Carnaval - Day 5

The third night of Carnaval was a completely different experience from the first two as we headed up to a camarote to enjoy the night. The camarote, Planeta Othon, was absolutely huge, fronting a hotel and had sushi bar, internet café, movie cinema, nightclub, makeup area and an outdoor bar as well as the area looking down onto the parade.

After seeing how crowded each of the blocos were and how many people were just milling around on the street, I can easily see how there could be 2 million people on the Barra circuit alone, there really was a sea of people out there. One particularly exciting moment was when a dancing drunk girl knocked my glasses off my face and, since I didn't have my glasses on, I couldn't find them. I'd pretty much given up hope when Danny "Eagle Eyes" found them. They were a bit scratched up and one of the arms came off, but I was able to put them back together and can see again, much to my relief.

It was great to see the blocos go past and do some people watching, but being in the comfort of the camarote, you really lost the insane excitement of Carnaval, and while I’m happy to have done it once, I don’t think I’d do it again.

Last night we headed to the old part of town, Peligrinho, which was a complete departure from the madhouse that is Barra and much closer to what I expected Carnaval to be like, though on a very small scale. There were still blocos, but there were much smaller and you didn’t need an abada so people were just following them around for a while then checking out something else or sitting back down with friends for a drink. The blocos were mainly small drumming groups with dancers and a horns section. Little kids were running and dancing around everywhere spraying shaving cream and having a great time - there was a definite family vibe, which was great.

Tonight we’re in a bloco with a Capoeira school that our real estate agent’s husband is involved with. I think this will be a bit more traditional and rather than shirts, we’ve got African style tribal pants. In fact, I get the feeling that shirts are optional.

Carnaval!

The first night of Carnaval was a huge eye opener; I’ve never seen anything quite like it. We had tickets to a bloco where a band called Afrodisiaco, apparently the “band of the summer” were playing. The bloco started at 5pm, so we headed down in our shirts, an interesting experience in itself as I’d never worn a singlet, only to find that the bloco had been delayed until 10pm. Luckily for us our apartment is close to the starting point for the blocos, so we headed home for a few hours to relax. The trucks for the bloco were parked even closer to our apartment, about 1 minute away, so we headed down there, towards the sea of green shirts to wait for ours to head off to the starting point, which is when things started to get a little crazy.

Go Team!

There were a couple gangs of guys down there drunk and getting into it with one another. About 15 from each side running up to one another, then running away, then the other guys running at the first guys. It was only really bad when someone would fall over and get set upon, and for the most part the guys had no interest in tourists. At one point some bottles were thrown around and I saw a couple of people in a café get hit with broken glass, but nothing serious. When that happened we scattered and a guy grabbed my shirt and started yelling stuff at me in Portuguese, somehow I don’t think he was asking for directions, but I was able to push him off and walk away back to the other guys. They’re not kidding when they say don’t walk around by yourself here. A secure guard came up later to check if everything was ok which was cool. It’s a pity there are the dodgy bits of Carnaval, because it’s amazing and really… joyous apart from that.

The trucks finally started rolling around midnight, surrounded by a flood of green, though calling them “trucks” doesn’t really do them justice. Most blocos have 2 semi-trailers, the front one with the band on it and the second with a bar, bathrooms and people from the bloco dancing on the top. The blocos leave between 5pm and midnight and the 2 routes in Barra, where we’re staying, are 5 and 7 hours each, so it’s a long night. We were in front of the front truck, so I’m not sure how many people were in the bloco, but it would have been at least 100 metres long so I’d guess at least a few thousand people. There were apparently 2 million people out, but that would be across a few different areas in Salvador. There are a few Carnaval standards that every bloco plays as well as the popular songs from each band… and everyone seems to play Bob Marley at some point during the night. The crowd in our bloco went absolutely insane everytime a big song came on with everyone dancing, running, jumping and singing along. It was an awesome vibe in the bloco despite everyone being exhausted from the wait. Apparently it was a bit rougher towards the back, so I’m glad we missed that. We made an exit just before 4am and headed back to the apartment to collapse.

The next night, last night, we picked a spot on the street, which was conveniently in front of a group of military police, to watch the blocos go past. The highlight was seeing the Expresso 2222 bloco go past, which is a free one run by the Brasilian Minister for Culture, who was rocking out playing guitar and singing up the front of the bloco. The night before he and the guys from U2 were watching all of the blocos head of and singing Bob Marley, of course, songs to the crowd. We’re in a good camarote, Planeta Othon, tonight which should be great, a little less hectic than being on the street in the blocos and with easy access to bathrooms and the bar.

Chao!

Carnaval de Salvador

The preparations have begun for Carnaval de Salvador in full now. Yesterday Danny, Dean and I trekked out to Aeroclube, a shopping centre, where they sell tickets for the various parties. Tickets for the parties are a t-shirt called an abadas, which you have to wear to get and stay in the party. Since the adabas are pretty ugly there are lots of places where you can get them altered to be more flattering for about R$10 (AUD$7). There are two different types of parties at the Carnaval, blocos and camarotes. Blocos are parties centered around a procession of trucks with a sound systems that slowly drive around the streets. These last for 5 to 7 hours and the trucks have bars and bathrooms, so you don’t have to stop and potentially lose the bloco. Camarotes are clubs built for Carnaval that look onto the bloco routes. Tickets range from R$80 (AUD$50) to R$1000 (AUD$700), and they’ve been selling out pretty quick.

The tickets for Saturday night we wanted to go to were sold out when Dean and I tried to get them, but we were able to trade an abada I bought for a different camarote the same night and a bit of cash for some at a makeshift market in front of Aeroclube. We’re a little skeptical of the authenticity of the abadas. But it was fun to organize and do the trade, and I’m sure we’ll have a great night nonetheless.

We ended up with tickets for the Afrodisiaco bloco, the hottest band of the summer... hopefully a good thing, a Saturday night camarote and the Fatboy Slim bloco on the last night. We also got tickets from our landlady for a more traditional bloco that her husband is in and will just hang out on the streets the other nights.

We checked out the old part of town last night which had a great vibe and was already getting a little crazy with people and music everywhere. There were some amazing drummers that were juggling their sticks in between hitting the drums.

It really is going to be crazy here over the next week... thank God.

Iguazu Pics

I finally got to a PC with workable (barely) USB and was able to pull pics from Iguazu and Rio off my camera. I´m not sure what happened with the light, it could be the program I used to resize the images.

They´re all over on Flickr for your viewing pleasure.

A Boy in Ipanema - Part 2

Ok... so computers really don´t like me and I´ve lost half of what I wrote, hence 2 posts.

Another great night in Rio involved me, some folks from the hostel, the Rolling Stones, Copacabana beach and 2 million of our closest friends at a free concert. We arrived about an hour before they came on and were still able to get good view of the stage, though Mick was very small. The night was great, although I´ve heard pretty dodgy stories, and when they played Satisfaction for their final track, everyone went wild. We spent the next 9 hours walking along Copacabana and Ipanema beaches stopping at the occasional beach party for a drink and to dance before a well earned sleep.

I´m not sure if it´s the music or the mountains, I´m a big fan of mountains, but I absolutely fell in love with Rio. It´s one of the most beautiful places I´ve been and I´m glad I had already planned to come to Salvador or else I´m not sure that I would have been able to leave. I don´t know if I´ll make it back this trip, but I´ll definitely get back there some time.

While Rio was fairly relaxing, I think Salvador will be the complete opposite. I´ve only been here a few hours, but you can already feel that the city is getting ready for a really, really big party. Tomorrow I´m going to buy t-shirts (the tickets) some blocos, parties around a truck with a sounds system that drive through the streets, so I´ll be good to go! Fatboy Slim is playing here on the last night, and while he´s not really my cup of tea, I figure you can´t go wrong with Fatboy Slim in Salvador for Carnaval.

Luego!

A Boy in Ipanema

I´m finally in Salvador for Carnaval after a great week in Rio de Janeiro. Rio is an amazingly beautiful city and I met heaps of great people, but the real highlight for me was the music.

Since it´s a week before Carnaval, the samba schools were all having final rehearsals and we travelled 1 hour to a poorer part of town where Beija Flor, who have won the Carnaval the last 3 years, were having their last rehearsal. The streets were packed with people dancing and stalls as we made our way to the hall where the school were rehearsing. There were a few thousand people in the hall with about 300 in the actual parade group. On a stage behind the dancers was the drumming corps and a few singers as well as the samba king and queen. It was complete madness pushing past and around people, but the everyone was friendly and just interested in having a good time. A couple of Brasilian girls tried to teach me to samba, but my feet just weren´t built to move that fast, though I´ll definitely be trying again.

A few nights later Andrew, a cool Canadian that I met at the hostel, and I went to an area of Rio called Lapa, which is where lots of locals and gringos go out. People had spilled out of the clubs everywhere and it was just like a huge street party for a few blocks. There was a smaller samba school playing here which was equally amazing.

On another night a group of us went with some guys from the bar in the hostel to an awesome dub and reggae night at a club called Casa de Matriz, which is in an old house. The music was unbelieveable and the guys toasting were great as well. There was even a guy playing trumpet live which worked perfectly. The requisite spinbacks, delays and call outs were, obviously, present as well.

Rio wasn´t just about the nightlife though. I got out and saw a bit of the city including a trip up to Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeamer), the famous 30+ meter statue of Christ that looks over all of the city. It´s kind of creepy actually that He´s always watching what you do.


We also checked out the Maracana Stadium, which seats upto 200,000 people, the Catedral Metropolitana, which is shaped like a cone and has huge (50 meter?) stained glass windows and Museu de Arte Contempor (the Contempory Art Museum), which is in an amazing building shaped like a UFO with great views of the city.

For more mountian and city views, I spent a few hours up the Sugar Loaf, a mountain with more amazing views.

La Cataratas de Iguazu and Brasil

Seems that computers still hate me, as this is the third time I´ve tried to post this but hopefully third time lucky.

I left BsAs just over a week ago, and found myself much sadder to leave than I was expecting. I´ve said it before and I´ll say it again, but BsAs is an absolutely incredible city and I´m looking forward to getting back there and seeing more of it and Argentina towards the end of my trip.

After BsAs I spent a relaxing 16 hours on a bus making my way north to Puerto Iguazu on the Argentinian side of la Cataratas de Iguazu, a series of over 250 waterfalls that ranks as one of the natural wonders of the World. I spent two very hot days wandering around the falls taking pics and enjoying the amazing views. Of course, the PC in the hostel hates me so I can´t upload any pics right now, but I gave my camera a pretty good workout and will post them soon. The highlights of the trip were taking a speedboat ride around and then under the falls, which was kind of like having a very big bucket of water poured on me, I emerged completely drenched but much cooler, The Garganta del Diablo, the main fall in the park which is absolutely huge and amazing, and watching a group of about 40 Costis (cute furry animals with big tails and long noses) crossing a desserted nature trail. Of course, I can´t post pics right now :)

For lunch both days I enjoyed Super Panchos, also known as hotdogs. While they were mildly enjoyable, they came back to haunt me half ways through a 16 hour bus trip to Florianõpolis and have stayed with me until today, but I think I´m finally better.

Florianõpolis is a beach town in the south of Brasil and is where I met up with Danny and Nicola again as well as Hamish and Kiera. In addition to feeling sick it was overcast, so even though we had the perfect beach house, I didn´t have a very good time. I was only there for a couple of days and the thought of another 12 hours in a bus trip to São Paulo was too much so I jumped on a plane and was here for aud$30 more and 11 hours less :)

Since arriving in São Paulo I´ve been hanging out a lot with William and Mauricio, the two Brasilian guys that I met when I first arrived in Buenos Aires. They´ve been very kind and shown me around the city, taken me to dinner and spent hours talking about history, politics and life in Brasil. São Paulo is an amazing city, with 13 million people in São Paulo proper and another 7 million in the surrounding suburbs, that´s the population of Australia in one city! There´s an amazing mix of people here, including huge Asian, Arabic and Italian communities, as well as every other nationality.

I´ve had a great time in São Paulo, but it´s time again to hit the road, and tomorrow I start the jounrey to Carnivale, first Rio de Janeiro and soon after Salvador Baia.

Chao!

Hasta Luego BsAs

Well the time has finally come for me to leave Buenos Aires. The last three and a half weeks have flown by and tomorrow I head north to Iguazu Falls for a few days before heading into Brasil and really start my holiday.

Buenos Aires is an odd town. My impression of it is that it's an amazingly beautiful city with huge problems. A few of the Argentineans I've chatted to give me the feeling that people don't really know what to do here. Argentineans are very passionate about politics, and there seems to be a lot of mistrust of their polititians, which isn't surprising considering that the government prevented people accessing their money during 'la Crisis' in 2001. I can't imagine what would happen if the governments in Australia or the US did something like that.

I've mainly stayed in 'good neighborhoods', but there is a lot of poverty here, though I'm sure it's not as bad here as other countries in South America. Each night the streets are filled by people collecting rubbish from the streets that they can sell to recycling and other companies outside of town.

Well... enough of that!

Sadly, tomorrow is my last Spanish class in Buenos Aires. I'll be in Brasil for the next couple of months, where they speak Portuguese, so I'm hoping that I don't forget everything and undo Monica's hard work. I can generally get by and have simple conversations (really slowly) but am have been frustrated by a small vocabulary. I really need to do the mega-memory course!

Spanish Classes with Jim (UK), Philippa (UK), Andia (UK via Greece) and Monica (Our wonderful Argentinean teacher).

The plans from here are visit the beachside resorts at Florianopolis for a few days then spend a couple of weeks checking out Sao Paulo and Rio before heading to Salvador for Carnivale. Unfortunately there's about 35 hours of sitting on buses in there, but I'm sure I'll manage.

Luego.