Sun 14 Feb

Today we woke up after having about 2 to 3 hours of sleep and we were back at the Carnival. We got there around 5am and stepped over drunken people who had fallen asleep on the sidewalks or other places near the carnival. We got our seats and started to watch the parade as the sun started to show its self from behind the mountains. The dancers were incredible and everyone was super happy and in such a good mood for so early in the morning. We watched for a while from the stands but then decided to go down to the street to watch from close up. The music was great and the dancing was even better. Around 9am this parade was over and then it was back to the place we went to the night before, for another parade. The parade was with the same bands and performers, but the order was different and the dances had changed a bit. Also now that the sun was up, it got hotter, so the water balloons were put into action. There is a war during the parade with the crowd. It’s the people in the stands against the people across the street in the stands and also the people on the street. Soon Water balloons were flying and everyone was getting wet. There was silly string foam being sprayed into people’s faces and kids had water guns to shoot at people. Everything that would cause a fight in the U.S. was going on but everyone was in good spirit and knew this is what to expect at the carnival. Soon, our group bought some water balloons and started throwing them at the crowd across the street. About 2min later we had a rain storm of balloons coming back at us. Sarah got hit in the face with one and other people got hit while walking. That when we fought back. We must have bought about 40 balloons for about $1.30 and we went crazy. Other people in the stand started buying balloons too and joined us because we were on the same side. Soon our section was in an all out war and the people in the parade were getting hit too. I wish I could have taken a picture but my camera would have been destroyed by all of the water. After a couple hours, Sarah and I said goodbye to our group and went to the bus station to get a ride to La Paz. I called the brother of Freddy, the man I am going to stay with in Santa Cruz, and asked if we could stay at his house for the night. He told me to call when we got into La Paz. Once we got to La Paz, we took a taxi to the southern part of La Paz and waited at a church for Jimmy to pick us up. As soon as we got out of the taxi, Jimmy and his wife pulled up. We went to a nice pizza restaurant and got to know one another better. After we went to their house and chilled for a while. Jimmy showed us pictures of the family while I played the piano. I was so excited to see a piano because that had been the first one I had seen in 6 months. After talking with the family, we went to bed.