On Sunday was the last night of Carnival in Corrientes. They say that Corrientes has one of the biggest carnivals outside of Brazil. Every year they celebrate the Carnival here in the city over a period of three or so weeks. People work with meager earnings all year to save up for the elaborate costumes that they wear, all in the hope of gaining the recognition that comes from winning the Carnival that year.
Girls dressed up in their costumes for the Paraguayan Carnival (taken by friend in Paraguay).
Corrientes is not the only place that celebrates the Carnival either. The city of Encarnacion in Paraguay also holds a Carnival celebration, although this lasts only one weekend. There may be other cities that also have either a Carnival or a mini-carnival but I am not aware of them.
This has been my second year here in Corrientes and my curiosity led me to want to stop in on the last night of the Carnival to see what this event was all about. When the locals told me that it was basically a flesh parade and that it started at 11pm and continued until 4am or later in the morning, my interest waned completely. They say that Carnival originated from "Carne-Vale" which in Spanish says something like, "The importance (or value) of the flesh".
Here are some photos of the more sedate photos that came out in the local newspapers. A number of the published photos were too lewd to show, yet were printed on the back page of otherwise respected papers. This reflects the sort of attitude held in Argentina about these things, and was as close as I ever came to the whole event.
Ms. Sapucay wins the Carnival for the second time in a row.
A moving platform designed to show off the girls and their costumes.