Final Days in Cochabamba, February 20th & 21st
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 03:03PM The last two days I've slowed down a bit and spent some quality time with my family. I'll only get to see them every few years, so I wanted to make sure that my time was well spent.
I did manage to make it up to the statue of Jesus (the Cristo de la Concordia) overlooking the city yesterday. Today I went into the cancha and took a few more photos and did a little shopping for my family.
This will be my final post from Bolivia, so I thought I would summarize my thoughts on the country. I have really enjoyed my time here.
One thing I'll always remember are the coca leaves. I've seen many wads in men's and women's mouths. I've seen wads of them on the ground. And I even had some coca tea to settle my stomach when I was sick in Oruro. I'm not sure if it helped, but it tasted great!
Carnival is obviously an event that will stick with me forever. Anytime you put 28,000 dancers and 400,000 spectators together in a midsized mining town, it is going to be a spectacle.
In some ways it was more amazing than I could have imagined (I had no idea costumes and masks could get that elaborate and colorful). It was fun to see the importance to many of the spectators and their culture. They can sit squeezed into a little spot on a temporary wooden bleacher for many, many hours at a time to make sure they don't miss anything. Seeing the young and old get into the spirit of spraying each other with foam and water and nobody getting upset about it was pretty incredible.
In other ways I was kind of surprised with some of my observations. Some of the dance groups felt like they were going through the motions, but others were amazing. The groups get fairly repetitive. The locals see the little nuances that make them different, but to the untrained eye you feel like you are hearing the same music and seeing the same costumes over and over again. The organization of the event was also insane (the bleachers were still being build late the night before it started).
Bolivia, like many developing countries, has quite a mix of the old and the new. You have the Quechua and Aymara women with their babies wrapped in colorful blankets that are comfortably holding onto their traditions and past. It is definitely part of life and not forced. But then right next to them, you'll have someone wearing fancy jeans and the coolest shirt they can buy. You also see it in the architecture. Some parts of town are very modern and you would feel like you are in a city in the United States. While other areas have many unfinished buildings, standing water and the poverty that many developing countries are saddled with.
My biggest challenge in Bolivia was getting the photos I wanted. The people here do not want to have their picture taken. Every time I asked I would get a solid no. The portraits you do see are people that I had to really talk to for awhile and even then it was difficult. Many times they would laugh and joke about it with the people around them, but when it came down to it they still wouldn't let you take it. I saw many amazing people that unfortunately I wasn't able to document this time around.
Overall I have really enjoyed Bolivia and experiencing their culture and traditions. Maybe if I come back some day more of them will let me take their picture!
Cristo de la Concordia that overlooks Cochabamba, Bolivia.
A butcher inside a neighborhood carniceria in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
An elderly man having a smoke in the cancha in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
A Quechua street vendor in the cancha in Cochabamba, Bollivia.
A man wearing a mask for Carnival pushes a wheelbarrow through the cancha in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
Aymara women sitting and talking in the cancha in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
An elderly Quechua woman sits in the cancha in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
A baby sits on his mothers back in her blanket in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
A Quechua woman stuffs bags with confetti for Carnaval in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
Offerings to Pachamama (Mother Earth) are made by burning these symbols during Carnaval with the items they hope they are given over the coming year.
A woman selling knitted hats from alpaca wool in the cancha in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
Anybody want a llama purse?
A Quechua woman crocheting a blanket.












































































