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Published: February 19th 2012
We are typing our final blog entry with just 2 hours sleep and a 48 hour journey ahead of us, where we will come out the other side seriously sleep deprived. Last night was the perfect way to end our trip: a big Carnival bash through the night.
This is nothing like Stellenbosch University Vlotte. In fact, they would laugh if they ever had to see those floats. These samba processions are huge - about 3500 people and 5 floats each (about 4 storeys high) - but this is only one of the many processions that come past! The price of this carnival was just short of 200 million rand!!!
Approaching the entrance, we could hear fireworks, music and caught a glimpse of the floats parked in the parking lot and the participants getting dressed all over the streets. We arrived at the Sambodromo (a raceway looking thing with open air stands on either side of the long straight road) and found that although we had bought the cheapest tickets, they provided very good viewing spots right up close. The first procession started at about 10:30pm, with the last one coming through at 6:30am, each one lasting about 45
mins. The costumes are big and bold and sometimes lacking a large amount of material in crucial regions! You can see huge amounts of effort have gone into each costume and there are tens of thousands of them! The floats are expertly made, often with moving parts.
A group of locals ´adopted´ us, telling us all about the samba schools and who was the best. They were super enthusiastic and jumped around and wiggled their bums all night. Come to think of it, Phil did a fair bit of wiggling herself too : ) They really took a liking to us Africans and told all the locals around them that we were from South Africa. We got home this morning at 7:30! The evening was a real highlight, a truly memorable goosebump moment! (We added a video to this blog, it gives a much better feeling of what it was like than the photos do)
And so ends our 7 month South America adventure. We will miss the late nights (supper time was around 10pm) and late mornings, the mountains, the languages (Phil can speak Spanish now with a good degree of fluency while Marco understands a lot),
the late sunsets, the tropical thunderstorms, the politics, the rivers, volcanoes, lakes, waterfalls and the plazas and people watching.
We say goodbye to our backpacker status and all its priveleges (and punishments): drying washed underwear and towels on the bus, rolling off toilet paper in public bathrooms, using and reusing dirty clothing, showering intermittently, chatting to anyone you camped near to or shared a dorm with, licking knives and eating on the run (or as in our case - preparing endless tomato and cheese rolls on the bus), keeping every free sugar/tomato sauce sachet for later use, showering with slops on, sleeping late (here, people only start work at 9 or 10), powder milk, internet cafes and endless hostel-finding treks.
Instead, we go back to the land of cellphones (which, by the way, have no idea if ours will work) and cars, where people are always connected but don´t know who their neighbour is. But it is also where great family, good friends and good food can be found. We look forward to catching up on all the births (we have missed 4!), pregnancies (3 of these!), marriage proposals (1) and weddings (1). We can´t wait to have
Carnaval
Lead dancers in front of each section of the paradea chop and dop with mates, Phil can´t wait to sink her teeth into a Marmite and cheese sarmie, and we both look forward to a decent piece of lemon meringue!
So where to from here? Only God knows! We spend a few days in CT and George before fittingly ending our trip with a 5 hour bus trip from George to PE at the end of the month. We would like to thank you all for your support, prayers and emails. Only once you travel for a long period of time do you realise how valuable these are. We are thankful to God for keeping us safe on endless bus trips, dodgy parts of town and deep in the wilderness.
Now the crucial question remains.... will Marco keep his beard???
He has agreed to do so for a short while when back in SA, so you will all have to have us round for dinner soon if you want to be privileged enough to see it (and maybe even touch it!)
Highlight:
Marco and Phil - The sheer size and effort put into the carnival parade
Lowlight:
Knowing how long our return
journey will be
What we miss most:
HOME! :o)
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Rae & Paul
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The Finale
Wow guys!! What an awesome end to your 200 day adventure. I'm sure you have put many interesting and exciting ideas into peoples heads. Your backpacking experience is one in a million and memories you will cherish for EVER!! :-) It's certainly not for the faint hearted as you have proven but so eye opening and when you are in the comforts of home again,will be able to think of all the "tight moments" and "close calls" that have most probably not just grown you but brought you both closer together. We really miss your company and look so forward to seeing you guys once we're back. Phil - CONGRATULATIONS!! Your motto at the bottom of your email has proven to all that it's not just a bunch of cool words to think about but exceedingly tried and tested - Hats off to you guys!!! ( Champagne glasses clink!! ) May the Lord bless you abundantly in your new adventures ahead, the job hunting and all the changes on the way. We sure you'll glide through it all fashionably :-) Lots of love R & P