Dale Dale Carnaval!!!

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This is one for the story books. Planning for this trip got a little out of hand. We all live pretty far from each other and this group was half FSD and half Argentine friends of one of the girls. Come Friday when we left town we’d already spent the last 7 days going back and forth about tents and sleeping bags and transportation… this is much more complicated than it sounds. Friday morning I went up with Facu to Concepcion de Uruguay because it was only a short bus ride down to Gualyguaychu where Carnaval was held. Around 1230 in the morning after many missed phone calls, buses breaking down and phones getting stolen, all of the Americans managed to meet up in the bus station.

Now the fun began trying to get a cab a make it to the campsite where the Argentines were waiting. The wait line was 7 hours long and the site was nearly full. We wound up sneaking in the first security gate by pretending half were asleep wearing what looked similar to the campsite bracelet (in the dark) and the others without bracelets hid under the luggage. We made it in with no trouble BUT then we had to pass a second gate. They took all of our stuff inside and we were left in a mob of screaming people trying to fight for the last spots in the campsite. We were missing the registration sheet which was given to people earlier in the line and we also had too many people. Luck and lust being on our side.. We found a paper on the floor and crossed out the names of the person who had filled it out. Then some Argentine guy fell for one of the girls and she played it up and got him to help us out and through him and his friend they were able to get us past the second gate to register.. we were finally inside!

Friday night we went to a boliche (night club) it was packed with young Argentines so much so that the streets were filled with Murga music (traditional drums) and people dancing on cars. We made it into the boliche “Bikini” and found ourselves fighting off tons of guys as our Argentine escorts had left us to hit on other people when they found out we all had boyfriends and weren’t “going to cheat on them” After hours of dancing and one of the girls being forced into making out with some guy we made it back to the campsite around 6. No one really slept so at 9am our tired bodies made it out to the beach.. literally 10 feet away from our campsite.. and crashed with American music playing from my Ipod and eating awesome facutras (pastries) for breakfast that Jen had so graciously bought for us. The next 9 hours were filled with music, sun, beer, beach, rock and roll punch (courtesy of Arvil) and dancing in a huge misting machine. It was like spring break and our group was definitely the oldest ones there.. surrounded by 18 year olds we got drunk and had a lot of fun.

That night was Carnaval, the main event, which is a big festival of costumes and magic, but in the small town of Gualyguaychu it means big profits for the winner of this competition. Each put on a one and a half hour show with tons of massive and beautifully designed floats each holding at least 12 people dancing at various heights preceded by hundreds of dancers prancing through the long street showing off every part of their bodies possible. There was also a whole section of wine costumes (which of course made my night) Some wore big corks, bunches of grapes, and even corkscrews!! It was fantastic.. Somewhere around 5am we crawled to a bar and then back to our tents. The next day Jen and I trekked back to Concepcion to meet my host parents for the ride home.

Next weekend: Montevideo Uruguay to visit Silvia!!!

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