The Evil Side of Carnaval

Welcome to the season of Carnaval, a time of self-indulgence before Lent. The North American equivalent is Mardi Gras, which happens on the last of the 4 days of the South American Carnaval (i.e. Fat Tuesday). Although Carnaval is only a four day celebration, I was warned that the festivities would start up in the streets as soon as Feb. 1st. And, they weren’t far off. Let me explain…

I was told that the celebrations get quite intense here. However, I didn’t truly appreciate the words of warning about “bringing a change of clothes to work”. Why would I need to do that?

Well, we were 9 hours into February when I had a water balloon land and burst just at my heels on my way to work that morning. Looking back, I saw a bunch of kids around a fountain grinning, filling up more water balloons with the help of empty pop bottles. And, that was just the beginning. I first got wet that evening walking back from work.

I started finding alternate routes to work and wherever I went in the city. At all costs, I avoided streets that were in or around water fountains - especially the “walking” streets, which seem to be ideal locations for water balloon ambushes.

However, it all went to the birds this weekend.

I live in a town here in Bolivia that was founded on a mountain called the Cerro Rico, which has been mined extensively since the Spanish first colonized Bolivia and started shipping the silver back to Spain. Mining is still the main industry here. And, although the Spanish have left, the methods and work in the mine are still the same as they were 300 years ago…. As is the spirit of the miners.

Well, this weekend was Potosi’s “Miners Carnval”. My friends here asked if I wanted to go, and of course I said yes.

So, on Saturday afternoon, I headed out with my friends Helen and Soledad. I had noticed that the amount of kids running around with water balloons had increased from February 1st to the 2nd, but now that it was the 3rd, it seemed to have doubled again. But now, the kids had company in the streets since women had garbage cans full of water balloons for sale. Even each store seemed to have at least a small bucket of balloons on hand.


Walking with Evelin and Helen down the street to catch the bus to the Cerro Rico, the location of the Miners Carnaval, we had a series of water balloons launched at us. However, it was when we rounded the corner, I was introduced to a new “water fight” technique. We were in the unfortunate position of coming face to face with a truck with 8 people in the back, each bucket in hand, and several garbage cans full of water in the middle of the truck bed. As soon as they saw us, the truck veered across the road towards. We all ran, screaming, but were not able to outrun the truck, each getting gallons of water dumped on us.

Welcome to my weekend.

Drenched, we walked back to my apartment, dried off / changed, and made another attempt to GET to the Carnaval. This time, I was wearing my rainjacket.

It was when we got on the bus to go to the Cerro Rico, that I was introduced to another “attack method” during Carnaval: “Espuma” – spray foam in an aerosol can. I was lucky to have found a seat in the back of the bus. We’d only driven about half a block before someone on the street spied the open window on the bus directly in front of me and sprayed foam through it, catching the woman in the seat directly in her face. As we got closer to the Carnaval, it only got worse. Eventually, all the windows on the bus were closed. But, the door was still open (as is typical, so people can hop in and out of the bus whenever then need to). After a horrible attack through the open door of spray foam and water balloons, the whole bus was yelling at the bus driver to close the door!

Have I mentioned yet that all’s fair during Love and War… I mean Carnaval?

So, now we’re at the Carnaval. I was expecting it to be like a fair, with booths set up, and people dancing in the street. And, although that was the case, the main part of Carnaval is a huge parade that goes all day with marching bands and dancers in various costumes heading down the street. It was located at the edge of town, between the indigenous areas (poorer areas) and the Cerro Rico. The parade was heading down a street that was flanked on one side by a hill, and the other side by a walkway and stores.

We made our way down the hill to cross to the other side where we saw a place that was free to watch the parade. When we got to the bottom of the hill, Helen and Soledad snuck through the parade right away, but I had to wait for another opening. Once I made it across, I couldn’t see them. And, in those few minutes that I looked around for them, I was spied by the crowd. When the first water balloon hit me, I thought someone had bumped into me with their shoulder. But, within the next 15 seconds, I was pummeled with probably more than 30 water balloons, as I ran screaming.

What I have learned from Carnaval: The only target that is better than a woman, is a foreigner. With my long blonde hair, I seem to fit the bill on both accounts.

Now with the hood of my jacket up, I walked with Soledad and Helen up the streets along the parade. During this walk, I had a few more experiences of Carnaval. First, were the supersoaker water guns. My legs were a prime target for the various “kids” (ages ranging from 6 – 55) since they weren’t covered by my rainjacket. The biggest target for the spray foam was my face, with people reaching around from behind me and filling my face and hood with foam. Still, I think it could have been worse!

Here’s me, early on after a quick spray foam attack:

I was very tempted to buy a can of spray foam myself, but thought better of it and tried to stay as incognito as possible.

And so, I was able to sneak this photos of a few other woman during the trail endings of an attack by a bunch of guys. The guys were smugly standing back as a one of them go up close for a “face attack” with foam.


The parade itself was incredible. Everyone was dressed up to the nines in various costumes and outfits. They headed down the street doing dances, etc. After every couple groups came along another marching band. It truly was amazing to watch.

The miners all had their respective celebrations that morning. Among them, they make a couple offerings. The first is to the “Pachamama”, the “Earth Mother”, who is to bring them health and happiness over the coming year. The second is to the “Tio”, the “Uncle” of the mine. They offer him coco leaves and alcohol as ‘pure’ as possible, with the hopes that he in turn will grant them minerals from the mountain ‘as pure as possible’.

At this time, they also wrap the “Tio” statues and each other with “Serpentines”… long strips of colourful paper. And, after the alcohol offering to the “Tio”, the rest seems to find it’s way into the mouths of the miners.

Here are some of the miners in the parade with Serpentines around their necks:


As such, most of the miners in the parade were completely drunk. And, as is typical, at least one of their cheeks would be bulging with a wad of coco leaves….


Also, each group of miners would also have a shrine to Jesus in their mine. These shrines were part of the parade.


There were also impressive costumes being worn by the various dancing or musical groups that went by...









And, even the people in the parade weren´t exempt from attacks:


The festivities seemed to be endless (as was the quantity of spray foam, water balloons, etc.). We left to start our walk home around 9pm, since I had promised that I would go out to a discoteque with some friends that night. And so, I made out way home, flanked on either side by Helen and Soledad. Foreigners are not only a target by Carnaval “attacks”, but also but drunks. So, I had my two “protectors” on either side. Something that was really sweet of them, but also rather funny since they are both less than 5 feet and barely came up to my shoulders!


When I got home, despite having my rain jacket on and my hood up most of the time, I still found bits of balloons UNDER my clothes that night! Ha ha.

I was told that although the official day of the Miners Carnaval was on Saturday, it would move into the center of the city on Sunday and continue with just as much force.

It was true.

After my night of dancing, I woke up to the sound of a marching band passing by outside my apartment. Hummm… I had fun watching various parades or people go by during the morning. But, I had a lunch date at the house of my Spanish teacher’s mother, so I was off there for the majority of the day.

On my way home in the early afternoon, I had about a 15 minute walk across town. I wasn’t think when I left the house that morning, but I was completely “unprepared” for what I ran into.

It turned out that the main parade went perpendicular to the way I needed to go. I tried walking parallel to the parade one street over to get around the top of it. But, I reached a dead-end before I reached the end of the parade. I had no choice but to go through it.

I made it about half way across the street before I felt the first water balloon break on my back. That was followed by the hiss of spray foam coming out of aerosol cans. But the time I made it through the parade and the crowd, I was soaked and covered with foam. Luckily, I some how escaped from getting an up close dose in my face!

But now, during the rest of my walk home, I was an open target (since I was obviously already “into” the spirit of Carnaval) for anyone with water balloons, supersoakers or spray foam between there and my house.

I was in my house, drying off for about 5 minutes before I heard the first of many “mini” parades go by outside my house. Apparently, all that is necessary to cruise the streets during Carnaval season is a dancing group and a marching band. So, for the next 3 hours, I had the perfect vantage point from my second story apartment in the intersection of two streets to watch the parades go by. Here’s a “sample” of what I watched:

















It was here that I really understood the spirit of Carnaval. I was watching out my window, when I heard a “sploosh” and a scream from the street below. I looked over and saw my two female neighbours that are about my age, hanging out the window with an empty bucket in hand, laughing at the guys beneath them that were now wet. Now THIS I like. With a smile at them, I disappeared inside my apartment and filled up two containers of water. I sat perched at my window. At the sight of two guys, going up to a woman in the parade and attacking her mercilessly with spray foam, I emptied both containers of water on their heads. This met with cheers from the other women on the streets and my neighbours one window over, and of course a few shouts from the (now wet) guys with the spray foam.

I love that you can see the nice big wet spot on the ground surrounding these guys, as they look around trying to figure out who got them... ha ha


And so, I dragged my 40 Gallon pail of “emergency water” over to the window. Between me and the two girls one window over, we doused countless guys as they attacked women in the streets below. I don’t think I’ve had that much fun in a while. I got pretty good at the timing between dumping water out my window and jumping back while closing the window, to prevent getting hit with water balloons that were then launched my way!

Still, it wasn’t just me and my neighbours defending the women on the streets below. The woman stood up for themselves as well!!!



But others left wet and foamy:


Streets weren’t closed during the Carnaval, even though it was somewhat futile to try to go anywhere but on foot. Here’s a stream of buses lined up the street following one of the many parades:


Being in the corner of my building, I was able to watch parades going it many directions. Here are a few looks up the various streets I can see from the corner of my apartment:




Often, there were collisions at the intersection between different parades, since none of these “mini parades” were technically organized. And while one parade going in one direction would wait for another parade to pass by in front of them, the same rule did not apply to traffic that had been blocked up by the same parade... It wasn’t a deterrent. The marching bands kept playing and people kept dancing as they squeezed up the streets around the traffic!


Later that day, I had to head out from the safety of my apartment to meet up with a few people for dinner. Not wanting to sit through dinner dripping wet, I took a lesson from the local women:


It was fairly easy to pick up a poncho, as there were just as many people selling ponchos as were selling water balloons:


With the end of the Potosi “Miners Carnaval”, I’m just about as tuckered out as this guy...


And, although on Monday morning the streets still smelt like stale beer and urine, it was remarkable how successful the workers were who cleaned up the streets throughout the night on Sunday night!

And so, my lessons on avoiding being a target:
- The best overall protection was the clear plastic poncho (discrete yet functional).
- Second to that was a toss up between my rainjacket or not wearing any jacket at all. When I didn’t have a jacket on, I found it equally effective to walk the streets like you own them, starring into the faces of the would-be-perpetrators, letting you know you were NOT interested in being part of the “fun”. (Of course, all bets are off when you are on the sidelines of a parade.) The problem with the rainjack was that it just wasn’t long enough, but somehow acted as an open invitation to be attacked (and easy for someone to spray UP it).
- The worst was wearing a yellow poncho that Minda and Kasey left for me (sisters of my friend Cedar who came to visit for a day while traveling in South America). It seemed to just be a beacon to anyone with any method of attack to come out of the woodwork and launch something at me! (But, THANKS GIRLS for leaving it... It ended up being the catalyst of a lot of fun!)
- But, in wearing any type of rainjacket, know that your face is now the ideal target on your body!!!!!

It is now February 7th. I have not lasted a single day so far in February without getting hit by a water balloon or spray foam (including last night walking home from aerobics!!!). The REAL Carnaval isn’t until February 18th – 21st. It should be interesting how the rest of the time leading up to Carnaval goes... Or even Carnaval itself! I’m heading to Oruro for it and meeting up there with a bunch of other volunteers from another city in Bolivia. It’s suppose to be “THE” place to be for Carnaval in Bolivia, with the biggest and most impressive parades and excitement. That being said, I’ve also been told some people step up “attacks” a notch by throwing eggs! We’ll see how it goes... At least I’ve had a good practice run!