Carnaval!

Carnaval in Uruguay may not be as famous as Brazil’s, but I believe it is more interesting. This event takes place for about 40 days, from late January to the end of February.

Besides the colorful dresses, hats and masks, there are two very unique characteristics of Uruguayan Carnaval--candombe and murgas. I was lucky enough to witness practice sessions of both.

Candombe is drumming that was introduced by African migrants to Uruguay in the 19th century. Each neighborhood, or comparsa, has its own troupe. An old man with a felt hat and an old woman typically lead the drummers down a procession. Every Sunday night, without fail, several candombe troupes march down the streets in the Palermo barrio in Montevideo, banging away, wowing both locals and visitors alike.

Murgas, on the other hand, are performing troupes. They sing, dance, act, or perform a combination of the above. As I previously wrote, I had the opportunity to view a murga of singers, drummers and a guitarist practice in Tacuarembo.

Tacuarembo, Uruguay

I traveled by bus for about 5 hours to the heart of “gaucho” or rural Uruguay--Tacuarembo. This town is literally in the middle of nowhere as it is surrounded by endless green fields and rolling hills.

My main purpose in visiting Tacuarembo was to stay at a Uruguayan farm for a few days. I’ll talk about my experiences at the farm in another entry as I would like to talk about my adventures at Tacuarembo. There, Maria, a CouchSurfer who helped me organize my farm stay, picked me up at the bus station and then took me to a practice session of a murga, which is a singing and dancing Carnaval troupe. In addition to the one guitarist and two drummers, there were about a dozen singers and dancers. This was a perfect complement to the candombe Carnaval drumming that I had witnessed the previous night. I was entertained by the fact that local TV was filming the event and also by the Uruguayan murga coach who could also speak Swedish.

In the evening, Maria’s friend, a farmer by the name of Alejandro, drove me to the farm on his motorcycle. Thank God I did not have my huge backpack with me, as I doubt it would have survived the ride! The ride was quite windy and bumpy but the main perk was being able to see the sky full of stars in a quiet environment. It’s quite interesting how trusting one becomes when one is placed in a foreign environment. I mean, I don’t even know this guy and I am riding with him at night on an empty road--who knows where he’ll take me!