This week was the originally unplanned part of our trip. After we decided to skip awfully expensive carnival in Brazil we were looking for alternative carnival experience in South America and that’s how we found out about the Montevideo carnival that is included in the UNESCO’s list of Intangible cultural heritage.
Montevideo Carnival
Montevideo carnival spreads throughout January and February but its biggest event is the Desfile de Llamadas (a carnival parade) that is held Thursday and Friday night at the beginning of February. This year it was 9 and 10 which suited well our travel schedule, though when we arrived a day before there were no more tickets available for the sits along the street General Flores where the parade takes place. We could just wonder the street but we paid 600 Uruguayan Pesos (=£20) to stay the night at the terrace in private house overlooking the parade. It was dear but as we found out the next day worth the price. The house was based right at the beginning of the street and the parade itself where the comparsas were at its best right before approaching the televised part of the parade. Comparsas, the groups of Negros (back people) and Lubolos (white people pretending to be black) perform at the carnival according to the specific traditional order.
Then the dancers at least 15 and here surprisingly unlike what I have seen from the brasilian carnival it is not all about being young and beautiful. Anybody young and older, slim and not so slim can dance, which I thought makes the event very inclusive. Still very similarly to the brasilian carnival there is a lot on display:
Then mama vieja(s) (old woman) and gramilliero(s) (old man, a village witch with the suitcases full of healing herbs):
The other important part of the carnival is the tablados i.e. the neighbourhood outdoor scenes where local satirist (parodistas) and singing and acting groups (murgas) are performing. They also have a big competition for the murgas in Teatro Verano but again we could not get tickets so we bought cheap entrance to the Tablado in the Carnival museum, which was really good enough for us. We saw one group of parodistas that we could not really fully appreciate (or enjoy) considering my limited and Gavin’s no Spanish and one female only murga with some feminist theme. Even though I could not fully understand the lyrics of their songs, I thought it was a good performance, nice costumes with big fake red hair, good beat and singing and the female part of the audience seemed to have really appreciated their jokes.
All in all I enjoyed this carnival experience and even though I do not know how it really compares to the experience we would have had in Brazil I think Montevideo Carnival is really good inclusive popular art expressing common people’s creativity.
Montevideo
Montevideo is an average South American city full of beautiful tranquil plazas shaded by the trees. As you walk the streets you can see its glorious past from the twenties and thirties that seemed to have gone into slight decay. Its main square, Plaza Independencia, houses once the tallest building in Americas and around the corner is beautiful Teatro Solis. However, what distinguishes Montevideo is the Ramblas, promenade along the river Parana (that is so big that it looks like a sea) circumventing the city’s with sandy beaches filling up on the weekend, like the one in what grew to be our favourite Montevideo neighbourhood Positos.
Montevideo is also home to the stadium of the first Football World Cup in 1930! It is really old, all concrete stadium that also houses an interesting museum, if you interested in football of course! It displays loads of football memorabilia from early twenties to the recent days including the infamous ball used in the famous 2010 World Cup match between Uruguay and Ghana, when Suarez defended the Ghana’s goal with the hand. I watched that game and needless to say cheered for Ghana!
Montevideo seems to have one other peculiarity. There is no recycling required from the people, all is just general trash but then on the streets you see people on horse carts stopping at every garbage disposal bin and plundering through it and leaving the city at the end with the cart loaded with the valuable part of general city garbage. Could it be the more efficient way of recycling that what we know in Western Europe?
On the way from Buenos Aires to Montevideo we took a stop in Colonia. We took the ferry from BA across the river Parana that takes only 1 hour but if you think that this is only a river crossing it is rather a long time. Did I already mention that river Parana actually looks like a sea? We had enough time to spend 2 nights in Colonia to get on time to Montevideo for Desfile de Lllamadas, and contrary to the Lonely Planet recommendation to make Colonia a day trip from BA, this longer stay gives just about enough time to really enjoy this small town that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its old town is the only place in South America that mixes the Spanish and Portuguese influences: flat roof Spanish houses mingle with tile covered sloping roofs of Portuguese ones all wonderfully decorated with flowery bushes; Spanish street with the sidewalks cross Portuguese ones that have no sideways and water drainage in the middle. It is just charming place and even though it is one of the major Uruguays tourist destination, not really overflown with tourists and typically accompanying it junk vendors. What makes the difference between a day trip and staying the night in Colonia is the wonderful sunset. As the sun sets down it exposes the high rise buildings of Buenos Aires on the horizon and it just simply beautiful. As you look at the photos, remember this is not the sunset of the sea, it is the river!
Finally in Colonia I tried the mate. We have already seen it all over Argentina but Uruguayans seem to have taken this drink to the next level of addiction. Mate is a very bitter dink made of herbs (yerba de Paraguay) that fills up a cup made of wood, leather silver or dried small pumpkins, called mate. Then you put a special metal straw into it and start pouring small amounts of water so that the top of the herbs on one side of the cup remains dry and then you start sipping it and then pour gain small amount of water and start sipping it, and again and again. Uruguayans seem to be doing it all day long and everywhere, in the parks, just sitting in front stairs of the house on the street. Once we saw a men coming back from bakery with a bag full of bread holding and drinking mate, so even mate drinking cannot be paused for a short walk to the bakery. Most of the spectators brought their mate to the carnival too! And it is not easy because you not only have to carry the cup and the herbs but also the thermos with the properly boiled water, actually not boiled as for mate water is only heated a bit less than boiling level. Even the electric kettles have a separate button for heating up water for mate! What I certainly remember from Uruguay other than the sights would be people holding mate cups and thermoses everywhere they go!
Next week we are going to make another diversion from our original trip plan and spend a week hopping through beaches of eastern Uruguay; one on the River Parana that anyway looks like a sea and two on the Atlantic Ocean. I shall report if the mate is also drunk on the beach.
Montevideo Carnival
Montevideo carnival spreads throughout January and February but its biggest event is the Desfile de Llamadas (a carnival parade) that is held Thursday and Friday night at the beginning of February. This year it was 9 and 10 which suited well our travel schedule, though when we arrived a day before there were no more tickets available for the sits along the street General Flores where the parade takes place. We could just wonder the street but we paid 600 Uruguayan Pesos (=£20) to stay the night at the terrace in private house overlooking the parade. It was dear but as we found out the next day worth the price. The house was based right at the beginning of the street and the parade itself where the comparsas were at its best right before approaching the televised part of the parade. Comparsas, the groups of Negros (back people) and Lubolos (white people pretending to be black) perform at the carnival according to the specific traditional order.
First go banners and banderas at least four but typically more:
And then the condombe drummers (at least 36) proceeded by the baton twirler and sometimes another dancing couple (this time always young and beautiful):
It was very entertaining at first but it became a bit repetitive after the tenth one as they really follow the same order. All that changes is the colours. But with the rented terrace we could see it from the top, sit down a bit and pop in to the street and shake the body to the beat of the drums with the excited locals and what is invaluable at the street event like this was the use the bathroom! The next day, on Friday we went for the second round of carnival that was supposed to be better with more professional comparsas including the winner from last year carnival but it was not that much fun. We were standing on the a very crowded street closer to the end of the parade where the comparsas appeared to be slightly tired. Also we could not see much constantly interrupted by the vendors selling mostly the same stuff: espuma (the foam), polystyrene snow and illuminating gadgets. So we gave up rather early and left behind very excited crows.
Murgas and Parodistas 
The other important part of the carnival is the tablados i.e. the neighbourhood outdoor scenes where local satirist (parodistas) and singing and acting groups (murgas) are performing. They also have a big competition for the murgas in Teatro Verano but again we could not get tickets so we bought cheap entrance to the Tablado in the Carnival museum, which was really good enough for us. We saw one group of parodistas that we could not really fully appreciate (or enjoy) considering my limited and Gavin’s no Spanish and one female only murga with some feminist theme. Even though I could not fully understand the lyrics of their songs, I thought it was a good performance, nice costumes with big fake red hair, good beat and singing and the female part of the audience seemed to have really appreciated their jokes. All in all I enjoyed this carnival experience and even though I do not know how it really compares to the experience we would have had in Brazil I think Montevideo Carnival is really good inclusive popular art expressing common people’s creativity.
Montevideo
Montevideo is an average South American city full of beautiful tranquil plazas shaded by the trees. As you walk the streets you can see its glorious past from the twenties and thirties that seemed to have gone into slight decay. Its main square, Plaza Independencia, houses once the tallest building in Americas and around the corner is beautiful Teatro Solis. However, what distinguishes Montevideo is the Ramblas, promenade along the river Parana (that is so big that it looks like a sea) circumventing the city’s with sandy beaches filling up on the weekend, like the one in what grew to be our favourite Montevideo neighbourhood Positos. 
Montevideo is also home to the stadium of the first Football World Cup in 1930! It is really old, all concrete stadium that also houses an interesting museum, if you interested in football of course! It displays loads of football memorabilia from early twenties to the recent days including the infamous ball used in the famous 2010 World Cup match between Uruguay and Ghana, when Suarez defended the Ghana’s goal with the hand. I watched that game and needless to say cheered for Ghana! 
Montevideo seems to have one other peculiarity. There is no recycling required from the people, all is just general trash but then on the streets you see people on horse carts stopping at every garbage disposal bin and plundering through it and leaving the city at the end with the cart loaded with the valuable part of general city garbage. Could it be the more efficient way of recycling that what we know in Western Europe? Colonia
On the way from Buenos Aires to Montevideo we took a stop in Colonia. We took the ferry from BA across the river Parana that takes only 1 hour but if you think that this is only a river crossing it is rather a long time. Did I already mention that river Parana actually looks like a sea? We had enough time to spend 2 nights in Colonia to get on time to Montevideo for Desfile de Lllamadas, and contrary to the Lonely Planet recommendation to make Colonia a day trip from BA, this longer stay gives just about enough time to really enjoy this small town that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its old town is the only place in South America that mixes the Spanish and Portuguese influences: flat roof Spanish houses mingle with tile covered sloping roofs of Portuguese ones all wonderfully decorated with flowery bushes; Spanish street with the sidewalks cross Portuguese ones that have no sideways and water drainage in the middle. It is just charming place and even though it is one of the major Uruguays tourist destination, not really overflown with tourists and typically accompanying it junk vendors. What makes the difference between a day trip and staying the night in Colonia is the wonderful sunset. As the sun sets down it exposes the high rise buildings of Buenos Aires on the horizon and it just simply beautiful. As you look at the photos, remember this is not the sunset of the sea, it is the river! 
Finally in Colonia I tried the mate. We have already seen it all over Argentina but Uruguayans seem to have taken this drink to the next level of addiction. Mate is a very bitter dink made of herbs (yerba de Paraguay) that fills up a cup made of wood, leather silver or dried small pumpkins, called mate. Then you put a special metal straw into it and start pouring small amounts of water so that the top of the herbs on one side of the cup remains dry and then you start sipping it and then pour gain small amount of water and start sipping it, and again and again. Uruguayans seem to be doing it all day long and everywhere, in the parks, just sitting in front stairs of the house on the street. Once we saw a men coming back from bakery with a bag full of bread holding and drinking mate, so even mate drinking cannot be paused for a short walk to the bakery. Most of the spectators brought their mate to the carnival too! And it is not easy because you not only have to carry the cup and the herbs but also the thermos with the properly boiled water, actually not boiled as for mate water is only heated a bit less than boiling level. Even the electric kettles have a separate button for heating up water for mate! What I certainly remember from Uruguay other than the sights would be people holding mate cups and thermoses everywhere they go! Next week we are going to make another diversion from our original trip plan and spend a week hopping through beaches of eastern Uruguay; one on the River Parana that anyway looks like a sea and two on the Atlantic Ocean. I shall report if the mate is also drunk on the beach.
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