Ash Wednesday looms. The 22nd of February is creeping up on us all and the ensuing 40 days of Lent when every South American religiously dons sack cloth, drinks bitter black coffee and munches on raw potatoes for over a month in contrition for the year’s sin, or at least thinks about it. To sweeten this bitter pill the entire continent gets down to serious partying the preceding 4 days and work up a serious hangover that requires 40 days to recover.This party is of course called Carnival and has put places such as Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo and Barranquilla in Colombia on every hedonist’s radar for sheer wildness, debauchery and salacious self indulgence.
But what of Argentina? The town of Gualeguaychu in Enter Rios is definitely the closest thing to a Rio blowout in the country with the city flooded by bikini clad beauties and drunken thrill seekers. Salta City in the north west is also famous for a street party with a strong Bolivian and Paraguayan flavor that celebrates Pachamama with a glorious water fight. La Rioja province’s Chaya festival deteriorates into organized chaos with flour flinging sessions making the wine town of Chilecitos look like a giant foodfight. Now that the government has declared the 21st and 22nd of February national holidays to facilitate such revelry, I wonder if Mendoza’s very own Harvest festival (which happens at the same time) could let its hair down and succumb to such glorious overindulgence. One idea would be a glorious wine fight such as the famous Haro Wine battle that takes place in Spain every year. Anyone with a suitable venue and 10,000 liters of wine to “throw away” please contact Wine Republic.
