LA PAZ -- I thought arriving in the capital, unknowingly, just in time for the city´s biggest festival was punishment for not paying attention to the intricacies of the religious calendar in CCD classes as a child, or perhaps for a lack of appropriate reverence at shrines during this trip (though not a churchgoer, I do maintain every Catholic superstition). Entrances to the city and most businesses have closed, and the guidebook promised rollicking drunken debauchery in the streets, something foreign travelers might want to avoid.
But our timing turns out to have been serendipitous. The colorful Fiesta del Gran Poder - an amalgam, like most festivals in South America, of Catholic and Aymara tradition - is raging all around the city, and the route runs only a block or so from our hotel. We woke to the music of marching bands, and spent the morning taking photos of participants in bright yellow feathered costumes and masks with fake pipes as long as an arm, dancing and clattering through the streets. Our favorite so far -- the man in the condor headdress who looked like he might take to the air at any moment.
Photos to come ... when the memory-card places reopen.
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¡Felicidades! Han llegado a Bolivia! Q tal por ahí? Keep up the blogging, I love vicarious travel!
See what you're missing!
BOYNTON BEACH — A popular city eatery had its 15 minutes of fame this morning.
Gov. Charlie Crist ate in a booth at the Boynton Diner before heading to Bethesda Memorial Hospital to sign legislation that boosts state approval of new hospitals.
His entourage of about six -- with at least two security officers -- took up a couple of booths.
They left at about 9:45 a.m.
was the gentleman in the hat singing anything special? I'd like to add it to the soundtrack: climb every mountain; copacabana... I love the blog, soundtrack and images (particularly sliding down the mountain, crawling in the cave, the haircut...)
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