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Published: February 6th 2008
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I´ll start where I left off, our imminent attendance at Carnaval 2008, in Florianopolis.
We headed into town at around 10pm that night, after a Brahma or two playing cards with some hostel peeps, the name of the game would need censoring for such a public blog. It took us a while to find our feet as the streets were jam-packed in every direction, however we managed to follow a large crowd to a big stage which appeared to be fairly shennanigan filled.
Carnival is notoriously popular amongst the more outgoing and outrageous, and so much was in evidence just by watching the show, which was loud and full of colour, glitter, and cheesy pop songs ranging from Christina Aguilera´s hits to ´ít´s raining men´. There was also a high percentage of drag queens doing their thing, we soon found out that it was infact drag night, hopefully the photos illustrate the lengths to which some of the mainy aged men went to. At one point everyone looked up to a hotel room overlooking the show and sure enough we were treated to a show by a drag artist, which was illuminating.
The atmosphere was incredible, plenty of
Lifes a Beach
Its not the same Skol, honestly! beers and the local favourite caprainis flowing. We also became slightly addicted to the street vendors delicacy of meat kebabs topped with flavoured saw dust, I´m not sure what effect it has other than to completely dry the mouth and make you need a drink desperately, they also sold drinks so I guess I´ve made the link there. Walking along we stopped to watch various impromptu Samba performances (including the fans favourite photographed), and generally enjoyed the party. Things did turn a little sour in one area as a fight broke out between two girls, the police however quickly ´suppressed´all harm by brandishing batons the size of a child and using them to ´good effect´. Judging by the amount of people coughing they may also have used tear gas of some kind, all in a days work for the Brazilian police.
After staying out until the early hours we decided the next day to take it nice and easy, and took it upon ourselves to take a boat out around the surrounding islands off Santa Catrina. Its hard to describe how Florianopolis is set out but essentially the city itself acts as a border between the Ihla Santa Catrina
and the Brazilian mainland, and we are staying on the southernmost section of the island. The boat trip itself was pleasant if not a tad choppy but we survived and sampled some sights. We were supposed to be dropped off at a lagoon island for 5 hours however as usual things were slightly lost in translation and we asked to go straight back to avoid dehydration, sunburn, the plague etc..... and all other things that are induced by Brits heading to the beach underprepared. Incidentally some Irish lads have just moved into our room and they really really should have considered wearing suncream judging by the colour of them. On the night we decided we would sample some of the local fish, which is cooked in several different restaurants overlooking the beach on the day it is caught, yes you heard I attempted fish. It was breaded shrimp with cheese balls with greek rice and was top notch.
Having missed out on the first night of Carnaval, with the parades and partying in the main stadium in the centre, we decided to go to the stadim for the last night which we were told displayed the top Samba Schools
from the first night of the parade. Beyond the programmes however the night itself lacked organisation, or maybe we did, as only after a little aimless wondering and recognising some Australian accents did we get into the stadium. Just in time we thought, anyway about 3 hours later things started to get moving (Brazil, like Argentina, lacks the sense of urgency we have in Western Europe). Small floats and people came down as excitable as you could possibly be and after the nutters had their 15 minutes of fame we were treated to an explosion of sound, noise, colour and Samba, as the droves of people and floats made their way around the arena and beyond. The floats themselves ranged from the extraordinary to the bizzare, and from sheer technical wizadry to people pushing others on wheeled crates. Unfortunately the Polar Bear one got knocked out in the first round however we did get the dragons, houses, horses, greek gods etc... all of which decorated with semi naked men and women looking slightly like peacocks and giving it some huge shimmy.
Throughout we were entertained by Brazilian songs that the whole stadium seemed to know and jump around to
in time, there was lots of impressing drumming and rather bizzarely children aged about 5 in the parade gyrating and moving and shaking it. All were supremely talented and organised however and apparently they spend the majority of the year preparing for the event, contrary to what I could make out they do take it very seriously. Similarly the food and drink vendors take their job seriously and ploughed their way through the crowd offering Skol (not the dreadful 3% park bench stuff), slabs of wafer, candy floss, and strange potato snacks. Ultimately, and quite inevitably, the School which took about 1 hour longer than the others, had far more people and floats won, I´m not sure exactly how the competition works but I guess they were the Chelsea of Carnival, ploughing their cash into it and taking the spoils. Eventually after around 7 hours the whole thing was over and costumes were discarded (having the same ones 2 years running would be a big no-no I´m sure) so there were comical scenes of children with 10 foot wings trying to get into taxis.
So that was Carnaval, its hard to portray on a blog exactly what it was
like as so much revolves around movement and sound but hope you got a taster!
Az
x
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The drag man at the top..
..he well looks like a Gollywog doll. Are you allowed to say that? well, its too late now - i have. i hope u r having an amazing time - i'm well jealous of the carnival. were u tempted to join in and have a little shake?? x