La Virgen de Urkupina

Last sunday, after watching Arsenal beat Newcastle, I headed off to Quillacollo for day one of the three day festival of the Virgin of Urkupina. It´s Cochabamba´s equivalent of the Notting Hill Carnival and it is a spectacle of colour, costumes, dancing and ceremony. There were thousands of people, if not quite the hundreds of thousands that the locals were telling me come from all over the world. Police crowd control was interesting, basically they take no prisoners, and I had one or two lucky escapes. The secret is not to argue, they have battons and they look like they want to use them.

As it gets dark, large amounts of beer and chicha (the local brew) are consumed and the atmosphere allegedly degenerates and it becomes like closing time in provincial towns like Swindon. Bolivians, when they get the chance, drink to an excess that I think some Brits would be proud of. I promised my boss I would not stay to witness this, though I was tempted.

The festival culminates with a mini pilgrimage on tuesday, when literally thousands head off from about midnight until 5am to a hill next to Quillacollo to pay homage to the Virgin. I was seriously tempted, especially as two friends were going, but as many of you may be aware, I am not an early riser. Next up on the festival calendar is Cochabamba Day in mid-September.