It wasn't just us. The whole town was into it.

There were 13 groups altogether that danced. Each group, or fraternidad (fraternity), danced a different traditional dance. All the dances originate from different regions of Bolivia and they have a meaning or tell a story.

For instance, the dance "tinkus" is from Potosí (the bright, fluorescent costumes). There they have an ancient tradition in which two towns come together to for a rumble. That is to say, one great big brawl in which the entire towns fight one another. The fight continues, days if necessary, until one person from either town dies. When that happens, they all celebrate, because that one life was given as an offering to the Pachamama. It is an honor to the family of the dead one to have been able to make such a sacrifice. The tradition is of course very foreign to us, but it has been important to the culture for centuries. Nowadays, it is illegal, but I hear that some towns still do it anyway. Anyway, the dance is sort of a representation fo the fight, with the dance steps consisting of kicking and punching motions, jumping around and ducking, as if it were a choreographed fight. It is really cool to watch, and looks like a lot of fun.

This dance (black, snazzy costumes) is called Caporales. It is a dance in which the men do a lot of jumping and shouting, and the women wear short skirts and do a lot of shaking their tushes. It is super machismo for the men, and very feminine for the women.

Unfortunately, I still don't know the stories behind all the dances, so for now you are just going to have to use your imagination.

The only other one I know a little bit about is tombos, the one with the feather costume. It originates from Santa Cruz, down in the amazon basin, which is in Amazonia. The dance has a very primeval feel to it, the costumes are leopard-print, and there is always a person or two dressed as a tiger or jaguar, and the dance commerates the hunt.