From Uruguay we did a spontaneous detour to Paraguay. It was kind of on the way to the Iguazu Falls always and we saw that there was going to be the 1st carnaval parade of the year during our time there! Yay. We missed out on carnaval in Montevideo since we arrived a bit too early, so this gave us the chance to experience it in Encarnación, Paraguay.

We had some time before the carnaval though, and thereby time to visit the nearby Jesuit mission Trinidad. It was actually better than expected – the ruin field is quite big and the ruins are in good shape. Only getting there and back was a bit of a hassle, meaning it took quite long for such a short distance. But that’s how travelling in less developed countries is – the good and bad sides of it.

We also walked around Encarnación quite a bit – it’s a relaxed little town with nothing much to see and do. Weather was sizzling hot, so once we visited the city beach from which you had a nice view over the river to Posadas in Argentina.

But the main reason for our visit was of course the carnaval! We had reserved tickets online and got good seats in the center of the action. There was indeed lots of action, not just down at the parade but in the stands people were spraying each other with snow spray all over. I got ‚attacked‘ when I went to the bathroom and covered in snow spray! Haha, we were prepared for it though with sunglasses and a plastic cover for the camera, so all good.

The parade itself was really, really cool! We didn’t expect too much, but our expectations were widely surpassed!! There was one cart after the other coming out, with the samba queen of the group on top of the cart, usually a group of dancers in front or around her. Then the samba queen would get down the stairs and do her best performance in front of the jury, sometimes with a partner.

In between, there were music groups, some children or other fun characters. The costumes were glittery and kitschy, just as the carts and just as you would expect. It was awesome!!

We took hundreds of photos, always trying to protect our camera from the snow spray. Everyone was in a good mood and it was just a really good night! At about 3 am we decided to leave since we had seen it for almost 6 h now and needed to wake up early next day. Not sure how long it still went on, but there were definitely some more carts coming up! Carnaval in Encarnación was fun, awesome and really good value for the money.

Next day, we crossed the border back into Argentina to Posadas from where we took a bus to Puerto Iguazu.