Get Ready for Carnaval

Carnaval 2013!  It's the festive season before Lent, and a huge celebration down here in Bolivia, who get the Monday and Tuesday (our "Fat Tuesday") off to celebrate, yet end up celebrating the whole week prior and after.  The last 4 weekends have had events every Saturday and Sunday in anticipation.  Fashion shows, parades of various sorts, and general cheer.

the costumes had a lot of cultural
significance (one of the ladies was
the hottest and skimpiest dressed
cotton candy vendor I've seen)

More traditional dance in the parade

packing in the alley alongside the church to see the parade

Us with some typical dancers of the region

One of the "reinas" or "queens" from
the kids parade

During these parades, the kids carry around cans of spray foam and water guns and fight amongst themselves.  Santa Cruz has seemed to take this a little further, and for the weekend of Carnaval (Feb 8-12) the adults run around with paint-filled balloons and squirt guns of ink.  A lot of people warned us it could be "dirty, dangerous, and full of drunks", and the ink will stain faces and hair for weeks.  Many take refuge in their homes or flee the city.  So Jackie and I decided to travel to Oruro, a mining town which throws a huge cultural festival and parade, dedicated as a UNESCO heritage masterpiece.  More on that to come, but for now, enjoy the Santa Cruz spirit of Carnaval!

Even the little ones are armed with
a can of foam

Blurry shot of some girl getting wrecked

The best $1.50 spent today was getting some foam for myself.  What a thrill!  I went around shooting unsuspecting kids, often the ones who were already armed but unprepared, or busy shooting someone else.  My favorite were two boys barely 5, who were standing off, staring each other down en guard and ready to shoot.  Neither saw it coming when I nailed them both, at which point they found a common enemy and followed me shooting their water guns.  I ended trying to take a picture of my final target, but got this video: