Colourful parades and new aquaintances

Day 26- Missed a parade and made some friends

We slept in until lunch time to make up for our eventful night. The girls from the orphanage had told us that they would be dancing at a parade in Vinto today. We were eager to support them and caught a Trufi to Vinto to watch the parade. When we arrived people were lining the streets expectantly. Yet there was no sign of the parade.

For the first time since arriving in Bolivia we had been invited into a Bolivian home to share a meal. The young couple were eager to share the typical foods of Bolivia with us and wanted to learn more about our culture. We were expected at their home at 3pm. We nervously checked our watches. The parade still showed no signs of making its way through the street anytime soon. Leta made a quick call to the orphanage house parent. In true Bolivian style we discovered the parade had been postponed an hour. We were going to miss it! I was really devastated. I have so desperately wanted to see a parade hear in south america. South Americans know how to put on a parade, the music and dancing is amazing! The costumes elaborate and outrageous! Strangely, parades are occuring here all the time...every event seems an excuse for a parade! Yet we have managed to miss every single one! I was very unhappy!

Slowly mothers started arriving with colourfully adorned children and large groups sequin cladded women began congregating. We followed them as they walked down the street and disappeared around a corner. Tiff and I decided if the parade wouldn't come to us we would go to it. So crept down the street and around the corner. Immediately we knew we were in the right spot! We were overwhelmed by the colours, sparkle and sounds! Fireworks sounded as a car decked out in flowers and a saint made its way slowly up the street. We snapped furiously at the procession that was slowly assembling behind the car. Here are some of the pictures I sneaked of what appeared to be the very beginning of the parade. Many shots were stolen of the vibrant costumes as we walked by and as they waited for their place in the parade to arrive.

 

 

Disappointed that we didn't get to see the actual parade we made our way back to the Trufi stop. However, we were grateful that we had gotten to see some of the costumes and stolen some cool shots. The trufi took us to Quillacollo where Javier met us and took us to his house. His wife Laura and two small children were eagerly awaiting our arrival. We shared a vegetarian meal (Javier was convinced one of us was vegetarian, we didn't have the heart to say otherwise) of typical bolivian foods. It was delicious! It was a pleasure to be invited into these people's homes. We chatted about differences in foods, cultures, customs. They shared some must-see spots with us and showed us some traditional bolivian music. With full bellies we departed with promises to return again within the next week. We are hoping to return the favour and take them some American and Australian food. Tiffany and I are going to attempt to make pavalova...wish us luck!