Ch'allar

There is a tradition in Bolivia called Ch'alla, a ritual of sorts performed every year on Carnival Tuesday - it can be applied to your home, your office, your sports club, anywhere really, and the idea is to redecorate with serpentines and balloons, spilling a few drops of alcohol and red wine in each corner of the space you are blessing as an offering to Pachamama, Mother Earth. Salteñas are usually eaten, contributing to the atmosphere of holiday and celebration. Here, you see us blessing A-TIC's office, we being Oscar (business partner), Mauricio (administrator), Oscar's mother and Mauricio's mother and father.

A-TIC has been blessed, woohooooo! 2007, here we come.


The La Paz Red Cross didn't want to miss out on the 2007 positivity and did a slightly more elaborate version, involving fire, coca leaves, and a chorizada/BBQ event for the volunteers! Mauricio was the chef (you can see him smoking himself out on the right, and yes - he is wearing a forehead flashlight to aid him in his chefness, hehe) and then Don Andrés and Reynaldo were in charge of the offering bit. Turns out Reynaldo is a bit of a pyromaniac, but no eyebrows were singed and the fire didn't go out before the whole offering to the Pachamama burnt (apparently if that happens it's bad luck) so no complaints! See photo below on the right for an action shot of the offering...