Buy a virgin in Bolivia

When I was in Bolivia I went to Cochabamba to go to the Urkupiña festival in nearby Quillocollo.



[Below] Urkupiña is the Fiesta de la Virgen ("Festival of the Virgin"). The main days of the festival were between the 15-17th August. On the first day the elaborate doll of the virgin is on display; on the second day it is marched through the streets to its place on the hill of Quillocollo. On the third day everybody goes to the hill to pay their respects to the virgin and then try to chip a chunk of rock from the solid hillside with a mallet, for good luck.

[Below] "Take my photo with the virgin!"



[Below] Buy a virgin.



[Below] These photos are from the first day of the festival. All day people in wild, colorful costumes march and dance in procession down the street.








[Below] This photo was accomplished with a zoom lens. Don't worry, I wasn't actually this close.




[Below right] There was A LOT of drinking involved. So in combination with the extremely hot weather there were many drunk people. Actually, all the newspapers cited this as one of the big problems with the festival.



[Below] The Michael Jackson tribute dancers?





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