Getting your car blessed in Copacabana.
Copacabana is sacred amongst Bolivian Catholics as a place where (I think) thr Virgin Mary is meant to have appeared – the Knock of Bolivia. As such loads of pilgrims arrive everyday to get their stocks of holy water and puffed wheat sorted out and leave on one of the many arranged buses around 6pm back to La Paz. However, if you have a car you need to get it blessed and here’s how.
Queue up with all the other cars, lorries and buses that need a blessing. While doing so decorate your vehicle with ribbons, garlands and petals. When it’s your turn lift the bonnet and let the attendant priest spinkle holy water on your engine (see picture below). Throw petals over him and each other and then let off some firecrackers. Throw some more petals and then pour beer (available for purchase just outside the cathedral gates) over each of the wheels. Now your car is blessed and you can carry on regardless, knowing that no matter how appalling your driving may be you will be safe.
In order to make doubly sure have a brass band knock out a tune. Brass bands are everywhere in the Andes, and there’s nothing hey like more than a feast day (every day’s a feast day) in order to get out the old instruments and parp around the main square or high street, preferably with children dressed uo for the occasion and some women with hats on throwing petals at some religious icon or other. It’s the Andean way. In the illustration below, the date was the 2nd January and you will see the important presence of Tigger, not previously thought to have been a key figure in the revised versions of the gospels.
On another note, Bolivian restaurant service deserves a mention. I had thought that Peru held the honours when it came to slow and yet chaotic service, but so far Bolivia is the winner. Last night a family of five managed to arrive after me, order, eat and pay before my (delicious) dinner even got to me. Today, I got my own menu after waiting twenty minutes and being offered at least three other people’s lunch. The main problem appears to be the boys they employ as waiters. I think the selection criteria is ‘You are my son. Get to work.’ The training arrangements seem to be the same. It’s all good for that.
Also, I’ve probably given a slightly worn out impression in recent days – a mixture of bothersome illness and rain. Well, I’m feeling much better today and write this as I lie in my hammock in bright sunshine overlooking the bay, eating an ice cream and listening to a Café del Mar album – the brass bands and firecrackers going off in the distance. If I could guarantee the sunshine, I’d stay longer, but it’s still La Paz tomorrow if I can get the right bus. Below is the view from my hammock.
More pictures from the journey in general are available at the Flickr website – not sure of the link, but if you search jmp_abroad at Flickr.com you should find them.
Revised tune for yesterday – Don’t Need The Sunshine, Catatonia. Recently finished book – The Little Friend, Donna Tartt. Could be a very scary film in the hands of the right director…
Hot News – another ´centre left´president for South America – in Chile this time. And I´m going there next. Raise a glass to Michelle Bachelet.
Tags: Travel
JohnnyBoy
January 16th, 2006 at 7:03 am
So God approves of the energy-guzzling planet-destroying monster that is the car then?
January 16th, 2006 at 8:52 am
Susan, you’re easily fooled. That’s the ferry queue at Holyhead. Dublin, here he comes.
January 16th, 2006 at 9:33 am
Hello, glad its all going well. Lefties popping up all over the place. Any address i can send some stuff to in the next couple of weeks? Thought you might like a paper. Your team is in disarray, Burton are almost favourites (in my book anyway). Ive also heard a rumour that Prescott is about to be in a bit of trouble over some pictures of children……
January 16th, 2006 at 9:37 am
Excellent photos JohnnyBoy, I do like a good photo. There have been some really good ones lately in the sports pages back home…..Vassel, Fowler and co. Heart warming stuff.
January 16th, 2006 at 3:06 pm
If your Grandad had found that Knock instead of the other one(no blasphemy intended) he could have been the best driver in the world.
January 16th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
I believe the relevant verse goes:
‘Virgin Mary Morning Star
From every danger guard this car
Grant its purpose be
To save and not destroy’
January 16th, 2006 at 6:04 pm
I absolutely knew Susan would come out with the motorist’s prayer when she saw that.
In La Paz safely, by the way. In the lobby of the hotel where I had provisionally booked a bed. The bus from Copacabana stopped outside the door! Nice bit of luck.
John, when your team reaches the giddy heights of the premiership feel free to gloat mate. What’s a derby to you? Huddersfield, is it?
Like the offer Shaun – like John, I’m afraid it’s back pages your interested in. However, if serious I do plan an address in Chile for a while in the next month. Once I know I’ll let you know.
Right, out to meet President Morales…
January 16th, 2006 at 7:03 pm
Any chance of a little prayer and some holy water for Chester to beat Cheltenham in the cup tomorrow? We need some divine intervention after Saturday, even Tom being mascot couldn’t raise the mighty blues from their stupour.
If you haven’t crossed the Irish Sea on the St Columba, maybe you could pop back on the train and watch the match. I won’t tell that your Bovril will be drunk in the Deva and not in Bolivia. Sorry, but what else is Bolivia famous for?
January 17th, 2006 at 10:06 am
Tigger, who is of course ‘the only one’, represents an important figure in the early Christian church. The fact that their ‘tops are made out of rubber, their bottoms are made out of springs’ was used to demonstrate how two substances can coexist in one body thus ending centuries of christological debate. Some of his followers even went so far as to claim divine status for Tigger. The ongoing debates precipitated the great disney schism of the early sixth century. I will pray to Tigger, on your behalf, to lift the curse of Eeyore from the mighty Chester
January 17th, 2006 at 5:35 pm
But surely the question of transubstansiation remains – for is it not said that the conversion of bread and wine into rubber and springs must be subjugated by that of flesh and blood? This intrinsically leaves the Tigger figure a lesser power after that of, say, Pinocchio, post transformation from puppet to boy.
In terms of experts on the point, I believe that Piglet’s archbishopric was revoked after the business with with the wine and altar piglets in the vestry after midnight mass.
January 20th, 2006 at 11:55 am
Love the pics.