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.