Rio Carnaval Fotos - Dia 4 (Rio Carnival Photos - Day 4)

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Banda de Ipanema e Bloco de Capoeira

Rain stopped play on Monday, at least for me, it was so heavy that for the few brief hours that it eased to a drizzle - I didn't feel confident taking the camera out. I'm not sure if the bloco I planned on attending was cancelled... it seemed that way when I went for a quick look.

Tuesday - everyone in Ipanema wanted to make up for the rained out Monday... the city was in the mood for a party - and the weather stayed dry(ish) until nightfall.

Anatomy of a Bloco

A bloco is a moving, marching street party - it takes maybe 6 hours to cover 6km so it isn't quick - but sometimes keeping up was impossible due to the crowds.

Each bloco seemed to follow this pattern.

• First come the sales people, masks, hats, beer, Caipirinhas, tubes of coloured honeyed alcohol (cachaça e mel - very popular).
• Now the lady boys and extreme costumes - lots of posing for the cameras!
• The police and some of the lady boys paying special attention to the boys in grey.
• The official beer selling truck - the TV crew stand on the back of this.
• Banners and dancers
• The Band! - brass followed by drums - followed by singers - Banda de Ipanema let the crowd do the singing!
• More dancers!
• Can collectors and beer sellers.
• The very drunk.
• The clean-up crew - in their bright orange overalls.



That was unfortunately the last official day of the carnival. Wednesday people start to trickle back to work. I've enjoyed the street parties so much, the atmosphere is electric, the streets crowded and best for a photographer - everyone wants their photo taken. I hope some of them find their shots here - hence I titled this blog entry "Rio Carnaval 2008" - it was a pleasure to take every single photo; I've included the best shots - if I took your photo and it's not here - it was probably blurry due to the fading light or rapid movement.

Next blog - one to look forward to - Into the Sambadrome - Saturday night is the winners parade, having seen the competitors over the last week on TV - I've been amazed at the scale and complexity of the floats and costumes... I'm very excited about Saturday - one of the wonders of the modern world.

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Comments

[barbara]

Congratulations
Your shots are great!!! I was also in Rio for Carnaval 2008 and believed all the horror stories about thieves ...won't do that again ... thanks for the memories

[annmariemarie]

@great pictures
Great pictures, Ali! All so colorful!

[Biffboff]

How on EARTH...
...do you do a panarama of a crowd of people?! Mazin photos as usual.

[iulia]

fain
imi plac pozele dar ma intreb cum de primul barbat din poza a reusit sa-si faca ochii galbeni