President Evo Morales said climate change had “shown up at Carnival, leaving disasters, with the loss of human lives and of homes.”
About 25,000 dancers take part in the pre-Lenten blowout that is Bolivia’s biggest tourist attraction and brings as many as half a million people to the sleepy town.
Tobas dancers participate in the traditional inaugural parade of Oruro Carnival
The pageant along the city’s cobblestones is a mixture of Spanish colonial traditions with those of the ancient indigenous Inca and Aymara peoples in a ritual seeking better farming and good health.
In 2001, the UNESCO cultural organization declared the carnival an intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
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