The one in Brasil... Carnaval chaos and ultimate chilltime!

---

First and foremost... apologies for the lateness in this blog, but it gives you a good idea of the crazy fun times I'm hvaing already in South America... I actually write this from Buenos Aires in Argentina, so you will hopefully soon have a more updated blog to read... but for now, let's go back a few weeks to sunny Brasil!

We arrived in Sao Paulo, Brasil late friday night (12th feb) after an epic movie marathon flight over from India. Both tired we somehow made it to our hostel in town in a taxi speaking no portugese and at this point little english. On waking we soon faced the reality of not speaking the native language and the complete and utter change of location, culture and way of living- so very far away from India! High rise buildings, swanky houses, fast undented cars on the other side of the road, women wearing very little- flesh on show, make up clad, shops selling the latest fashions, consumerism at it's best, sandwiches, burgers, MEAT....clean modern and hassle free and thats just Tiete bus station! The people in transit going about their business quietly and calmly, the contrast from Indian bus stations was laughable, I could barely compare this bus station to most Indian towns! But we were still aliens here, bewidlered by the change, confused by the signs, the language, the heat hevay and tiring. After standing lost in the station we eventually manged to get ourselves onto a bus to Rio De janeiro.... and what a bus it was,in India it would be considered a 5* hotel- reclining seats, leg rests, tv, toilet and complementary nibbles and drinks! Where were the rusted tin buckets on four flat wheels? The potholes? The stench of urine? The uncomfortable boucning journey that we had got use too?

We arrive din Rio late saturday night and followed our instructions to our accomodation for the week- A beautiful monastry at the top of Santa Teresa! Our names sat beside our room key and we were soon konked out in a comfortable clean beds in our lovely little private room! We awoke to the most amazing view.... the sun was rising over Rio, sugar loaf hill stood before us, the sun bounced off the sea ahead, off the islands and beaches, reflecting off all the houses and buildings, Christ the redeemer stood to the right gazing over it all... all of this outside our bedroom window- we had arrived in Rio! We swelled with gratitude of the kindness of others- the week prior to arriving in Brasil our accomodation had fallen through, we were as the saying goes "Up shit creek without a paddle" due to it being carnaval, everywhere either booked out months in advance or charging hundred of pounds for one nights stay....argh, thankfully the universe was on our side and we happened to meet a lovely frenchman in India who had friends staying in Rioand so put us in contact. His friend, Axel, very kindly sorted us out with the accomodation (that hadn't been increased due to carnaval) and also sorted us out with tickets to see the Sambodromo parade the following night! We had landed on our feet! We spent our first day dancing along one of Rio's streets in our first Bloco that we stumbled upon.... Blocos (blocks), consist of a group of people who dress in costumes or special t-shirts with themesand arean array of colours. Blocos are generally associated with particular neighborhoods- what neighbourhood we were in I still don't know, but it certainly had a great music group and an entourage of happy revellers. Block parades have become an expressive feature of Rio's Carnival and are really loved by all- hundreds seem to be starting everywhere all over the city.. the road gets blocked off allowing the samba band and its followers to prance along stamping their feet, drinking and having a ball until they get to their final resting destination... happiness radiated from all. It was hard not to join in, and so the two of us cracked open a can of the local beer and began to move our feet, smiles on our faces and the beat racing through our limbs. The temperature hit 38 degrees and so by the end of it we were gasping for some shade and a shower.... refreshed and revitalised we met up with Axel and his friends who were all getting ready to appear in the big parade. The Sambodromo is a purpose-built parade area in downtown Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where samba schools parade competitively each year during Carnival- Axel and his friends had paid to get involved and we sat and gawped as they donned their heavy black and white outfits-shoulder pieces, crowns, tirdents and more.... how they didn't pass out with the heat I will never know! We arrived at the Sambodromo at 9 in time to see the first samba school parade their way down the concrete open aired tunnel, the stands rise up either side holding 20000 or so audience, and every space was filled with people. We had tickets for one of the final sections along with the locals, and so got to taste the true atmosphere... it was wild, flags a flying, beer a flowing, voices chanting merrily at full pelt and the feet tapping the beat out even louder! We sat along with some Danish folk who spoke perfect english making our night alot easier and enjoyable. The first school samba's their way down the sambodromo at 9 and the last school finishes at 5am... each have 90mins to get from the start to the finish... it was truly amazing! The first school Uniào Da ilha wowed us with the mass costumes and floats, however 90 mins of the same song, which lasts about 4mins before it is repeated did get a little tiring... you either sing along patriotically or hum the tune out in a brain washed fashion! The 3rd school, Jijuca, who we saw actually won the winners parade the following saturday and there was good reason... everything about them was pretty epic! The music catchy, the costumes an array of colurs and styles, the floats were something else- we stood stmaping our feet gripped for the entire 90 mins. The parade a sea of colour and detail - from the magic box float where women magically shanged costumes within seconds, to a float that seemed to be alight with fire, another float was in fact a small dry ski slope that batman skiied on down, before Spiderman took to climbing up it! Even Michael Jackson came back to dance on his own float.... each float, each person dripped with pride, enthusiasm and dedication... the money and time spent on it all is mind blowing. The crowd loved it, even Madonna and her daughter were in one of the stands cheering! However, after the third school, and with the knowledge that no one could really top the last, we left the Sambodromo and made our way to Lapa to do some dancing of our own. Lapa is a neighbourhood in Rio, where the houses and architecture are "gracefully decaying" but still remains popular for the social life, bars, restaurants, clubs that all seem to spill out into the streets, especially over carnaval... the samba scene here is massive, as large as the aqueduct arches of the A Cos De Lapa. The streets were filled with people, everywhere you looked people stood, danced and drunk... everything was up for grabs here, literally! We settled on a spot to dance and proceeded to dance the night away until the music stopped at 5am and the beauty of the carnival began to vanish in the darkness of the morning allowing the darker side of Rio to emerge.... and with that we took to getting home in one of the amazing Combi taxi's! Little white VW vans take you to your destination for a few reis. Back in the safety and calm of our beds at 6.30.... we awoke at 8.30 for breakfast and another Bloco!
By 9.30am we had glitter on our faces and were joining the masses in one of the streets in Santa teresa where the music had already begun, the beer and cachaça had already started flowing and peoples feet moved uncontrollably to the sounds. The roads rammed with people in fancy dress, our feet marching us along through the neighbourhood in temperatures already hitting 40 degrees.... locals turned on their hoses and let rip over their high walled gardens, others threw water over the heads to try and cool the excitable crowds. We followed the crowds to the Bloc's final resting place where the music got louder and the party really begun, but by lunchtime it was too much for us... tired and hot we returned to our beds for a much needed siesta... which rolled on until the next day!

We spent one day wandering the chilled streets of Urca, I even ventured up to Sugar loaf, Pao De açucar... named after it's resemblance to the ceramic mould used during the refining of sugar, to gawp at the most magnificent 360 views! It was a hot and expensive venture and unfortunately spent the majority of my time queuing for the cable cars but the views were worth it.... birdseye views of the turquoise seas, the white beaches, the islands, massive birds flew gracefully in the sky... if you ignored the extensive tourist crowds behind you it was picture perfect and the realisation hit me once again of "I'm here! How lucky am I?!"! back down in Urca Anna and I managed to meet a friend from Bristol before she left for home that evening, a short and sweet reunion but beautiful all the same and to see a face from home was priceless.
Later that evening we met up with some more Brit's... one who is now the housemate of our goodfriend Laura (who visited in India). We spent the evening enjoying the final Bloco's of the carnival, admiring the costumes and confidence that filled the streets, enjoying the British boys banter (you can't beat it) and generally enjoying the fact English was everybodies native language! By the end of the night we had dwindled down to 6 of us, including the company of two lovely Aussie girls- the two boys, who had been living in and around Rio for the last year decided to take us on an adventure into the Favella's... one of Rio's largest slums! The only real slums I had seen were that of India, and in comparison to the corregated iron shacks there this 'slum' looked like any other neighbourhood that had fallen into disrepair, the size of it vast and if I were to compare it would go alongside any main town in India. However, all is not what it seems here and Brasil has one of the worlds greatest income gaps between the rich and the poor, and since the mass urban migration in the mid 19th century the poorest have lived in the Favela's that surround the city. This particular Favella seemed to have many mod-cons but mnay around the country aren't quite so lucky and am sure resemble those in India more.... water is considered a luxiry here, sewage systems are not in place and the houses hold more people than deemed safe. Drug Lords rule here and crime is considered rampant.... Carnival, however, brings the rich and the poor together, with the Favella's often taking centre stage in Bloco's and the sambodromo. Entering the Favella made my heart and head pound with anxiety, the streets dark and dirty, people fluttered everywhere, but when I really looked it didn't feel much different ot other neighbourhoods, it certainly felt a world away from the slums in Delhi. But then you look closer still and the darker way of life here is exposed - men rode around on bikes with guns of all sizes for all to see, the litter pilled up was riddled with wildlife and the worn faces of those around couldn't hide the struggle... what were we, 6 white Gringo's, getting ourselves into... but the two lads assured us of our safety and took us to a little 'bar' where they knew the friendly owners. Had it not been for the boys and the friendly bar owners I would of backed out long before and not looked back, but once there, sat in the street with a cold beer we realised how welcomed we were by all around us and soon joined in with dancing in the street! Children as young as five roamed about with massive toy replica guns, most home made from toilet tubes and tape, the normality and acceptance of it shocked me. i just couldn't get my white middle class way of thinking around it... it was 3am in the morning and these children who were just out of nappies were walking around with toy guns, brought up to survive the streets, to survive in a nocturnal world of guns, crime and drugs... and yet everyone seemed happy. My mind raced back to the last train journey entering Delhi... the slums, where children played in dirt, routed through rubbish, lived in make shift homes... making do, content (for now) with their lot.... are they all happy? Again the realisation that the upper classes, those with everything, could learn a great deal from these communities. Confusion cluttered my head all the way back to my clean, safe, en suite room where I quickly fell asleep.

Our last few days in Rio were a bit of a wash out as the heat got too much and the rain fell heavily from the skies... temperatures had hit 45 degrees and so the rain came as a welcomed break, although didn't clear the air as much as we Brits would of liked. Our visit to Ipanema beach was grey and wet, the waves high and vicious, the views non existent but the black and white paving free from the crowds giving us the freedom to stroll down wihtout being hassled. The rain did call of our visit up to Christ the Redeemer... leaving that tick box for another 'holiday' back, but it did allow us to spend some time with the boys, eating nice food and recovering from the carnival. Our last evening was spent all together in Lapa once more, where it was a little queiter and alot less intense than the sunday before. Anna and I tried to learn the basic Samba steps , we thought we'd got it down until we saw some of the local girls do it 10 x as fat and with several other moves thrown in for good value... it was mesmorising to watch, all of us oggled at they moved with such ease, speed and style. Oh to dance like them, although I'm sure it's in their blood!

Anna and I left Rio on the following weekend along with three of the boys and set off for a little beach holiday in Paraty! Here we were greeted and booked into a hostel by an old school friend, Tom Bush! Again an absolute treat to see a face from home. That Sunday we all took to the sea on a large tourist boat that cruised around the islands, white sandy beaches and allowed us to jump into the refreshing turquoise sea.... we used the noodle floats (an amazing invention) to float and sit in the sea, completely and utterly relaxed, exhanging tales and banter, laughing and smiling..... all of us saying "How lucky are we? and how much would our friends/family at home working hate us right now if they could see!"Alot maybe? The sun was blazing, once more beers flowed... life is good!

We took a day out from our hectic schedule to chill out just a little more on the beaches of Trinidanj . The area consists of 9 different beaches, we crawled in the blistering heat between three of them, seeking shade at every turn - Unbrella, buildings, palm trees.... that and with factor 50 on you'd think you'd be safe... wrong, we all still burnt in the shade, my face resembling a tomato by evening! The waves too big and the current too strong to go swiming on one of the beaches, so we gathered up our energy and trekked to the natural pools seeking solace in the cool still shaded water. Perfect! the whole day idyllic, a world away from the chaos of carnival... worries were non existent, had I a bar of English dairy milk it may have been heaven!

I took myself off, another day, to some nearby waterfalls and a 'natural slide' just outside Paraty, an enclosed area of a river where you could swim from one pool to another, others jumped off the high boulders into the deepest of pools, a little too adventurous for me and so I went further upstream to a secluded pool and sat hidden from the world around me, alone with my thoughts. the cool water washing me clean and clensing my mind. Then the heavens opened, lightning lit up the midday sky, thunder bounced off the boudlers, water hit me from every direction. it was one of those moments that all I could think about was how happy I was right then and how lucky I was to be there... a magnificent moment rhat was mine and mine alone. A movie moment if you will.... picture this... waist depe in water, rain pelting down and splashing the water back up, hands held up in the electric sky, I turn around slowly, smiling, mouth open to catch the rain..... Bliss!
After my 'moment' I followed the excited shrills down stream to the natural slide. A large smooth(ish) rock face, the width of the river and about 12ft long... at the top stood a group of drenched people, two guys would take the arms of the sitting person and swing them down the rock, letting them swivel, turn and slide down to the pool at the bottom. My first go and the boys wer ekind to me allowing me to slip on down gracefully and happily... after that they mixed it up by turning me as they let go sending me down with greater speed and in all matter of directions... the bruise on my back side was a good souveneir and my ticket to leave, especially after my bedraggled escape from the pool at the bottom, almost losing my bikini top and cutting my hip on the rock.... I was disorientated from the slide down!!! I returned to the hostel soaking and hobbling but incredibly content.

Our last few days in Paraty were also rained off but allowed us to gather ourselves together in time for our overnight bus to Sao Paulo Bus station, where we met up with two english beauties, Stephanie and Tessa, who we had met earlier that week at the hostel. The four of us got our tickets for the next overnight bus and headed to our next exciting destination- Iguazu falls, Argentina!!

Lessons Learnt-
Fancy dress for carnival is essential!
Learn at least a little of the native language- not only is is respectful but bloody useful!
A friendly face from home is priceless!
How to unwind... to new relaxing levels!

---

Comments

[Heather]

Hey Sally, I really enjoyed reading your Brazil posts. It reminded me a lot of my time there. My blog is looking for travel photos to post. If you have time, email us some at [e-mail] or check us out at dirty-hippies.blogspot.com Continued fun on your travels, Heather