Montevideo, Uruguay

Montevideo claims to be the longest running carnival festival in the world, running 6 weeks of theater shows and parades of which some don’t come on stage until after 2am!

There were events to attend every day from music on the beach to watching the five competitive group categories of Carnaval in amphitheaters. Our favorite category was Murga because we had trouble following the story lines and jokes of the other categories since they habla en espanol y muy rapido!

Then big attraction we came to see was Desfile de Llamadas which is a parade of Candombe drumming that takes place on calle Isla de Flores, in Barrio Sur, the barrio of the African-Uruguayan population. The African drum influence is what makes Montevideo’s Carnaval celebration unique, and makes for some spectacular drum-off’s where groups sort of “call” each other out.

It just so happened that we were staying in a hostel a few blocks away from the biggest water festival of the year, Festa de Iemanjá, a celebration of 'Goddess of the Sea and Mother of the Waters'. Although a very meaningful ceremony for the locals, it was hard to watch so many Styrofoam boats filled with burning candles and watermelons be pushed off into the waves only to be broken apart and washed ashore minutes later. Perhaps the wind and waves picked up that night by the water goddess showing her dismay of the environmental destruction caused by this religious ceremony.