A Year in Uruguay

 

We are back in Montevideo for a few weeks and it's Carnaval season.  

20 years ago, we saw the llamadas from a balcony, those tickets were arranged by a friend weeks ahead of time.  This year, we bought tickets for seats on the street.  This was a little complicated.  Tickets went on sale on Monday at Abitab, so we went at 9 am but tickets weren't available yet.  We returned at 10, at their suggestion, but still no luck.  They didn't know when they'd be available, just sometime in the afternoon.  After a few more futile visits, tickets were on sale when we came back at 5 pm.  Friday night seats had sold out in 20 minutes, but we were able to get seats for Saturday.

Saturday's comparsas were lower ranked in the competition, but the parade was still spectacular.  We had seats in the front row, so the flags brushed our heads as they waved across the crowd and the closest drummers and dancers were about 2 feet away, since the parade fills the entire street and the audience fills the entire sidewalk.

Check out my video from this year's llamadas.

 

 It was a great event, well worth spending all of Monday searching for tickets.  The parade was still going after midnight when we headed home.  Highly recommended!

 

 

 

Labels: candombe, carnival, music