Immediately upon arrival to Montevideo I took a taxi to Daniel´s house, Zach´s friend. As soon as I arrived and found there was no one home and could not contact him by phone either I went to contact him by internet. Luckily he was online and immediately found out that he was not in Montevideo but that he was in Melo, at his parent´s house. Melo is in the northern part of the country, near Brazil. He told me I could come there and stay with him. It was carnaval there for the weekend. I jumped on the idea and took the first available bus. He met me and I spent the night getting to know him whom I have never met but had heard many stories of. This was the first person that I had met in my travels that had had direct experience with and was friends with someone that in my life at home in Canada. It was an interesting change at first.
My accomodation was continuously getting better. I was now in a fully equipped house with a double bed and a tv in my room. Man I feel spoiled. Daniel´s parents were very welcoming and insisted that I act as if I ws living in my own home.
We spent the friday day relaxing in the park, drinking mate and then beer. The social culture here is much more extensive. To the point where people actually go out and use the parks. Through the middle of the day in the heat, people either hide out in their homes or go out to sit in shaded parks and talk. Then once the sun dies down a bit, people flock to the parks, all the benches are full of people chatting drinking mate, playing music or fútbol. It is such a different form of socializing here. Here in Uruguay 2 friends say lets meet in the park and drink mate. In Canada one friend says, he lets go to the park and hangout, the other would say, why? we can just hang out at your house, it would be the same. haha different cultures. Anyway Daniel and I spent that day talking and getting to know each other, him often telling me stories and memories that he shared with my brother, albeit i´m sure they´re not ones that Zach told me before. Daniel was is a funny character that insists upon speaking english and I insist upon speaking spanish, both with our personal difficulties or mistakes all the while. Daniel is an extremely short little basterd and I am an extremely tall basterd. We make quite the pair. We are both the sort of guys that more openly and act more wildly with a bit of beer in us, Daniel especially! We spent the next few days living like complete recluses. This is where I went full nocturnal. Sleeping all day until around 7pm and staying up until 7am all the nights. I officially think that going to bed before 3am is early now and waking up before 12 pm as the same. It was Carnaval in Melo and thus there was parades each night Friday, Saturday and Sunday which last for nearly 3 hours. These parades are then followed by drinking by all the youth and adults in the streets and plazas while the children run rampant in playgrounds or rides nearby. Some people dress up in rediculous costumes as on-lookers to the crazy parade that seems endless. A straight file of people in costumes, dancing, bands of drums and horns with near-naked women shaky their bodies all over the street in front of them to the excitement and applause of the people. Different groups will appoint a Reina¨- Queen to dance for them and the different groups have a competition to decide the best bands and the best dancers. For looks and for skill. The music fun, the dancing is great and the people love it. Three nights of this carnaval parade followed by drinking in the streets waiting for the time to become ripe and go to the bar at 3am to start the night, or to a club. Although because we are in Melo, a smaller town, there aren´t too many options at night, and practically nothing during the day, thus I do not miss out on anything by sleeping all day!
All the while me and Daniel comparing views and customes between our two countries, for he has actually been to canada and experienced our culture and society. He says for example, in his choppy, heavily accented english about what he dislikes about Canada and how we ¨are too strict, here in Uruguay people piss in the street, everbody piss in the street and police don´t look at all¨ and how ¨alcohol can be bought all night in Uruguay everywhere! When zach come to Uruguay he love how we buy all night alcohol, all night¨. Many conversations went this way and I agreed with him on many occasions. The little man is a funny conversationalist that is always talking about his memories of Canada. We had a great time in Melo together and may meet up again in Montevideo although will depend on his parents. The same as in Argentina, students are fully reliant upon the money that their parents give them and when they give it to them. Thus Daniel is stuck here in Melo waiting for money and I am bored because Carnaval is done and I am moving on. I will stayin touch with him and hopefully our paths will cross again in Uruguay.
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