Carnaval "de Cristina"

La Presidenta de Argentina

We just finished up a four-day holiday in these parts - the much-talked about Carnaval "long weekend" celebrated and enjoyed with relish by 40 million Argentines. Apparently a fixture in the bygone Peron era, governments of the more recent past had put an end to the practice of combining Fat Monday and Fat Tuesday with the preceding weekend to create a nice bonus breather for all citizens. Argentina's current President, Cristina Kirchner, in a perhaps brilliant strategic move, revived the long weekend custom just this year. Yes, it is an election year (did you guess?), but my unfamiliarity with local politics will not allow me to comment much further. Let's just say Cristina's a heavy favorite come October.


Fun in the streets of Almagro

At first, Jen and I thought, "Wow! Long weekend! Let's go somewhere!" There are so many places in Argentina we have on our "must visit" list, it seemed logical to try and hit one. On second thought, and after seeing the prices for tickets and hotels doubling and tripling before our eyes, at the last moment we decided to stay close to home sweet home and relish our own neighborhood. It finally dawned on me: "We live in freaking Buenos Aires, for crissakes! We're already in a world-class destination! And we've already paid for the room!" Made perfect sense.



Anyway, we just hung around and did local stuff: went to museums (there are some awesome art museums - to be discussed), artisan markets in Recoleta and San Telmo...the town was almost empty and was a pleasure to just wander around the colorful streets. In addition, Jen & Joe's personalized anniversary (creatively dubbed, "Love Day") fell right in the middle of the long weekend and I had promised Jen we would go to "the best restaurant in town" (food blog upcoming!). All in all, I think we made the correct decision in staying close to home while millions fought traffic on the highways and byways of Argentina.

The drum corps

Luckily, we were able to catch a Carnaval celebration on Saturday night in a nearby barrio, somewhat funky Almagro. Armed with our cameras, we made it there on foot in time to see some of the festivities. Like Rio or New Orleans on a micro scale, there were marching bands and dance troupes from the neighborhood, dressed in costume, wailing away in the street. The whole thing is very family oriented and felt very safe, if you didn't mind getting sprayed down with water or shaving cream. It was a very colorful introduction to the Carnaval spirit here in oh-so- European Buenos Aires. I honestly had no idea thay even held Carnaval celebrations in Argentina!