Helen's Andean Adventure

The Day of La Paz

I feel really lucky because I got to experience one big holiday here in La Paz, July 16th, which is the Day of La Paz, and then will be here for the other big one, August 6th, the Independence Day.Well,even though the official holiday is today, yesterday most schools and offices were closed for an all-day parade...It reminded me of the Cherry Blossom Parade in DC. All the school bands were out on the streets, with banners,singing the song of La Paz, that I can probably sing by now since I heard it sooo many times yesterday.Sara (my host sister) and I went out late to watch the parade uptown and were lucky enough to make our way through the crowd of people to the main plaza and stand almost right in front of the mayor during the parade.One interesting thing about Bolivia: people are still not over the war with Chile.What happened is that Chile invaded Bolivia and in a war took away Bolivia's access to the sea.So now, even though Bolivia has 9 provinces, the parade participants were carrying 10 flags, one of which was for that lost province.The Bolivians are still very bitter about the loss, and generally dislike Chileans.

posted by HM @ 7:02 PM