Dancing In The Park

14. August 2010 by Fortunato Velasquez.

Designed by a Peace Corps Volunteer in 2006, our city park has become a center of social activity for La Paz.  On weekends the local school kids practice traditional dances.  After our English class, two of my students and I walked across the street to the park to watch the action.  The Parque Central is flanked by the alcaldia (city hall), the church and the Casa de Cultura, the city museum that chronicles the community’s early days from its founding in 1821 with old photographs and artifacts.  In November is the city’s annual feria that lasts for the whole month.  A carnival sets up on the edge of town and booths of every type crowd the central square.  The height of the feria is crowned by a formal cotillion ball with handsome, young military cadets in full-dress uniforms and their beautiful, evening-gowned partners dancing the minuet to the music of a string orchestra.  Afterwards fireworks fill the sky directly over the heads of the huge crowd and four faux bulls enter the densely packed throng from different directions with lit firework horns and with lowered heads they rush through delighted revelers scattering folk every which way.

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