6 de Agosto - Independence Day in Bolivia

Bolivia celebrates its independence on August 6 (6 de Agosto). This year, Bolivia celebrated its 188 birthday as an independent country. We were in Trinidad - the capital of the department of Beni - for the big day. All of the government buildings were closed for the holiday, so we took a day off of visiting the Interpol office to watch some of the festivities.

The previous night, a large crowd had gathered in the plaza after dinner, so we went over to see what was going on. People were dressed in costumes (some traditional, some not) and dancing. 

The next day, the parades started early and went until lunch time. Community groups, schools, the police, firefighters, and even taxi syndicates all marched in the parade. Here is some of the military. Hard to see, but they're holding the flags.

We got to see the bomberos!

And the taxi syndicates were next.

Kelly watches the celebration.

Asher in front of a display in the plaza.

A blog post is never really complete without a picture of food. Here we are at a really nice restaurant that is connected to a four star hotel. The food was amazing. Even though the prices on the menu shocked us at first by Bolivian standards, we spent just $12 on three glasses of wine, a hamburger, and a pesto chicken sandwich.

And because we are from the US and have serious problems going too long without pizza, we found a great vegetarian pizza at our favorite restaurant on the plaza. 

We've finally left Trinidad, so stayed tuned for our upcoming posts: Bureaucracy Part II and Life in San Borja.