Carnaval!

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Unless you're being picky, I have now visited every continent in the world.
I was always going to come to South America at some stage and Brazil in particular. Having seen, read and heard so much about the place - to finally be here was super-exciting. A place so different to what you're used to - in my head Brazil is almost the definition of exotic - I had finally reached a final frontier, of sorts.
There were additional reasons that helped ramp up the anticipation of this trip; I was coming to the end of a work project that had completely consumed my life for the last six months - this was to be my reward; it had been absolutely freezing in the UK and I was heading for a tropical climate; I would be here for a whole two weeks of sunshine and drinking; I was to experience what many have dubbed "the biggest party in the world" - Carnaval in Rio.

My work project was supposed to have finished four days before leaving for Rio but with the workload involved that was never going to happen. With so much still left to do, I had to force myself to leave the office the night before we flew out, hastily making arrangements to cover the time I would be away. Having still needed to get my hair cut, pick up some last minute supplies, and pack my bags, I didn't get to Sag's house until midnight that night. Just three hours later, Sag, Sarah and I were on our way in a taxi to Heathrow at an ungodly hour of the morning.
I slept almost all of the freezing flight from London to Madrid and for most of the flight from Madrid to Rio. When I wasn't sleeping I was either having very interesting conversation with Ann, the passenger next to me on the way to Rio who I seemed to have loads in common with, or eating the disgusting food served up by Iberia Airlines. The meatballs were pretty grim and the accompanying spinach looked like a green, toxic sludge. It was by far the worst plane food I have ever had - which when thinking about the general quality of plane food, means that it was pretty f*cking awful.
The entertainment was pretty average too - having got used to personal entertainment systems for long flights, it felt like a trip back in time to have to watch a shared screen, and not in a good way.
I had heard some horror stories about Iberia and was warned that there was a good chance I'd lose my luggage again, especially since I was changing planes in Madrid. Thankfully it didn't come to pass and food and entertainment apart, the whole operation was pretty efficient.

Waiting for us in Rio were John & Joy, and Fiona & Rachel. Most of you should be familiar with John & Joy who have appeared in quite a few of my blog entries; Fi has made a brief appearance in this blog, on my trip to Newcastle, while Rachel is making her blog debut.
They were waiting for us in the apartment that we had for the next seven days - an awesome four bedroom one complete with breakfast bar and earthly, organic decor, situated just one block from the famous Copacabana Beach. The apartment is usually lived in and has been rented out to us specifically for Carnaval - with almost all of the regular tenants' possessions and chattels left in the apartment, it felt like we were guests in someone's home, in which we were allowed to make ourselves at home. This was pretty cool and for the price we paid - which was less than some people were paying for dorms in Rio hostels (£60 a night for a dorm bed!) - it was a steal. Full credit must go to Joy for her research and organisation!
We were a bit knackered from the flight and we had arrived pretty late at night - so we settled for a nice cold beer on the beach in the beautifully balmy conditions before hitting the hay. Having worked so hard lately, that beer tasted pretty damn good.

So we were here! It felt exotic and exciting, a riot of sights, sounds, colours, beats, beaches, sunshine, food, drinks, costumes and fun was awaiting us right outside our door - literally.
Around midday the next day, we dived straight into it - a bloco (block/street party) right outside our apartment on Copacabana Beach. A double decker bus was cruising slowly down the beachside boulevard, with a samba band blaring out tunes on top of it. A massive crowd surrounds the bus and follow it down the road, dancing, singing and drinking. Most people are dressed up in fancy dress and there are people of all generations here, from all walks of life - everyone is having a good time. The sun is out and it is almost unbearably hot - never mind, not when there are guys with chilly bins everywhere selling beer and water. I hadn't eaten anything yet that day but who cares, let's down some ice-cold beers!
About thirty minutes later, the party comes to an end and the bloco disperses - our first taste of Carnaval was awesome!
It is so hot though, that the shirt just has to go - which in Rio is fine because half the guys here don't wear them anyway. A lot of the guys here are quite ripped though and this vainness seems to be something Rio shares with Venice Beach - Copacabana even has public workout stations. John makes a good point however, that if you have your shirt off for ten months of the year in a climate like this, then you are probably more conscious about how your body looks.
Half the guys here also wear Speedos...and continue to wear them - and only them - away from the beach. There were some disturbing images from our time here as togs turned into undies far too frequently.
After the bloco, we head to Copacabana Beach. When we get to the beach, I had to pinch myself - "wow, I am on Copacabana Beach!"
The golden sand stretched out for miles and there were thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people on the beach. Backed by botecas and high-rise hotels, it was as if I had jumped into a postcard.
The water itself wasn't the clearest and was really salty, as my stinging eyes attested to. The undercurrent was really strong too. It was great to be back in the water again though after so long.

Fi had got word that there was another big bloco happening at Ipanema Beach that evening so it was to Rio's other famous beach that we headed to that evening.
While Copacabana was made famous by Barry Manilow, Ipanema's fame can perhaps also be traced to a song. But while Frank Sinatra, Astrud Gilberto, and so many others were singing about a girl here, I was enthralled by the sun setting over the mountains at the end of this breathtaking beach. Some setting for a street party.
With the sun gone, the temperature was just perfect - not so hot that you were constantly sweating but not so cool that you needed to bring a jacket - shorts, a short-sleeved shirt and jandals sufficed, the way it should be.
There was no music at this bloco - I suspect we probably missed it - but the party remained and the party spilled onto the beach where hundreds, perhaps thousands, were sitting and drinking beer, just like we were.
It was then decided we should have a night out in Lapa, a Rio neighbourhood famous for it's culture and nightlife, one of the older parts of the city. But not before we had a feed.
From Ipanema, we eventually settled on a restaurant halfway back towards Copacabana.
Now I had always thought that the country that served the world's biggest food portions was the US - I think we now have a new winner. The servings here are ridiculous. I ordered the moqueca which is a traditional Brazilian seafood stew served in a pot and is nice, but nothing special. Along with a whole pot of moqueca I also get a giant plate of rice and a giant plate of farofa, which is toasted manioc flour with butter and salt. Sometimes it comes with cubes of bacon in it, which then actually makes it quite nice, otherwise I can't really say I am fan. The texture is like a dry, extremely fine couscous, and to me it's like eating sand. Anyway, I tried to eat all of it, but even with my usual appetite, it proved a bridge too far given all the beers I had already drunk and the heat, which does limit your appetite.
With most of us entering food comas having completely stuffed ourselves, only Rachel and Fiona headed out to Lapa while the rest of us walked back to the apartment. I was keen for a night out and was keen to have just kept drinking rather than having any dinner but now that I had eaten, I was falling asleep. We had plenty of time left here, plenty of chances left to party...

While scenic, enjoyable and vibrant - though I guess it is pretty hard for the city not to be vibrant during Carnaval - among my first observations Rio is that it's a little rough around the edges. Like a handsome yet scruffy man who could turn more heads if only he had a shave, cut his hair and sorted out his clothes. So often I would turn a street corner to be met by the delightful stench of trash and urine.
Among other initial observations is the fact that not many Brazilians speak English. I'm not sure why, but I was surprised by this. Perhaps living in Europe, I had gotten used to people in other countries being able to speak English. I found the locals also struggled to find other ways of communicating to you once they discovered we couldn't really speak Portuguese - no attempts at sign language or anything like that, they would just keep speaking to you in Portuguese expecting you to understand at least some of what they were saying. I will admit however, that as English speakers we are sometimes arrogant in expecting people to know more English than they do and I felt bad I didn't know more Portuguese. Even though I know a little Spanish, I really struggled with Portuguese as although a lot of words are similar to Spanish, a lot of them are not, and I am not as sure about pronunciation as I am with Spanish, French or even Italian, as it is a language that I am not exposed to as much as others. I feel like my experience would have been so much more enriching if I knew even just a few more key words.
I have found also that Brazilians haven't been too friendly either and I think the language barrier contributes to this. No-one has been hostile towards us, but the locals aren't too forthcoming or approachable either and will pretty much leave tourists to do their own thing. Service workers here haven't been too friendly either.
What I have enjoyed so far about Rio however, is the range of tropical fruits on offer including guavas, papayas, coconuts and my favourite - mango. At the supermarket, we even bought a passionfruit the size of two fists. The most exciting fruit discovery however, was the the discovery of acai. A black-purple berry that is plentiful in the Amazon rainforest, the fruit is sold everywhere in Rio as an ice-cold purple pulp similar to sorbet - and it is delicious. It is often served with granola, hundreds 'n' thousands, strawberry syrup and other toppings to make a scrumptious dessert that will help refresh you during the day. I got into the habit of having one every morning, along with a banana, cheese and cinnamon toasted sandwich - which I have never seen made anywhere else before and is like a French toast sandwich - for breakfast.

The next morning, Sag, Sarah and I went for a few rides on the city's Metro in search of costumes for us to wear for Carnaval. The Metro rides were entertaining, as it was usually full of drunk locals.
Whole carriages would be rocking as locals jumped up and down to samba songs, like a Brazilian 'tube' party.
There was one young chap who took a break from the singing and dancing to come have a chat to us. He was completely sloshed.
"Where are you from? " asked us with a very slurry and nasal voice.
"New Zeeeeeaaland?" he replied, when we told him where we were from.
"I love New Zeeeeeealand", he continued, "I love Australia. I love Sydney. I'm craaaaaazzzyyyyy...you're crrrraaaaazzzzzyyyyy".
He kept talking to us for about ten minutes and although he was entertaining at first, he soon started to get annoying. Finally, he said, "I'm so sooorrrryyyyy, I have to go back to my friends now...I'm so soooorrrrryyyy."
The guy has since become a running joke among us.
In another episode, another drunk local asked us where we were from. When Sarah replied that she was from London, the guy then completely started to take the piss out of her and her refined English accent.
"I'm from LAHN-DAHN" he kept repeating. He and his friends sure were enjoying themselves even if Sarah may not have been!
While costume hunting we stumbled upon Saara, the old market area in the Centro neighbourhood of Rio. As it was Carnaval Sunday, the place was completely deserted and resembled a ghost town, when normally the place would be shoulder-to-shoulder with shoppers and merchants. It left an eerie but cool atmosphere however, and the lovely old colonial buildings seemed complemented by the Carnaval bunting that decorated the streets here.
It was then time to get our bloco back on.

We eventually met up with John & Joy, who had in turn met up with Mark, an old friend of Joy's who is now living here in Rio. Also with Mark was Andre, who had come into Rio for Carnaval from Sao Paulo.
Mark was about to take us all to a bloco taking place at the Museum of Arts.
As we got closer to the party, there were people sprawled all over the street and the grass. The museum was in the middle of a park and the roads around it had been closed off so there was a lot of space around. Until we got into the bloco that is.
We could hear the brass band and drums playing but we couldn't see them as they were right in amongst the crowd in front of us. We were near the back, and it was standing room only as we followed the party. A lot more people were dressed up here than the Copacabana bloco, and all the people here seemed to all be young, attractive, and very drunk. We tried to talk to some locals and some locals tried talking to us - in the end it all didn't matter as everyone was having a great time.
Eventually the party settled in a space underneath the museum which itself was raised above the ground. With the music now bouncing off the walls and the ceiling, the place was reverberating and the party was going off. The band were laying down some driving beats that worked the crowd into a frenzy. The excitement was infectious and before we knew it, we were jumping up and down and shouting along with everyone else, despite not being that drunk. People started hooking up all around us - guys with girls, guys with guys - girls got up on people's shoulders to get their tits out. There are guys inside the crowd selling beers, so alcohol was all taken care of.
This was as good a party as I have ever been to - simply awesome.
There were only two downers - that we hadn't pre-drinked more than we did and weren't more pissed; and that we had to leave. As the party moved on from under the Museum of Arts, so did we, as much as I think we all would've liked to have continued following the crowd.
I must say that I regret having not gone to more blocos. Part of it is about knowing which ones to go to and knowing when and where they are on. If it wasn't for Mark, we would not even have come to this one. Part of it also was the fact that the days really tired us out. None of us are in our early twenties any more so we can't be up at the crack of dawn to start drinking and then going to blocos all day, as much as we would probably have liked to.
Finally, trying to manage consensus on what to do and when to do it in a big group of seven was always going to be difficult.
So we didn't party as hard or as much as I was expecting - but it does give me an excuse to come back for Carnaval again one day...

There was a good reason for us to leave the bloco however - we were about to head to the biggest party of Carnaval; the Sambadrome.
I'm sure everyone has seen the pictures - the massive floats, the scantily-clad dancers, the outrageous costumes; the Sambadrome is where the main Carnaval parade happens.
A purpose-built parade 'stadium', a street has been turned permanently into a straight 700m parade route with massive stands built either side of the road that can hold 90,000 spectators.
We have to do a bit walking to get from the train station to the Sambadrome, but our walk takes us right through the "backstage" area where we get a sneak preview of all the floats, dancers and costumes. Our walk also takes us through the relatively old and poor area surrounding the Sambadrome which I thought has real character - crumbling colonial buildings playing hosts to apartments and dive bars full of locals.
What greeted us when we finally got in however, was immense. The stands were full to the rafters and the crowd noise was unbelievable. I just didn't know that crowds could get so excited over a parade - everyone was getting really into and were getting really excited.
However, it's not just any parade. The parades are organised by the local samba schools, who are each given a set amount to time to get all of their floats and dancers down the parade. The "Special Group" which is like the Premier League of samba parades, takes place on the Sunday and Monday nights during Carnaval (Carnaval runs from the Friday before Lent through to Ash Wednesday) so we were watching the first "Special Group" night.
All the schools are then judged on their parades and a winner is declared. Competition is fierce and the whole thing is a really big deal in Brazil - the parades are broadcast nationally and there are even 'supporters' in the stands, cheering on their schools.
Some of the floats were just incredible. The amount of time and effort put into building the floats, making the costumes and coordinating the routines must be staggering. Each float has it's own design and theme but one thing that they all have in common is how colourful and elaborate they all are. I'll let the pictures do the talking but among the random objects appearing on floats were massive masks, moving robots, a steamship float, giant pints of beer (my personal favourite one), a massive football (of course), the Statue of Liberty rocking an electric guitar, and even a Stevie Wonder float complete with swaying head! I have never seen anything like this.
The parades run right until four in the morning however, and after a while you start feeling numb to what you are seeing and start to feel real tired. By 3am, Fi and I had had our Sambadrome fill and made our way back to the apartment to beat the crowd home.
It was a wonderful experience nonetheless - just about worth the £85 we paid for our tickets!

And with that we pretty much ended our Carnaval experience despite there still being two days of Carnaval to go. However as Rio is a massive city with so much to see and do, we would be dedicating the rest of our stay here to doing a bit of sightseeing - and as you will see from the next entry, boy are there some sights...

Até logo!
Derek

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Photos

Carnaval!
Revellers at the front of one of the first floats of the night.

Inside The Sambadrome
It's going off.

Zebra King
This was the dude atop an African/zebra inspired float.

Puppet Float
One of the floats with massive robot-like puppets.

The Band Bus
The crowd follows the band on the bus along Copacabana Beach.

Copacabana Beach
Her name was Lola...

Ipanema Bloco
Well, what remains of it as we drink on Ipanema Beach as the sun set.

Brazilian Portions
Humongous. This is Sag's chicken grill with bananas, bacon, fries, cheese and peas.

The Crew
Myself, Rachel, John, Joy, Fi, Sarah and Sag partying up on Copacabana Beach!

Brazilian Breakfast
A Brazilian cheese pastry and a cup of acai.

Ghost Town
The Saara market is completely closed on Carnaval Sunday.

Saara
Market area in the Centro part of Rio.

Young Crowd
A younger crowd builds up for the bloco undern the Museum of Modern Art.

Fancy Dress
About half the crowd are dressed up in fancy dress as the bloco moves under the Museum of Modern Art.

Blo-co! Blo-co! Blo-co!
Just one of the chants as the party goes off the chain underneath the Museum of Modern Art.

Outside The Sambadrome
The old, crumbling but charming buildings in the area outside the Sambadrome.

Sambadrome
The scale of the place is insane - it's like filling up Wembley Stadium to watch the parade.

Praça da Apoteose
Square under the arches where parade participants gather at the end of the parade. This was quite close to where we were sitting.

Copacabana Bloco
Locals partying in the crowd behind the band bus.

Nice Costume, Man!
I managed to nab a photo with one of the people in the parade and was so excited I momentarily turn into a retard.

Beer Float
The most refreshing float of the parade and my personal favourite.

Stevie Wonder Float
The head even sways!

Long Float
One of the longer floats of the night, I can't work out what it's theme is, but it is nevertheless impressive.

Steamship Float
One of the biggest floats to go through, this adaptation of a steamships is packed with dancing revellers.

Rock Of Liberty
I remember this samba school's main theme was rock music and one of their floats shows Lady Liberty rocking a guitar.