I survived Carnaval!

I am very proud to say I have now survived my very first Bolivian Carnaval! I am also proud to say I made it out without getting my hair dyed! Yaaaaay! :)
I now understand what Carnaval is, and though it is kind of hard to explain I will summarize it the best I can. It is basically a four day, country-wide water, paint, foam, and ink fight, with a lot of dancing and music! During the four days of Carnaval anyone and everyone is fair game. You are only safe inside houses or certain buildings.
All the girls have to braid their hair into a lot of little braids, and soak them in baby oil to help keep the paint from staining. I also went the extra step of covering my hair in a scarf since I'm a blonde, and the ink would NOT come out of my hair. Everyone wears special Carnaval shirts, white shorts, and Tom-like shoes. Also, since cars are often attacked when they are being driven, most people cover their car in mud so that it won't get stained.

We spent Carnaval as a group in Samaipata, the same pueblo where my host family has their cottage, so it was a little bit calmer than Santa Cruz. It was still A LOT of fun though!
Carnaval started Saturday night with the Curso, which we were in Santa Cruz for. El Curso is like a giant parade to open Carnaval. It has a lot of dancers and performance groups, each with a live band walking along with them. Then at the end of it is all the Carnaval Queen's, on their HUGE floats, with a dance group in front of each one. It was really incredible to see it all! El Curso is also when I got my first taste of the real Carnaval.. I got covered in foam, water, and paint from everyone walking by us!
Sunday morning we left Santa Cruz (at the ridiculously early hour of 6AM) on a rented micro to Samaipata. Our group was staying in a hostel, and we got there and got set up just before lunch. In the afternoon we ventured out, all dressed up in our Carnaval gear, and went to the Plaza. The Plaza is the center square, that almost all city's have and it is where the main Carnaval celebrations were going on.
That was where we joined the other groups in a giant water, foam, and paint fight! There was also live music and a lot of dancing. It was a lot of fun, and we all came home exhausted and soaking wet.
The rest of the trip was basically the same; a lot of dancing and water, paint, and foam fights!

When we returned to Santa Cruz Tuesday night the drive home on the micro was spent attacking the people we passed with water balloons. We also had to be careful though because all the towns we went through had swarms of kids and people who would attack the micros with buckets of water, water balloons, or shoot it with paint and ink from water guns. It meant keeping your eyes peeled and your windows firmly closed!
All in all, Carnaval is a really, really great time and cool experience to have. I would definitely recommend Carnaval in Bolivia to anyone! I loved it! :)