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!