First walk

After the midday nap on Saturday, I felt a bit better. I met some more of the extended family of my host family, and Señora C gave me some chicken, rice and platanos. Yum.

I walked around for a few hours, too. The picture is a few blocks from where I am staying. The first part of the walk, the streets were super empty, which was nice... since I was focusing on walking as slow as possible to prevent my heart from beating out of control, but just fast enough so that I wouldn't stand out or look lost (ha). It wasn't until I started climbing up Avenida Anecito Arce that everything started getting really dusty. And then I started seeing people... and more people, until I came to la entrada del Gran Poder (see below). I don't know if it was just because of the street fair, or what, but the whole area smelled like a grease trap. Lots of pollo frito and papas fritas and whole sides of roasted porc. Yum?

So, part of the reason I was walking around was that I was trying to find "la entrada" (despite the niceness of being alone). La Entrada del Gran Poder is La Paz's biggest street parade/fair... and it really is enormous. From what I can uncover on the internet at this hour (and understand from my minimal Spanish), it began as a dancing celebration in the 1930s to honor the power of Jesus and the blending of Catholic church and local beliefs. Today, there is dancing and brass bands and many, many street vendors, and lots and lots of alcohol. In fact, by the time I got down there, the sun had gone down and I thought it might be a Pacena-sponsored event because of all the huge red banners advertising their beer. I didn't take any pictures because I didn't want to call attention to myself after dark in a large local (drunk) crowd. But there are some youtube videos and flickr sets if you want to see what I am talking about - just type in "Gran Poder, La Paz".