MUNGO EATS Latin America

BESOS

GIULLIANA, LUCHO Y OLIVIA

So we are stuck in Uyuni, and wouldn’t you know it, we are stuck during a four day weekend.  The Bolivians are celebrating carnaval.  What a crazy celebration this is!!!  Starting at about 4 or 5pm, marching bands start playing and groups of people dressed in a variety of different ways start dancing around.  Some groups are dressed in folk outfits, but we saw groups dressed as clowns, power rangers, knights, etc, etc, etc.  The bands all seem to play the same song, over and over and over.  The dancers seem to dance the same dance as well.

As the bands and dancers move down the roadway, the bystanders throw water balloons, and spray the paraders with shaving cream and water.  Now, this sounds kind of nasty, but to make things worse, a lot of the participants in the parade are older folks.  So teenagers and kids are beaning their parents and grandparents with water balloons!!!  NASTY!!  

After the parades are over, everyone goes to various halls to start dancing.  At night, the music is crazy loud, and it seems to go pretty much all night (I think it stops around 5 am).  In the morning, when we walk Mungo at about 7 or 8, we find drunks asleep on the sidewalks, often there are still gangs of young guys with beer in their hands.  There are broken bottles on the roads, vomit, poo, and urine.  Man, they take this party seriously. 

For the most part, they ignore the foreigners, but every once in a while, the kids seem to attract a water balloon or two.  Maybe because they have thrown a few water balloons of their own!  Yesterday, Sean knocked a bowler hat off an old lady with a water balloon.  I will be happy when I can sleep without hearing the booming drums all night!