to 4am with no sleep) party to the Oruro Carnival. Carnival is celebrated during the 5 days before Ash Wednesday, and as it seems a few days after.  Rio is by far the most famous but Oruro in Bolivia is also one not to be missed. It celebrates it’s carnival in what is considered to be one of the most spectacular cultural events in all South America. After a British curry at The Star of India in La Paz followed by a token sleep we set off to Oruro at 4am. Not sure what to expect we were given T-Shirts, Jester Hats, 2 cans of spray foam and waterproof ponchos. Things were about to get messy.

At 9am we were ushered to our seats in the very cramped makeshift stands ready for the start of the proceedings. The street vendors were already out in full force selling cans of beer which everybody was drinking. We justified it by realizing we had been up for 5 hours so we cracked open a beer and a wine Rach had siphoned into a Coke bottle. Classy! By 10am the crowd was ready for the Devil Dance, known as La Diablada.

 The initial parades of dancers, Aymara women and local bands

With the help of our guide Moses, and a little reading, the procession can be pathetically and unjustly summarised as follows;

Satan and Lucifer led the procession of hundreds of dancers in incredible outfits. Other dancers were dressed as monkeys, pumas, bears, ewoks, insects and Amazonian tribes. It was bizarre to put it mildly. Some of the dancers were dressed as Incas with headdresses shaped like condors whilst others were dressed as black slaves in reference to those brought over by the Spanish. There were hoards of Bolivian women dressed in traditional Aymara dress and girls in mini skirts bouncing along the 8km carnival circuit. Despite the Spanish attempts to convert the indigenous population to Christianity, the Diablada is still pretty much a pagan festival of thanks to Mother Earth, or Pachamama. It commemorates the struggle between the forces of good and evil.  In essence there are two dances. The first re-enacts the Spanish Conquest. The second shows Archangel Michael defeating the forces of evil with his flaming sword taking on the devils and the Seven Deadly Sins. To be honest, it was difficult to see where one dance ended and the other began but there was a constant flow of people from 10am to well past midnight, or so we were told.

Different groups from various regions of Bolivia with their own interperetation of La Diablada 

Having started drinking so early the alcohol started to take its toll and the overexcited crowd started squirting foam at each other whilst water-bombs rained down like..erm..heavy rain. It was mayhem, a real free-for-all with everyone joining in young and old. We were not aware of this so called tradition but we soon realised what the ponchos were for.  Being Gringos made us a target for the worst of it and after only an hour or so we were soaked and covered in 'stuff'. The dodgy chicken box lunch came and went, the beer was flowing and after a few quarter bottles of ‘I’d-rather-not-know-what’ the late hours were a bit of a blur.  Luckily though Rach got most of it on camera, only some of which I am prepared to post on this blog.

Rach and I with an English couple we met earlier in the day

I admit I may have been slighty tipsy

Somewhat worse for wear we were herded to our bus by our guide like a shepherd herds his flock. As far as we were concerned the 4 hours back to La Paz didn’t exist. We were just glad we made it back in one piece. It was by far the most hedonistic night our trip…..Sunday was a complete and utter write off.