Avoiding Carnival

Carnival started yesterday, and around Santa Cruz, the first day means everybody starts throwing waterballoons filled with either water or paint. Instead of spending the day dodging projectiles, Ken called and said he was taking a 7 of the boys to an eco resort that had a pool and asked if we wanted to go. Paint filled balloons are tempting (especially to the boys), but we agreed to go. So the 7 Bolivian boys piled into the back of Kens truck and the rest of us piled into the front and off we went.

When we got there, most of the boys scattered to where they wanted to be, because they had been there before and each had their own interests. Our kids headed for the pool to cool off with a couple of the other guys. I decided to take a walk around the place to see what all was going on. I ended up a little off the beaten path in a forested area which had a whole bunch of different butterflies and large ants. The ant hills here outside the city stand about 2 feet tall and the ants range from the size of a dust speck to 3/4 of an inch long. I kept on walking and eventually heard some talking. Down the hill was the edge of a lake, where 3 guys were fishing without rods. They would throw their line in the water using a Y shaped stick and pull it in by hand. One guy was just pulling the fish in the picture in when I arrived.

Everybody had a good day overall, and after I accidentally ordered 2 large bottles of coke instead of 2 personal bottles of coke (so I asked for 10 glasses to go with them), we all had a refreshing drink and headed home a few hours after we arrived.

Carnival really kicked up later in the evening, and the music and fireworks continued on into the wee hours of the morning. Our place is just a couple blocks off the parade route so we didn't get a lot of sleep, but thankfully, it is all over on Tuesday. :)