Winter Solstice

20th June

The winter solstice is a very important event for the local people here, they see it as an opportunity to worship the earth and ask for a good harvest. Its also an excuse for a big piss up.

At the site of El Fuerte, that big carved rock I went to, all the local communities get together to hold a big event to celebrate the solstice. The idea is to stay up all night and watch the sunrise in the morning, its said to be a magical and spiritual experience.

There were stalls selling food and drink, a big bonfire and a stage where various speeches were made, bands played and people in traditional dress danced and performed.

We went in a big group from the hostel and decided we would hitch hike there (sorry again Mum!) As we got to the main road there were lots of military vehicles and police preparing to go up to El Fuerte and I, as a joke, asked them if they minded giving us a lift. To my surprise they said they were happy to take us and we all climbed onto the back of a military jeep. One of the soldiers said that me and one of the other girls could sit inside the jeep, which we did, however we were soon to find out the soldiers ulterior motives. Once inside the jeep we were chatted up by the soldiers, who asked for our email addresses and invited us out to dinner the following day! To makes things even weirder they were playing Justin Beeber's album and asking us what the lyrics meant and they had multicoloured neon lights flashing around the stereo. Sitting inside a military vehicle translating Justin Beeber songs is yet another thing I wasnt expecting from my trip to Bolivia! Whatsmore, halfway up the mountain the huge army truck infront of us hit a rock and broke off its front axel, so all the soldiers plus a few dozen civilians all got out of their vehicles and lifted the truck up to move it to the side! It caused a huge tail back and we had to walk the final 1km up the mountain.

When we finally got to the top we pitched a tent and drank our booze; 1.5lt bottles of wine costing 24 bolivianos (just over £2!). We watched the dancing for a while and sat by the fire. There were lots of people there I knew or recognised, its a small town afterall, and I eventually found myself sat on an airplane seat inside a white VW camper van with a bunch of crazy hippies and an old austrian man who offered me every kind of intoxicating substance known to man. The hippies were fun to talk to, your typical spiritual, nature loving happy people who live up in the mountains and were drinking some foul tasting home made alcohol.

The night concluded with me throwing up (too much cheap red wine), passing out in our tent, and missing the sunrise! I hear it was cloudy anyway though so Im not too bothered. I didnt wake up until 10 and missed the locals sacrificing a llama! - Im not too upset about missing that either!

We got a taxi back into town and I spent the majority of the day in bed when I was supposed to be working. Ah well :)