¡Quiero, Quiero Carnaval!

22:02 el 1 de marzo 2009
Mi cama (My bed)

Well here I lay exhausted after another crazy weekend, but I’m going to try and hammer out some memories before I crash. So, we spontaneously decided to buy micro (long-distance bus) tickets on Thursday to take a 3.5 hour ride to Gualeguaychu, (think you can pronounce it? To me it sounds like wally-wa-chu) on Saturday morning. The tickets only cost AR$75 ida y vuelta (round trip) and we got semi-cama seats, which comfortably extend back and have a long foot rest so that you’re in a deep reclining position. We finally got onto the right bus – the tickets vaguely listed a 15 platform range to wait for our bus, and with ten of us trying to figure out where to go, another bus listed for Gualeguaychu at 9:15 that arrived before our 9:00 bus...well, it was a bit hectic. The bus system here and in Uruguay seems mildly chaotic to us foreigners.

My first impression when we arrived to Gualeguaychu was that it appeared to be a dusty little town, not the site of a huge national party. But, we finally encountered all the party people when we walked to the stadium to buy our tickets for later that night. We joined the long box office line and stood in the blistering sun for at least two and a half hours before we got to the front.

Tickets finally in hand, we were en route to beach, but got distracted by a playground for a while. I had the brilliant idea to go down a steep, burning hot metal slide face first, which of course ended badly/hilariously, depending on who you are asking. It was actually caught on camera and is commonly referred to as “Nicole’s epic slide fail.” Once the laughter died down from this incident (A/N: just kidding myself, people still crack up over it), we headed to a supermarket to grab picnic supplies and ended up eating in the park. We were all so comfy there that we napped and rested there for a while in the glorious shade. Eventually, we caught the bus to the beach area (on the river). Half of the group went to the beach that was reminiscent of MTV spring break at Cancun (I don’t think you could even see the sand because of all the packed bodies) while I went with the other group to a calm part of the river to stick our feet in the water and watch the sunset.

We had a bit of a crazy time trying to get back to the Carnival stadium because none of the taxis were stopping for us, but we all arrived for the start of the Carnival parade at 22:30. It was packed and people were definitely evoking the chaotic Carnival stereotypes, donning tiaras and spraying silly string and foam at innocent passerby. A bunch of us bought glittery headbands to commemorate the occasion and headed up to our seats. We were quite close to the center of the long runaway that glittery and feathered men and women would soon flaunt and dance down, and our spot at the top of the stands gave us our own dancing section. It was a non-stop party until 3:30 in the morning (except for those in our group who ended up falling asleep on the cement bleachers for a while), with only two intermissions. The three periods, if you will, were based around a different theme, and each consisted of a five minute song sung (live) on a continuous loop. (A/N: to this day we still burst out into random Carnival songs because they are so ingrained in the recesses of our minds…the first song was “¡Quiero, Quiero Carnival! , which means I want/ I love Carnival). At one point we tried to join the ranks of people that would make it over the barrier to snap a photo with a scantily-clad show girl (usually followed by a police escort), but were unsuccessful in getting past security. However, we did go down and dance on the main runway during one of the intermissions, which was pure craziness.

The costumes were incredible (well, what parts of the body that they covered) and the floats were simply unbelievable – intricate forty feet tall structures with dozens of dancers bouncing up and down on them). The first set was a collection of colorfully themed floats, such as a red and black Asian float, and another with an enormous Buddha on it. I was surprised by the theme of the floats after the first intermission, first depicting a jungle full of natives, then the arrival of the conquistadors (including men dressed up with women “Indians” tied to them with rope), a float with larger-than-life slaves burdened with harvests, others depicting the role of the church, and the grand finale with the grim reaper overlooking the natives. I don’t think you would see anything like that in the United States, although it was interesting that they would display it Argentina, where they brutally killed off almost all indigenous peoples, more so than any other country (hence the lack of mestizos, or descendents of unions between European and indigenous peoples).

The third wave of floats consisted of mostly fun Carnival floats, but even these had blatant political messages. Performers paraded by with signs of infamous slogans from past political eras, and one float boasted elaborate signs of quotes from political leaders, such as (paraphrasing and translating) “2001 will be a great year for Argentina.” This was the year of the peso crisis, where the economy plunged into chaos and employment rates soared up to 20 percent. There were also several references to the dirty war in the 1970s and 1980s. Thinking on it, it’s pretty cool I could understand so many of the cultural references in the parade.

After carnival ended (around 3:30), the crowd gathered in mob fashion (reminding me a bit of the Gators Football National Championship) in the arena and moved the party to the outside. We stopped by a spontaneous drum circle and danced in a semi-mosh pit (I even threw some African dance moves in there, Joanna!). Our energy levels came down quickly as we sat at a cafe and we sluggishly made in back to the bus station for our 6:00 bus. After sleeping during the three hour trek back to Buenos Aires, I went home to get a much needed shower (I was filthy from my dirt roll falling down the slide) and food before heading out again to see more of Buenos Aires…. (to be continued!)

Coli