Carnaval Chapaco

Hotel where costume party was held

In the campo

Kids dancing the Chacarera

There is only one way to describe Carnaval in Bolivia and it involves getting very wet. I spent this Carnaval in Tarija and I have to say it was the most fun I’ve had since I’ve been here. The first night (Thursday) was spent watching the Comadres (madres means mothers) parade which was a parade that only includes women and I believe is only held in the department of Tarija. Women are made comadres if they are very good friends with another woman or if they are involved in the family, such as a godmother. The tradition for comadres is that one woman will give another woman (her comadre) a comadres basket which includes balloons, confetti, bell peppers, cucumbers, “sweet bread” or pan dulce as they call it here which is really just baked bread that is licorice flavored and candy. Once one woman is made a comadre it is her turn the following year to give the same woman who made her a comadre another basket. I’m sure that rule isn’t always followed by everyone because everyone likes to give and receive baskets on comadres. When the women dance in the Comadres parade many of them carry the comadres baskets. There is also a day for the men, Compadres, but it’s def. not as popular as the one for the women- sorry guys. I am also told that the women receive bell peppers and cucumbers in their baskets while the men receive squash because these vegetables are supposed to represent the female and male anatomy which I think is pretty funny. Ok so after Comadres there was the regular parade where everyone throws balloons and buckets of water on people. My friends and I got in a great espuma or foam fight where we all nailed each other in the faces. I had a lot of fun walking around and spraying little kids in the face who got me all wet. One of the pictures I put up was later in the afternoon when Willy and I went by the plaza and if you can’t tell the plaza is def. not normally that wet. Someone had managed to open up an underground water pipe and there was a stream of water rushing into the air and getting everyone wet. Of course there were also people running around with water guns, more balloons and buckets of water too SO unless you wanted to stay dry you’d have to stay far away from that plaza. So after getting wet for 2 days I made it to a dry costume party being hosted by one of the nicer hotels here in Tarija. The party cost a little over 20 dollars to attend but there was an open bar and food around 3 in the morning. They gave us Saice which is a traditional Tarijeño dish consisting of ground beef, chopped potatoes and peas in a spicy sauce served over rice and accompanied by salad. I had very little time to put together a costume but as you can see I found a purple wig and Willy bought a mask. I had a great time at the party hanging out with some PC friends and some of Willy’s friends who had come down to Tarija from La Paz as well. After the weekend I went out to the campo (the country) to a small town called Canis Moro where there were more people getting each other wet and there was an outdoor party. I went with some PC people and some Argentinean people who are friends with one of my friends. I had a great time out there in the campo and came home a little wet (again). On one of the final days of Carnaval I had a more relaxing time and went to the pool with Willy and his friends. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been to the pool and def. not in the month of February so that was a lot of fun. All and all I had a great Carnaval mainly due to the fact that is was hot and that made it more fun to get wet and engage in water and foam fights with people. It was also great walking around with a group of people and hanging out with good friends. I can’t wait until Carnaval comes around again next year of course by then I hope to be in Brazil!