Drive to Oruro

Friday, February 17, 2012

Today, we had class from 9-12:30 about the Carnival in Oruro.  It originally was a four-day party right before Lent, as a compromise since a lot of people weren’t excited for 40 days of no meat, no dancing, no drinking, etc.  So the rules of Carnival are to be totally ridiculous and break all the regular rules of life.  (Like the rules against throwing water balloons at strangers.)

At 2:15, we met and left for Oruro on a big ol’ bus.  The road was beautiful but really windy.

We stopped for a “bathroom break” on a hillside.  It had a great view!  The ride took about five hours in total, and when we finished we had gone from 8000 ft above sea level to 14,000.

I went out with some friends to look for dinner, and we walked around the parade’s path (which was full of vendors tonight.)  It was really crowded!  We got sprayed with a lot of espuma, or a kind of silly string/shaving cream hybrid.  Luckily it dissolves after a few minutes.  It really wasn’t annoying except when I got it right in the face (twice).  But I did get some soup (minus the meat and the broth, so it was really just a bowl of noodles and a potato) and five rolls.  Yum!

We made our way to the Plaza Principal, which was about five blocks, but took longer since it was crowded.  There was a huge band playing and it was PACKED.  Back at the hotel, I could still see the parade path out the window and the street was quite noisy, but I luckily had no trouble sleeping.  (It’s one of my best skills.)

Out the hotel window-tomorrow the parade will go by here