Fighting for Life in Oruro's Carnival in Bolivia

11 - 19 February 2010
The most astounding thing about Oruro’s Carnival is the shear size of it! It is amazing, it has been included in UNESCO’s Heritage of Humanity list, and is considered the most folkloric of all the Carnivals. This year,  it involved 250, 000 visitors to a city which normally houses about 300,000 people, and I read in the newspaper that it involves 50,000 dancers and 6000 musicians!
   I think I started arranging my stay in Oruro in about October, I had danced with a Bolivian guy at the Casablanca Salsa club in Brisbane and he had told me about it. I contacted a Couchsurfing member (www.couchsurfing.org) for more information. This proved to be a good move…. He had about 40 requests and he managed to arrange accommodation for all of us!
   I arrived on the Thursday prior to Carnival, but even on that day a parade was happening, a much more ‘traditionally dressed’ parade. There were another 3 people staying in the same house as me, 2 Swedish girls, and a girl I had met in La Paz, from Canada.

   I entitled this blog ‘Fighting for Life…’ because I want to tell you about 2 frightening events that happened to us in Oruro:
   On the Friday night our host took us (not the Swedish girls... later) into the Plaza area where live music was playing, the place was crowded and we pushed our way into the crowd for a better view. The atmosphere was exciting! But soon, the crowd got, well, too crowded. Bodies pushed against bodies, sometimes the crowd surged and we were forced to surge with it. It got  scary. Our host decided it was time to leave, much to my relief.
   We were all headed out together, when I realised that there was a fire at the side of the crowd, and it flared and subsided, and this was what was causing the crowd to surge. I got a fright, panicked and left. It wasn’t until I got well clear of the crowd that I thought of the others. I had a bad experience with fire as a child, and so fire can scare me a lot. It was a weird experience. I lost my beautiful scarf, a gift from friends in Australia, but I didn’t care… I was out!

   The Swedish girls hadn't come with because they were both suffereing with Altitude Sickness. I offered them my medication, as recommended by WHO (World Health Organisation), and they both took it. The next day the brunette was quite well, but the blonde wasn't. She had been sick all night, vomiting and unable to breath properly. She was anxious and frightened and kept breaking into tears. I kept offering to take her to hospital, but I guess she didn't want to put us out, or she hoped it wasn't necessary. I thought maybe it would help if she ate, so I cooked her a simple porridge, and she kept it down, so then I suggested we go for lunch. But she barely made it to lunch and struggled through sitting in the restaurant. I decided it was time to get tough, she had to go to hospital. I told her that if my Mum were there, she's insist that this girl went to the hospital and so we were going.
   They immediately put her on oxygen, and fully checked her over. Then they explained to us how dangerous Altitude Sickness can be (it can kill), and what it can do to your lungs and brain. I was glad she couldn't hear or understand all of this, but was finally getting help! They insisted she go back again at night, morning and lunch for more oxygen, and took it easy. The next day, when they checked her over, they told her it wasn't good, and told the two of them to take the bus to the coast of Chile (it's the nearest). She thoroughly thanked me for my strong action, in insisting on going to hospital. I'd like to thank my Mum.

   Carnival itself was magnificent. Big, beautiful, interesting, exciting, patriotic, and I really can't imagine Rio to be any better (but I might have to find out one day).

 

Thursday was very tradition in it's style.

  

The main focus of Oruro Carnival is El Diablada, where the Angels, rule the Devils (if I got it right?).

  

Groups of Musicians, 6000 total musicians, were intersperced between the dancers, 50,000 of them.

  

This gives an idea of the general scene - all day and night Saturday... I don´t know when it eventually stopped, I stopped watching Sunday night.

  

Note the poor deceased Armidillo, which they swung thousands of on sticks as a kind of rattle!

 

Aside from watching the parade, you were also likely to get soaked in water or foam, see the people between the dancers and the barricade.

   I stayed another 4 nights in Oruro, thanks to the hospitality of the Couchsurfers´ Cousin. The couchsurfer himself had invited me to a family lunch the Monday after Carnival and I just stayed and stayed. The Monday night we went to a Karaoke- Disco where I was surprised, delighted, and shocked that they played carnival songs and everybody danced like they were in the parade. In the following days I visited the local thermal baths, ate yummy Llama stews and other specialty local dishes and visited a old mine (tour). I had fun, and I really appreciated the hospitality of my hosts.

Notes: 
Accommodation on couch in private house during Carnival $9 per night. 
Carnival seating $27. 
Carnival meal of dried Llama, boiled egg and corn $1.50. 
Cans of beer 90c.