Virgen del Rosario Fiesta In La Paz, Bolivia
During my bike tour through Bolivia, it turned out that I was in town for the Virgen del Rosario Fiesta. Here's my blog post about the fiesta.
Fiesta in La Paz
Blog post written October 4th 2010 as part of my bike touring trip from Alaska to Argentina.
Whilst I was in La Paz, Bolivia, there was a religious festival happening in honour of the Virgen del Rosario (Our lady of the Rosary).
As chance would have it, my hotel was next door to a church dedicated to the Virgen del Rosario, and from my hotel window, I had an amazing birds eye view down onto the celebrations below.
I had no idea that this festival was going to happen, but it proved to be an entertaining couple of days. The fiesta actually started just before midnight on the Friday, and I caught this little section on video.
The next morning, it became apparent that this festival would be an ongoing event for the weekend. Benches lined the streets, and people selling beer were ready!
During the afternoon, a seemingly endless series of parades marched up and down the street.
It was quite a display... I just wished the bands had learned more songs as they all seemed to play the same one!
That night, huge speakers were moved into place, and fireworks were set up. I took a couple more videos!!
I made my videos into one, which you can find on this page.
There was quite a bit of drinking and celebration until the early hours of the morning, with live bands playing, and music pumping.
Sunday, and it was all over... Or was it??
Not quite!! Still another parade to go, this one started in the afternoon, and was centred on the religious icons being marched through the street. I did take a video of that as well, but it is proving difficult to upload to YouTube, which is a shame.
And then, by the evening, the fiesta was over, and it was time for the tired and drunk Bolivians to return home! great fun, and I am glad that I was around to see this.
Read more about cycling from Alaska to Argentina
Dave is a UK travel writer living in Athens since 2015. With 20 years of firsthand travel experience and over 80,000 km of bicycle touring across six continents, he's been blogging at Dave's Travel Pages since 2005. Every guide is based on places he's actually been.
Get inside tips written by a local expert — island hopping itineraries, ferry know-how and hidden corners of Greece, straight to your inbox.
Subscribe to the newsletter