Festival de la Virgen de la Candelaria

After a not very amazing nights sleep due to the incredible shape of the mattress that kept rolling us both to the centre, we got up and checked our emails to find that we had a reply from the Berlin Salsa Congress and needed to arrange payment to them to secure the tickets. This was easier said than done and after spending the whole morning on the phone (skype) to the bank and my Dad we eventually got it paid but still had trouble paying my dad back! When we left the UK everything was so simple and we could do anything to do with our banking online but since we've left they've added so many security measures that its impossible to do a thing...very frustrating!! Feeling very fed up now we'd lost our enthusiasm for the day and ended up changing our plans as to what we were going to do, which was to climb the 2 hills either side of the town and instead mooched around the streets for a while looking for somewhere to have a coffee. It worked out for the best really as if we had gone up the hills we'd have missed a lot of the festival which we'd been told started tomorrow not today, so quite lucky really. As we walked through the streets the roads got more and more busy with people and we found out why when we turned a corner and saw the main street smothered in flower petals from top to bottom! They weren't just randomly thrown down either but placed on top of chalk lines drawn on the road to create pictures, words and patterns in a multitude of colours and giving off an amazing fragrance. People were still able to walk along the street but not wanting to tread on the petals, were squeezing by each other at the sides by the many stalls and shops causing quite a traffic jam! There were of course one or two people who just didnt care and walked straight across them or stood in the middle to have their photo taken but these were in the minority. What made it particularly difficult to navigate was the Bolivian women, who are exceptionally large (so far Bolivian's are the fattest nation of people we've come across, much more so than even America! Odd because it's also the poorest!!) and they all carry huge, brightly coloured sheet things, filled with goodness knows what on their backs and seem to have no idea how much space they take up! After watching the preparations for the festival for a while we got some bread and cheese for lunch and went back to the hostel to catch up on some blogging etc before the celebrations started. They began sooner than expected and we missed probably the best part of an hour while we were at the hostel, not that it mattered as it went on until 1 in the morning and it was only about 3pm when we finally went out to see what was going on. A continuous procession of bands from different places/provinces and their dancers all in costumes, most of which cost more than the rest of the households entire wardrobe, went slowly parading up the main street to the square in front of the Cathedral which houses the Virgen to whom the festival honours. Once at the square they perform in front of a raised platform where we suppose the judges and someone who looked like a bishop were sat, they then continued around the square until petering out along another street that led to the main drinking area. The music was all very similar, brass bandish with lots of drums and huge horns and the dance itself looked to be very simple and again all the same. The big differences were in the costumes which were spectacular, ranging from black and yellow outfits worn by men with scary black or silver masks to vivid purple affairs with bells all round the legs. The womens outfits were much plainer being the traditional dress of a many layered skirt with blouse and shawl but they were obviously expensive by the detailing and sequins etc that adorned them. We watched group after group go by until, weary of standing in the sun and the noise and crowds, we decided to go and get some dinner down by the lake shore once again. I had grilled trout again and Andy, having tried mine the day before had garlic trout, both of which were superb. We stopped at the hostel on the way back to change and then went out once more into the fray, buying a large bottle of beer to share for about $1.50 and watching yet more bands go by. These however weren't so frequent or continuous and we realised that they were the winners of whatever competition had been held doing their lap of honour (which occurred frequently throughout the night). The cathedral square was now clear of many of the stalls that had been there earlier and instead ropes had been strung between the trees on which hundreds of lanterns were hung making the place glow beautifully in the night. This place was now full of people sitting together, drinking coca tea or chewing coca leaves, talking and eating in large groups, very peaceful and harmonious. The other square however was much livelier with 2 band stands at opposite corners each playing very loud traditional music to which hundreds of inebriated Bolivian men and women, as well as many groups of travellers/tourists were dancing. We joined in for a while until the music became too monotonous for us and headed back to the cathedral square to see if anything new was happening there. Luckily it was, a man was letting off some elaborate home made fireworks one by one and local children were following him wherever he went trying to steal them from him! There was a huge man shaped structure which looked to be the finale piece, covered in fireworks that would look pretty amazing if they all actually worked (several of his smaller pieces were a bit hit and miss) but he was so slow in setting them off we gave up waiting after an hour and headed back to the hostel at about 11.