Argentinian Carnival

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Hi all - its Tal,

Since I liked the writing part, I am going to write also the following entry; this time the entry will depict our journey north from Buenos Aires.

In Buenos Aires we learnt that in a very near city, called Gualeguaychú, only 200 Km north, a carnival takes place every Saturday in January and February. So we decided to cut our northbound route and stop for a weekend in this unknown town, what turned to be a very special weekend.

We reached this hot town late in the afternoon, and went straight to our bungalow exhausted from the heat.

In the following morning, we took our bathing suits and went to the close by Gualeguaychú river. River swimming is very common in South America, as we learnt. As South America is an enormous continent and the oceans are cold and very far from inland. So, we joined the locals and had a nice and calm swimming in the river, then ate lunch, and then returned for a 'siesta' (afternoon rest) in our bungalow (only 35 C, no A/C...), since the show starts not before 2130. We barley woke up, half fainted from the heat, and were happy to discover that outside the temperature is extremely lower, and there is a cooling breeze blowing all around.

We took a cab to the area of the Carnival , bought some sandwiches, and stepped towards the Corsodromo, meaning: the parade tribunes. We found our seats, and waited in vain for almost an hour and a half, when it all starts: extremely loud music, dancers, singers and thousands of cheering Argentinians all around us. All was only a prologue.. During that night, 3 samba clubs (in Spanish: “comparsa”) compete for the title of "kings of the carnival". Each comparsa includes over 700 dancers, and is accompanied by 4-5 huge stages, a drum band (“batucada”) and a singing band. Each club chooses a theme and a theme song, and the theme is brought to life using the stages, costumes, decorations and songs. This time the themes were: Circus, Nature World and Africa. It is really difficult to start and describe the creativity of this groups, although samba dancing appears to be better in Brazil, we think that they showed a unique skillfulness and creativity in bringing to life these themes, to say the least. The costumes were astonishing, vibrant and very colorful (as you may see in the photos - I had to clean a set totaling 875 photos, taken only at that night...). It was a long night, ended at 0300 in the morning; Please give a big applause to the 3 kids, who bravely stayed alert and fascinated all night, up to the very end of it!! We returned to the bungalow exhausted, and fell asleep in microseconds...

Looking back at this episode, we cannot understand how this fantastic carnival town remains a secret for foreigners (as well as Israelis), as we were probably the only foreign tourist in town. Probably bad marketing... But don't get wrong, the city is bustling with people from many other provinces of Argentina.

The next day, as we had the continuing bus to our next destination up north only leaving at 2245, we decided to spend a nice day in the hot springs complex, only 15 minutes walk from our bungalow. We had a nice company all day long, since we met our next-door neighbors, a family from Bs As. So, once again, we could have practiced our Spanish, which is pretty good by now. The kids were so happy with the variety of pools - cold and hot, in one of them was a spraying tube with a nice massage, and above all, they had Flor to play with, a beautiful brown-eyed girl, of the Bs As family that joined us. We had a wonderful day, not too hot, not too humid, kids didn't ask too much for our attention, and I took advantage of that fact and got ahead with my long neglected book, “Wife of the Time Traveler” (by Odrey Nifenger).

Later in that day, We packed our stuff, and found ourselves in the local bus terminal just in time for the bus to the town of Mercedes. Why Mercedes? You'll have to wait and read the next entry, I am afraid...


Miss you all,

Tal

** To view the entire gallery of the Carnival, please click on the following link: Argentinian Carnival

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Photos

Gualeguaychu Carnival
One of the platforms

Comments

[Billy]

ass
Interesting collection of female asses Tal :)

[The Sapir Family]

Dear Billy
Doing my best to show different sides of Argentina's People... Tal :)-