What in the........Just happend over the last 6 days

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Well, I sure had a lot of first on this leg of the journey. The destination Salvador, Brazil for the Biggest party in the world. CARNAVAL. WIth over 2 million people in the streets at once with every race and class you can imagine what could happen and it sure did. Like I said a lot of first time experiences for me on this oen such as. First time Ive gotten jumped and robbed by 3 guys, Head butted for no reason whatsoever, seen major police brutality, watched over 50 fights with 10 within 10 ft of me, see guys prectically assault girls to make out with them, had hands in my pockets a few times a day, partied with two million people in the streets, Danced for 6 hours straight behind a semi with the band playing on top 4 nights in a row, seen fat boy slim, went to a buffet where you pay by the weight, felt uncomfortable and somewhat unsafe in a city, and through it all had the best 5 days of partying in my life. Quite an eventful week I must say.

Day 1

So it all started last fri when I hoped on a plane and headed out for Brazil attempting to meet up with a couple buddies. Alex, one of my friends from Chicago and Tom and guy from Iowa I met down here. Things didnt start off the best as Tom got rejected at the airport in Brazil because his Visa was expired, even though it is suppose to last 5 years and he has only had it for one. Things like this happen all the time down here as they appear to like to do things backwards or the hardest way possible. I got in around 5 and my friend I met in BA, Carla picked me up at the airport and brought me to the guys house where i was to stay.

We had a pretty sweet set up for accomodations. I stayed with this American guy named Maek who married a girl down here and has lived here for about 5 years. He had a pretty nice house only a block from one of the parade routes. At times it was tough to get any sleep as the party seems to go on 24-7 for 6 days, but I managed somehow. Alex was suppose to get in a little later so I just waited at the house for him until about midnight and assuming his flight got delayed I headed out with Mark to check out the parade. Fri night wasnt to crazy in this parade route because all of the best bands were on the route down by the ocean, but it was a good break in for me to prepare myself for later. At around 2 in the morning as I was watching the parade I felt the first hands go into my pockets. I wasnt to rattled because I knew it was coming at some point and didnt have anything in there anyways. Turns out this one was a false alarm as it was only Alex somehow finding me in the middle of all this.

After we met we decided to take a walk down to the other route by the ocean and see whats going on down there. We got there around 5 and things were pretty well rapping up so Alex decided to go swimming. Seemed pretty safe there were 100s of people around and the beach was well lit so we went down and I took his digital camera and money well he went in for a dip. After a couple minutes of chillin and letting my buzz wear off I saw 3 kids around 18 come down on the beach, at first I thought nothing of it because they looked like normal kids and not thieves. As they moved around me in a circle I was thinking here we go. All the sudden I was in a headlick and one acted like he had a gun in his shirt, I felt it and knew it was just his hand so I just kind of got on the ground and tried to keep them out of the pocket with the camera and the money. Meanwhile Alex spotted what was going on from the ocean and tried to get in to help me but couldnt get there fast enough. He said it almost looked fake from out there. In the end the wrestled with my for a minute or so, bit me a couple times and never got the camera or any money....little bastards. As they were taking off I tried to chase the last one and as I looked up to the street above I saw there was a audience of a couple hundred people who all jsut watched the whole thing and didnt do a thing. So after a very interesting night we took a taxi home and hit the hay, well at least I did and I found out the next morning that Alex got himself into a little mix himself.

So the story goes...Alex was really sauced up when we got home and on the way I had to keep him from being a little to friendly with everyone. Hes just a realy happy drunk who likes people and means no harm, problem was these people down here dont like friendly american drunk guys at all. I guess when I went to bed he decided to go out in the alley by the house to this rundown bar with a bunch of old drunk brazilian guys. Keep in mind that the area we were staying was a pretty rough part of the city and nowhere to be alone at night. So he goes to the bar and starts buying beers for himslef and others, but had one problem. He had no money. In the meantime he was slapping guys on the ass around the bar. Now the bar tender knew who he was and that he was stayin at Marks house so there was no big problem with the beer situation though he would of got beaten if that was at a different bar. Well one of the guys that he slapped on the ass was with his wife and I this society slapping a guy on the ass would be a equivalent of making out with his wife in front of him so you could imagine how mad this guy got. I think Alex made it home around this point, but the guy was busy rounding up some friends and a crow bar and looking for him up and down the alleys. Thank god he decided to go to bed. Mark went and talked to the guy in the morning and calmed everything down and that was the first half day in Salvador.

Day 2

Got up late, had a good breakfast which was included in the lodging and headed down to some shop to buy our t shirts for the parade that night. Heres how it all works. There are 3 options for people going to carnaval. Option 1 which I like to call the - I would like to be mugged repetitively option - this is just going to the carnaval and sitting somewhere on the street wherever you can find a spot. Just like a normal parade only with a slightly different atomspere. Option 2 get into a camarote which is like a big stage built on the side of the streets where you can have drinks, food, and safety and still watch the parade. Option 3 if be in the parade. You by a tshirt for a specific bloco, which is a group of semis with speakers, bathrooms, Medics, beer, and a band on the top that goes through the parade with all these people holding a huge rope around it which would hold 1000 to 4000 people. The first night we took option 1 and the next 4 nights option 3 seemed to be the most fun and safest.

So we took a bus in search of a spot to buy these t shirts. Turns out the place you pay for them is like 12 km away from where you pick up the shirt. How convienent. So then we took 2 buses and a taxi and finally found our shirts. On the way down we had a run in with a guy on the bus who appeared to want us to buy a condom from him, but then proceded to relieve himself in in show it to the bus and throw it out the window spilling about half of the piss on himslef. This was probable the grossest thing Ive seen on the trip thus far. That and the smell that comes with this city during carnaval. After we got the shirt we came home showered and headed to our first bloco.

This was surreal. 2000 brazilians in a rope dancing non stop for 6 hours as you walk past over a million people on the streets. It was amazing. Everywhere you look it was just solid people all having the time of there lives. This is the first time I witnessed the style of kissing which carnaval in Salvador is so famous for. The best way to describe it is like putting a girl in a gre schelling style headlock and then pulling them into you while there violently resisting and attempting to get them to just give in and make out which normally happens or they just move on to the next one and start the assault all over again. I have never seen anything like this but seemed to be a common theme over the four nights of partying. I cant say I honestly wanted to work that hard to make out with girls and just took some easy ones here and there. Somewhere in the middle of the party Alex got a full beer can thrown at him from the crowd which resulted in the need to stiches. He went back to the med truck that was following behind the truck and they sticthced him up right there. It was like getting stitches between periods in the good ole days. This night we made it home safe with no other ordeals of any sort. At least that is what I remember.

Day 3

Today we didnt have a shirt for another parade because the one we were going to buy was sold out so we just went down to the start and paid soem guy 50 bucks fior two shirts and went in the next band that came out. Now this was a little more lower priced bloco, which equals crazier people and less attractive girls. It is pretty much a rule here that the more you pay for the t shirt the better looking girls will be in your bloco. The craziness of this one more then made of for the lack of talent and the band was great too. Lots of the bands play each others songs and many of them were really starting to grow on me at this point and are still playing in my head as I write this blog 4 days later. Alex seemed to make good friends with a chica in this block and at the end I was exhausted and jsut wanted to get home asap so I took off alone. Bad decision Reedo. First of all I didnt really know what street to turn on the get back and had to go along the parade route the whole way past another million people, but this time outside the rope. At first everything went fine and I made it through about half the parade when I got into a area where the people seemed a little different and wilder than most which was apparent by the 10 fights that broke out within feet of me between people in the blocos and the people on the street. As I was walkin along the route some fat dude then head butted me and ran back into his block. I have no idea what the hell that was but it put me in a little daze and gave me a bloody nose. This really put me on edge and for the next half hour I was ready for anything to happen. It was the scariest 30 min of my life and one of the only times I really felt in danger. After asking 3 cops where the street I wanted was finally one of them put me in the right direction and I got in. What a relief that was. Neevr again do I walk alone in those type of areas.

Day 4

Today we already had our shirts for the bloco as we had a friend down here buy it before we came. It ended up being sold out so were lucky we did. We did have Toms shirt to sell though to se went down where all the street vendors were and traded his shirt and some money for the fat boy slim shirts for the last night. Fat boy slim is the only non brazilian in this whole carnival and I thought it would be a good change in pace to have some tourists around for once as on most nights you might se one or two out of thosands of people. We got to the Bloco early and met up with my Brazilian friends I met in BA. This band was mint and it was easy to see way it was sold out. This was by far the best night of the trip as i really was getting into the music and really barely drank a beer. With this much energy alchohol was very uneccessary to have a good time. The only negative thing that happend tonight was when a couple guys tried to mug me in the crowd and ended up getting half of my St Christopher necklace. I was pretty pissed about that one. Dont worry Mom im in the process of looking for another one down here. After this nights action Alex had a flight to catch at 3 in the morning so we got him packed up and in a cab to the airport.

Day 5

I ended up going over to my brazilian friends house for Lunch with her friends and family and had some great brazilian food. There main entree down here is rice and beans with some seasoning on the top. Its actually alot more tasty than I would of thought. We hung out there watching the parade on tv until about 6 and then I headed home to prepare for the last night. Fat Boy Slim. I met up with this Isreli girl who was going down there with me around 8 and we made it to the show around 10. Finally after 4 days of seeing maybe 30 tourists they seemed to be everywhere. Here to trance out to some electronic music and thats exactly what they did. Its was a pretty good time, but nothing like the samba bands. Theres something about 6 hrs of nonstop bass that got annyoing to me. I made teh most of it and finished of the night at around 4 in teh morning. Finally Carnaval was over. As much as I loved it I was ready for a break. Im getting to old for 5 nights in a row of insane partying.

Day 6 and 7

The next couple days just cosisted of chilling around the house and checking out he town in a post carnaval state. I got all my arrangements made for the rest of my trip and feel really organized about the next month of travels. Right now Im at the Buenos Aires airport waiting for my flight to Peru where Im going to go to a surf school for 2 days and then to a kite surfing school for 5. Theres also some sand dunes in the area were you can go on buggys snd sutff too. Should be a good week of being a beach bum.

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Photos

Imagine that many people non stop for Miles
Heres a day time shot of part of the parade route The big semi to the left of the picture is what tha bands play on.

Double Fisting
Though I think it was only for the picture. This was the first parade we were in. The truck was called yes and Im not sure of the band they were ok. Not like the next few nights.

Im going in....
Here is Alex going into a group of girls for a little beso. Kiss in portuguese. Im not sure of the outcome, but if it was like most of them we had it was a no. Fun anyways

I think the orange-pink shirt is a good color on me
Alex and I preparing for the best night of the trip. Balada with the band Jammil which is one of the best in Brazil.

Brazil is full of creative people
I wish I had pics of all the crazy outfits and themes people were dressed in. This was for sure one of the better ones though.

Me..After my wrestling match
This is the first night about 10 min after I got jumped by the 3 dudes. The cops wereright there the whole time but they were a little late.

Fight Dance
This is a brazilian style dance where they imitate a fight. The only problem is during the parade where is is more tight the dancing usually turns into real fights. I saw plenty of these and at times was in the middle of them trying to get out of the way.

Hostel - House
This was teh group of people that were stayin in the house with me. Definatly a good group of people from Isreal, Scotland, Britian, and the US.

The Elevator
Salvador is on two levels. The upper city and the lower. There are a buncg of really steep roads going from top to bottom or you can take this huge elevator in the middle of the city.

Parade at Night
Heres a shot of the madness at night time.

Rodney King Style
You do not get caught doing anything in front of these guys or you will get the beating of your life which we witnessed many times.

Just another crazy guy on the street
Enough said. We had tons more pics but many didnt turn out and we didnt have our camera a lot of the time due to fear of getting stolen.