Rio De Janeiro - Carnival - Winner's parade

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While we did miss most of the Rio Carnival we were lucky enough to be in town for the winner’s parade. It starts at 9 pm and lasted until 6 am and showcased the top teams for the parades earlier in the week. It blows the Macy's parade out of the water. It seems that each team is from an area of town, each having their own rally song. The crowd dances and sings that song over and over while that team parades. Each team takes about an hour to show all their floats and dancers. The team has a theme, which we are guessing, that all the floats and dancers are supposed to represent. I have heard that the teams begin practicing in September. The winning team was Beija de Flor and their theme was “Africa”. Unfortunately my batteries ran out on my camera and I have no pictures of their amazing floats and animal costumes. Scott was irritated at me for the batteries, but who knew we would be their all night. Personally I like team Viradouro whose theme seemed to be "The games that we play". They had a great float representing the book "Where's Waldo?”. Scott's favorite was team Vila Isabel with the possible theme of "Journey through time". He especially liked the Superman/comic book float. The crowd is there to party, some bringing their own coolers and others buying from the all night beer stand. There is little crowd control as people sit where ever they like, even in the aisles eliminating any walkways. No incidences occurred but it could be a mess if one did. Gosh I sound like an old fuddy dud. I should mention it amazed me that it never really cooled down staying around 33° C, which makes me understand why they have it at night and not during the day. The heat also makes me feel lucky that our crappy hostel room has AC.

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Comments

[haysie]

fellow N'Westerners
Hey thanks for the great stories. I have been following your trip in SA and have found your blogs to be most informative.Keep it going. Go the Seachickens!

[Kassie Kelley]

Carnival -Woooo Hoooo
Sam, now you know what Chris and I experienced when we spent a month in Rio in 2001k. It's an experience that is hard to describe! Carnival best time of my life!!