Celeste madness, again.

You may have heard by now that Uruguay won the Copa América 2011, the South American competition of football teams. It was no mean feat to eliminate Argentina in their home turf in quarter finals, especially because the locals played well. Mexico and Peru went before, and our last rival, Paraguay, eliminated Brazil.

The explosion came last Sunday evening, after the final game with Paraguay ended with a 3-0 victory.



The city went stark, sky-blue mad for several hours. From grandparents to grandchildren, everybody went to the streets just to shout and wave the flag. I got the old camera out and went to the Rambla to see what was happening.



Hard to see who was crazier - us on the sidewalks or the car passengers!



People were heading to the Centenario stadium, to wait for the winning team. The team arrived there at 3 AM. Lots of disorders in the old stadium; nothing was prepared for the very long wait, and it seems that vigilance was slack. But then, who would have dared to prepare a celebration when the game was still to be played? It would have been most un-Uruguayan.



Next day, Monday, the city was a long yawn. Everybody had stayed up late, but there were a lot of happy faces. I had never seen before so many sky-blue pullovers, ties, shirts, you name it. A new fashion trend must have started while I was sleeping!

Good bye to candombe weather

The April parade of candombe groups marks the end of the season. Cold weather and rain are just around the corner of the calendar.

The parade is all colors and joy.



Beautiful vedettes show off their graceful dance steps.



Mature dancers have their tricks, too.





See you again in Spring!

Carmelo & Calera de las Huérfanas

Carmelo is a small town around Arroyo de las Vacas. It is the only town founded by Artigas himself. He knew what he was doing - it is a wonderful site.

There is a unique rotary bridge over the creek, does not get much use these days.



Old dredges should be busy around nearby Martin Garcia island, but instead they just sit in the harbor, collecting rust.



The Carmen sanctuary in Carmelo is one of the oldest on our little country.



Near Carmelo (about 6 km) you can see Calera de las Huerfanas. This is a place where the Jesuits had a mission until mid 18th century, including a lye works and mining site and a large cattle site. It became a Estancia after the Jesuits' expulsion. Now, a NGO is reclaiming the historical site - good work that should be supported.



Jose de San Martin's family lived several years right here, although he was born later when they moved to Yapeyu, Corrientes province. Most of his siblings were born in this Estancia. They went on to fight for Spain in several theaters of war while Jose was liberating South America. Crazy times.