Funnest Day


 Candombe is a rhythm unique to Uruguay.  It tells the history of Uruguay beginning with the African slaves who were permitted to congregate with their native tribes and celebrate their traditions on Sundays and holidays as long as they were outside of the city of Montevideo.  Candombe is all about the rhythm of the drum.  The tribes began their celebrations by calling one another with drums.  Candombe has evolved over 250 years and the Candombe troupe who entertained us tonight is the most important unit in the Uruguay Carnival parade.  Carnival began this week in Uruguay and will be celebrated for 40 days.

Today has been our funnest day so far.  Ruth Ann and I sat in the front row of the performance and toward the end we were presented with Candombe jackets and invited to dance with them.  I sashayed over to the drummers and was also invited to play their drums.  Exciting for me!  They even gave me a nod of approval with my abbreviated solo.  Dancing with the drummers and dancers was fun, fun, fun.


Earlier in the day, we visited a working ranch about an hour from Montevideo.  It was serene and perhaps the most beautiful ranch we have ever seen.  They provided "BBQ" for lunch along with Uruguayan beer, wine, coffee and lemonade.  There were demonstrations with their horses and a hayride or dray carriage to the Rio De La Plata which is the widest river in the world- 140 miles at it's widest point.

Uruguay has a population of 3.2 million people, 7 million sheep and 12 million cattle.  It is a very progressive country with a temperate climate and proudly call themselves "a land of immigrants". 

As the Beach Boys sang: 
Do you want to dance under the moonlight?Hold me baby all through the nightOh baby, do you want to dance?


Comments

  1. CharisJanuary 29, 2025 at 8:03 PM

    I love that you were on a working ranch too!! That’s so cool.

    ReplyDelete

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