Carnival

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Carnaval is coming

Carnival in Olinda and Recife is supposedly the third most important in Brazil. Some claim to fame after Rio and Salvador! However, we chose to come here as it is said to have a tradition and intimacy that Rio or Salvador lack. And, perhaps just as importantly, it is safer.

We arrived in Olinda on the Thursday morning and after a bit of a walk, managed to find the house we were staying at. Like all the other Brazilian cities, accommodation rates skyrocket in Olinda around carnival. In fact, we couldn’t even find anywhere when we started to look about 3 weeks ago. Luckily, Lynne had been looking at an American bloke’s website, who calls himself the “gringo in Olinda”. His name is Ernie and he lives in Olinda with his Brazilian wife and kids. His site has loads of info on Olinda and the carnival and is definitely worth a look if you go there. The link is http://gringoinolinda.blogspot.com/. Anyway, after a begging email from Lynne, Ernie sorted us out with a room in a friend’s house. After exhausting our Portuguese conversational skills after 30 seconds with Elili, the owner, we headed out to see what Olinda was all about.

Olinda is another colonial centre, packed with churches and winding cobbled streets which overlook the turquoise sea. Even though the carnival officially opened tonight, there was still a lot of setting up to do. Various stages were dotted around the town and lights were still being rigged and sound checks being made. Food stalls and makeshift bars lined all of the streets, decked out in the yellow and red colours of Skol, the official beer of the carnival. There was a real buzz about the place and when carnival opened on the main stage later that night, the square was packed with locals drinking and dancing.

The festivities continued throughout the next day. People generally milled around the narrow streets drinking, chatting and dancing as the occasional band filed through the crowds playing trumpets and drums in a style known as Frevo. We decided to go to Recife that night. It is only 5km away from Olinda, but is a much bigger city. Its carnival opened a day later and started with a procession of 400 drummers who then congregated at the main stage before the main concert started. It was great to see them marching into the square and then hearing them all in unison, but then it decided to pour down for the rest of the evening. We got soaked, but some cold beers and chatting with some fellow gringos and locals meant we didn’t really notice it. However, the feathers of the mask and head dress we’d bought especially for carnival didn’t look too perky after 4 hours of rain. The highlight of the opening night was a really famous Brazilian singer who all the locals were raving about. We had no idea who he was, and still don’t, so all we can say is that he looked a bit like Richard Gere and was pretty good.

The Galo de Madrugada

On Saturday morning it was back to Recife to experience the biggest bloco in the world! A bloco is a group and their dancers. Supposedly, Recife holds the world record with 1.5m people estimated to be in a bloco in 2006. The party mood started with the walk to the bus, everyone was in costume and in a really good mood. The bus journey itself was a bit of a party with everyone singing and the bus driver adding to the fun by taking the corners like a crazy person so that all the girls would scream.

Galo de Madrugada literally translates as cock of the morning. On one of the bridges crossing the Rio Capibaribe, there is a gigantic chicken about 15m tall. We’ve no idea of the significance of the chicken, but what we can tell you is the place was absolutely packed. The parade took place on the other side of the river. We managed to get half way across the chicken bridge before the crowd turned into a massive crush. It was like being in a football crowd outside the turnstiles but with no let up. Lynne was getting panicky as she couldn’t see above the crowd but we somehow managed to get across the bridge and to the parade area. Here you could at least move without being smothered in someone else’s sweat and we had a bit of a boogy as a few articulated trucks passed by, either with massive sound systems or bands on the back. It was good fun, but the area was starting to get uncomfortably busy again as more people poured over the bridge and when a lad started to piss in the middle of the crowd we decided to move.

Just a few hundred yards down the road, it was far better. We could dance without the fear of getting wet ankles and we were quickly adopted by a few Brazilians who wanted to give us dance lessons (we were obviously in desperate need!) and protect us from the crowds and any pickpockets that might be around. They also desperately tried to get the passing TV crews to film us by shouting “Gringo! Gringo!” and pointing at us a lot. We drank and danced with them in the scorching heat as the trucks passed by. We can honestly say we have never sweated as much as we did that day in Recife, all of our clothes were soaking wet, and the fact most of the street sellers had run out of water didn’t help. After about 4 hours and the substitution of beer for water, we could take no more and headed back to Olinda. It is a sign of the Brazilian people’s friendliness that one of our new found friends insisted on walking us back to the bus stop, a good 40 minutes out of his way.

Later in Olinda we hooked up with Martin and Karolina, who we’d met the night before, and other people staying at their hostel. Olinda was almost as busy as Recife, but with a far more relaxed attitude. We arranged to meet the next day and spent the full day watching and dancing with the small bands snaking along the streets, drinking beers and caiprinhas from the street stalls and sampling the cheap street food. Most of the Brazilians seemed to be in some form of fancy dress. My favourite was a few blokes dressed only in nappies, with one taking it particularly seriously and forcing his mates to change his nappy in the street. Why?!!! Many of the Brazilian blokes also play a game where they have to try and get as many kisses from passing girls as possible, the only catch being the kisses are full on tongues. The gringo girls came in for particular attention. I like to think this was one occasion Lynne was pleased to be with me!

Monday was our final day in Olinda and we spent it on the streets again. We managed to see some of the giant puppets the Olinda carnival is famous for and some great maracatu drumming bands. One of the funny things is that they have a special Olinda and a special Recife carnival song. And no matter how often the passing bands play them, about once every five minutes, all the people go crazy. We didn’t quite manage to learn the words but we did make sure that we made the effort to look like we were going crazy every time we heard the tune.
Carnival was a great experience for us and we met some really great people, both Brazilian and gringo. It is an excuse for Brazilians to party for a few days and why not? The whole country really does seem to be intent on having a great time, old and young alike. The Brazilian people proved themselves to be really kind and generous. Everyone wanted to know where we were from, if we liked Brazil and carnival, and made sure that we weren’t getting ripped off by informing the nearby street vendors that we should only pay local person prices. Olinda is a lovely place to visit (during a bit of a caiprinha off hour, we took a look around a beautiful old Franciscan monastery) and the proximity to Recife makes it a versatile and safe carnival destination.

Our final experience of Brazilian carnival was over in Corumba, by the Bolivian border. We’d managed to get flights over from Recife, to avoid the 4 night journey back on the bus. It was final night of the carnival in Corumba, so we thought it might be a big deal. They had certainly put a lot of effort into the costumes. Some were superb. Unfortunately, the same amount of effort hadn’t gone into the choreography, with most of the groups looking confused as they almost crashed into each other. Even in the home of samba, it goes to show not everyone is born with natural rhythm. We were adopted again, although this time we were force fed home-baked mini pizzas which would have been great had we not filled ourselves to bursting hour an earlier with a very large dinner.

Carnival was a great way to end our time in Brazil - everyone should experience it just once. A whole nation partying for nearly a week is fantastic!

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