Thursday night I traveled to the north of Argentina to a city called Corrientes, where the annual Carnaval celebration attracts betweee 80-100,000 people every year. The city itself is not noteworthy but the festival itself is. Held every Friday and Saturday night from January through to the middle of February, thousands of performers from the area begin the parade down the strip around 10:30 pm and it goes until 6:00 am the next day cheered on by the crowd - infants akake too! Vendors work their way through the crowd selling choripan (sausage on a bun), panchos (hot dogs), beer and champagne.
Early on, a group of people asked me why I was there alone and if I was Argentine (one of the women saw my tattoo that says Argentina). When I told them I was a yanqui (from the US), they immediately welcomed me into their group and we shared champagne and beer, while they gave me all the information I needed to know about Carnaval, such as the celebrities, favorite group, etc.
At 5:30 am, I told them I had burned myself out and was going to catch a taxi home, they refused and one couple insisted that they drive me home since taxis would be impossible with 100,000 people leaving at once. This was definitely a trip to check off my bucket list!
For more photos from Carnaval, click here.
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