Gualeguaychu is a town located 3 hours to the North of Buenos Aires just on the Uruguayan border. Apart for the carnaval, Gualguaychu is also known for being the centre of an international row with the construction of a Swedish paper factory on the  Uruguyan side. Reason for the protest: pollution. However I found out that the level of contamination emitted by the factory was much lower than the most stringent international limits… It seems that in fact the protest is organised because the factory wasn't built on the other side of the river… Probably another story of bribery too deep to be understood by the newspaper reader… Too late, I did wrong by buying a shirt "No a las papeleras!"

But let's bring the carnaval back under the spotlight. I manage to convince friends from Buenos Aires to join me: Fred and Volkmar will party with me!

A carnaval is a competition between teams from the entire country. Criteria are costumes, char, originality of the theme, the music (what you are currently listening to), the choregraphy and the enthusiasm provoked amongst the spectators: guaranteed atmosphere!

On the menu pochoclo (pop-corn), catchy music, beautiful almost naked girls, beer and plastic trumpets; just have a look at the result below.

The following day, the mind still disturbed, I take the bus to Cordoba, Mendoza and finally arrive to Santiago de Chile after 1800km, 50hrs (3 days) of which 2 spent at the border crossing and a pass at 3600m (checked by my gps). The return to Buenos Aires by car will be long, very long...