After a few adventures searching for the correct highways to our destination, we arrived and headed directly to the corsódromo (carnival runway) to buy our tickets and prepare for the night.  For more than four hours, we watched dancers and huge floats parade past in incredible colorful costumes (or lack thereof!) in coordinated patches of feathers and sequins, which kept the crowd of young and old cheering until well after 2 o’clock in the morning.

Parts of the spectacle – chants from the crowd, festival songs (of which there were about three, repeated for hours on end), the addition of political commentary mixed into the party – reminded me of the Fasching parades I attended in Mainz, Germany a few years ago.

Some entrants, including a group of dancers dressed in hulking red, white and blue body suits with arms dangling to the floor, poked fun at the U.S. Stuffed monkeys with a world globe balanced in their feet stood on top of the dancers’ heads.

The parade also included banners and marchers stating the Argentine perspective on  a dispute regarding the creation of papelerias (paper mills) along the river dividing Uruguay and Argentina border. Gualeguaychú declined to approve development of factories due to environmental concerns, but the factories were approved on the other side of the river in Uruguay, creating unhappy feelings both locally and internationally between these neighboring countries.

Many of the party-goers came from different provinces in Argentina, so I really enjoyed sharing our perspective on life in Gualeguaychú.  And like most travel experiences, we came home with many stories to share with others.

For more about carnival in other Latin American countries, check out this post about carnival in Colombia by fellow La Vida Idealist blogger, Rob Packer.