Getting pale!

To start this blog post off, I want to start with a disclaimer: anyone who sees me when I get home, I will be very, very pale. It is winter in La Paz. It doesn’t help that we are also at around 12,000 feet high, which makes it very, very cold at night. Yes, this means that I am a lot closer to the sun, but no matter how much sunscreen I wear (I wear like 50 SPF everyday), I still burn, then turn pale again. Not fun at all! Ha-ha!

This weekend has definitely been one for the record! On Thursday night, all of the roommates went out to see a dance called the Saya, which is an afro-Bolivian dance. It was really cool to see a native Bolivian dance while in La Paz. On Saturday, we went to Gran Poder and the fútbol game of Chile and Bolivia. Gran Poder is a festival that focuses of the great power Jesus. However, when I saw this festival, it was much more than an American festival. It goes on literally all day and the costumes and preparations for this one-day are incredible. Basically, there are many fraternities that are organized around and for this one day. You can spend lots and lots of money and time just to be in Gran Poder. It is native and unique to Bolivia.  Below, I have put some pictures of it. These pictures are understating the wonderful colors, spirits, and decorations of the day. We went in the afternoon for two hours then went back at night to see more. It was incredible! It was just amazing to see all the individuality in each fraternity. Also, throughout the day, you can get delicious street food and any and every trinket imaginable. Street vendors sold glow stars, balloons, scarves, gloves, stuffed animals, tissues, etc- literally everything!

In between each time we went to Gran Poder, we went to the Chile v. Bolivia fútbol game. It was incredible. To just describe the stadium, imagine the size of Alabama’s stadium, with a backdrop of the mountains. It was beautiful! I added some photos of it just to show you. It was a very fun/intense game to go to. Many Bolivians are still bitter to Chileans about the War of the Pacific, in which Chile took Bolivia’s seacoast. Many explicit words and phrases were said. It was pretty funny because most of the time we understood what was being said by everyone (including little kids that were probably 7-10 years old). It was definitely an experience. Unfortunately, Bolivia lost 2-0.

Today, we went to the witches market and the municipal cemetery. It was really cool expect that I caught something yesterday and have been a little under the weather.

Well that is it for now. I am going to sit here and continue to listen to the Spanish Nsync CD that I did not know existed until I got here. Enjoy the summer heat, while I continue to bundle up here!