June is the month for festivals in La Paz. Over the past few weeks we have attended a number of traditional Bolivian celebrations in and around the city including El Gran Poder, Aymara New Year and San Juan. Traditional Bolivia is also the theme for the Bolivian Express issue for this month, so each of these interesting and very different celebrations has been documented by one of the interns.
Early on Saturday morning as Nina and I awoke after a big night out we could hear the sounds of the parade that is characteristic of the Gran Poder. The Gran Poder is an annual event that celebrates both Jesus Christ and the Pachamama (Mother Earth), tying together both Catholic and Andean beliefs. It continues throughout the entire day and is a festival that brings together not only the different cultures, but is attended by Pacenos (citizens of La Paz) of all ages.
The parade celebrates the different traditional dances of various Bolivian cultures, and the importance of these dances for the participants is evident in the preparations taken to both practise the dance and make the very elaborate costumes. For some dancers, practise begins months prior to the day in order to perfect the routine. These days there is criticism surrounding the festival as some believe it to have forgotten it’s religious origins and has become more commercialised. Some Paceños are beginning to complain that the costumes are mere representations of the individual’s wealth and prestige.
Despite this criticism, the costumes are in a league of their own and are an incredible display of clever handicraft. Nina and I arrived at the parade later in the morning to catch a glimpse of the dancers up close before the big crowds start arriving later in the afternoon. As I was covering the Gran Poder for the magazine I managed to interview a few of the dancers while they caught their breath, and this was an interesting way to learn about the opinions of the evolvement of the festival of those involved.
Later in the evening we visited the parade for a second time, however we waited in line for over two hours before we were allowed through the gates due to the masses of people eager to enter the festival. It gave us the chance to meet some Bolivians and enjoy the taste of the traditional Bolivian beer, Pacena.
Two days later at around 7pm we made our way to Tihuanacu for Aymara New Year. It is rather ironic that this is celebrated at the ruins in Tihuanacu considering the ruins represent the history of a different people entirely.
Warned of the -20 degree temperatures that are typical of the evening we wrapped up in our many layers and made our way to the town centre. We were all suffering from a cold and were slightly worried about the fact that it was another 7 hours until the celebration began. As midnight finally arrived we had already been in the cold for three hours, had eaten as much as we could bare and were all struggling to keep our eyes from closing. The atmosphere of the night was much like New Year anywhere in the world…everyone was very relaxed drinking and dancing along to the live band.
At 12:30pm we made the executive decision to go home. We were all sniffling and couldn’t see ourselves surviving in the cold until 6am when the Aymara people celebrate the New Year. We still managed to soak up as much of the evening as possible and were glad to rid us of the overpriced entrance fee that was being charged to foreigners!
For the next few days we were back in La Paz finalising our articles and booking different hostels for the rest of our trip. Nina and I were forced also to research the problems at the border between Copacabana and Puno that have caused mayhem for the past few weeks. Many travellers have been stopped from crossing between countries or have otherwise been forced to walk miles as bus lines have refused to transport tourists due to many attacks on buses. We ended up booking a flight to Cusco from La Paz to avoid the dangers that continue to arise in the area and to avoid overstaying our visa in a country where there is a price to pay for neglecting the rules.
Bolivia is known throughout South America for having the World’s Most Dangerous Road, a very narrow, windy, steep 63km strip of rocky road that winds up at the small village of Coroico. Eager to make the most of this road, more commonly known as “Death Road”, we signed up with Gravity tours to mountain bike-ride down the road.
As the road has resulted in many casualties over the years, before beginning the ride each person must sign a declaration saying the company takes no responsibility for any injuries or deaths which occur during the five hour descent.
The journey begins on asphalt, however it is not long before we arrive at the rocky surface that we become so familiar with for the rest of the day. It is thrilling to ride down through the trees with an incredible view across the valley. At some stages of the ride it is slightly unnerving as you can see the 500m-drop to the bottom and stories start arising about the many deaths that have occurred along the way.
Within the first few kilometres of the ride we were told to put our cameras away and get off our bikes to pass through what appeared to be a very strict checkpoint. Each car that was descending the mountain was checked for chemicals that could be used in the production of cocaine, and each car that ascended for the actual substance itself. As we were without bags the guards considered us fairly harmless, and we passed through without being searched.
We were fortunate enough to have the owner of the company, Alistair, on our ride as he was testing our New Zealand guide, Chad, as to whether he was good enough to join the Gravity team. Alistair informed us that there are over thirty companies that take groups down the death road, but that there is only one other he would recommend to take. I understood his reasoning during the ride when I would watch as other group leaders flew down the hill encouraging the riders to keep up, neglecting to give any sort of guidance to the ignorant riders. Alistair told us that it is these companies that are the ones responsible for the deaths on the road, and he said the cause of many is testosterone exceeding ability.
Interestingly enough Alistair (slightly frustratingly) told us that if one of the other companies loses a rider over the edge they will often wait for the Gravity guides to come and rescue the person, knowing that they have the correct safety equipment (which many of the companies lack).
The ride was a truly exhilarating experience, and ironically there wasn’t a moment when I really felt unsafe (which says something-wait until you see the road!). I was glad we each decided not to compromise our safety and to go with the most expensive company.
At the end of the ride we were given a souvenir t-shirt and were taken to the Animal Refuge in Coroico. We were served a buffet lunch, were treated to clean bathrooms and showers and were given the opportunity to visit the various wildlife housed in the refuge.
I was feeling very sick by this stage (from a big week) so I opted not to do the flying fox however Maryam and Nina flew across the valleys and said it was a very fun experience.
We then began the three-hour ascent up the same, very windy road and arrived back in La Paz at 9pm that same evening. Having been invited by Vampi to go to “Ignition”, a very exclusive party in the wealthy district of La Paz, we took off our biking clothes and replaced them with our best attire. San Juan, a typically Spanish festival, falls on the 23rd of June as is likewise celebrated in South American nations. Ignition was a party designed to coincide with San Juan and provide the youth with an event to enjoy the evening.
Walking through the entrance to the party as five ‘gringos’, we felt very obviously out of place, as there was not another foreigner within a hundred miles of the party. After a few drinks, dancing and laughs with our Bolivian friends, the feeling faded and we enjoyed the night.
Saturday night we hosted a small gathering at our apartment to catch up with our friends. Gato and his girlfriend, Guido, Vampi, Darko and a few of their friends joined us for some rounds of Four Kings and to sit around and enjoy our view over La Paz.
Sundays are very slow in La Paz, as like many other world cities, everything closes and there is little to do. We spent the day organising further our trip and finalising our flight details.
Sundays are very slow in La Paz, as like many other world cities, everything closes and there is little to do. We spent the day organising further our trip and finalising our flight details.
Monday morning we left for a two-day journey to Lake Titicaca. We boarded a micro for 17bs and arrived in Copacabana three hours later. Copacabana is a small lakeside town that thrives on tourism and is known for serving trout, the fish that was brought to the lake many centuries ago to provide the citizens with some protein for their diet.
We checked into Hostal 6 de Agosto and spent the afternoon wandering through the few streets in the town. We visited the Cathedral and admired its internal gold decoration, however having spent so much time in Italy there are few churches that live up to those exquisitely-decorated Cathedrals in Roma.
We had an early dinner at Coffee-Shop Copacabana, where we were served an extremely generous portion of spaghetti Bolognese as we watched the sun set over the lake. Having booked our tour of Isla Del Sol for early the following morning, we had a very early night.
The following day we travelled by boat from the Northern end of the Island to the South, stopping in three small villages along the way. There was little to do at the villages aside from sit by the lake and soak up the sun, so this is exactly what we did. Being a water person, I was glad to finally be by the water after being in a landlocked country for two months.
When we arrived back in Copacabana that same afternoon we had a few hours to kill before our bus left for La Paz…so what better to do than sit down in a café and eat! However it is important that I mention this experience, as it was at this particular restaurant that we were each treated to a gastronomic delight. Nina had fried eggplant with vegetables, Seni ate a plate of fajitas and I indulged in the best falafels I have eaten (aside from at the Orgasmic café in good ol’ Lismore). The journey home was much the same as the way there, and after a big day of travelling and eating we spent much of it asleep in the backseat of the micro.
No comments:
Post a Comment