Carnaval in Gualeguaychu!

Seeing as how I've neglected to blog in the last couple of weeks, I completely forgot about my Carnaval entry.  Two weeks ago I went with Eli and Joe to Gualeguaychu for Argentina's largest Carnaval celebration!  We rented a great little cabana for about $20 a piece per night that had its own kitchen, air conditioning, and even a parrilla out back!  Our first night we went out for dinner, once again had some amazing asado.  For 30 dollars between the three of us we got chorizo, ribs, chicken, and some sort of mystery meat that I believe was blood sausage.  I was reluctant to try it, but it actually tasted pretty good; the only problem with it was that it had the texture of something like tapioca pudding, so I was satisfied with my one bite.  There was a party going on in the streets all night long to prepare for the actual festival the next day.  We watched people dancing on the beach and went to a boliche where we got a little taste of the music and incredible dancing that was to follow during the parade.

Saturday we walked into town and I made the mistake of not putting on sunscreen (you'll be able to tell in the pictures), but it was a beautiful walk nonetheless.  I was ecstatic to finally be surrounded by the greenery that I've been missing here in Buenos Aires.  We passed a lot of farms and were greeted by plenty of farm dogs and stray dogs alike.  That day was spent eating and exploring the town.  When we finally made it to where Carnaval was going to be we bought our tickets and headed off to get dressed to celebrate!  On the bus ride back into town we met another group of American students, one of whom was from Bellingham of all places!  We headed to the festival and bought some crazy masks with giant feathers just before we entering.  I tried choripan for the first time, and went back for more...it is definitely my new favorite Argentine snack!  We were able to move from our seats and get right down in the action to see the floats and gorgeous women.  I have never seen such an elaborate parade, definitely slow-moving, but absolutely beautiful!  Each float was accompanied by a number of people in costumes that you could only imagine seeing in Alice in Wonderland.  The atmosphere of the parade was absolutely amazing- I'm pretty sure the entire town of Gualeguaychu was there.  We were really impressed by the toddlers that were able to stay up all night and watch the parade; there were also a number of grandparents partying too!  Everyone sang along to the music and danced the entire 6 hours! 

Unfortunately I don't have a whole lot of pictures because my camera was stolen out of my backpack in the bus station upon my return, but I will share a few of Eli's pictures of the parade.