Carnival...... feathers, colour, feathers, music, feathers, costumes ..... DRUMS..

Sooo many feathers...  Large costumes, even larger floats, colour, pulsating, loud music, thousands of people.  That was the Samba Parade at Carnival!!!!  We were there Sunday night ... all night!!!

We walked to the Sambadrome along with other people from our hotel, many of them in costume also. Party atmosphere prevailed right from the start - refreshments available from street vendors along the way.

Another first for me....  I have started to drink beer - it's just easier!!

The queue for sector 13 was massive, but moved along steadily.  Sector 13 is set back a little further from the parade area, and is at the end of the strip.  Once dancers got to the end of the strip they were in really high spirits and often performed for the crowd.  Spectacular!!!  Especially when the final section of each samba group arrived - the percussion section kept pumping out the music to the delight of the crowd in Sector 13.  It was the BEST!!!

Really hard to describe such a huge event

• we saw 7 samba groups
• each group has a theme and a song which belted out during their entire performance (most people in the crowd were singing along as well - they know all the words!)
• seemed to be LOTS of HUGE floats in each samba school group - possible 6-8
• between each of the floats were lots of dancers in different costumes - usually between 6 to 10 different costumed sections with 100-300 people in each section.  Sooo many people.  Read one samba school had 3600 performers.  Reckon some had more than that.  Percussion sections alone had at least 300 members - LOVED the percussion!!!
• each samba school took around 90 minutes for the entire group to progress from one end of the sambadrome to the other - music booming out the entire time and all the people around us standing, dancing singing, shouting and waving.  Great atmosphere.
• as soon as one samba school finished the next one started immediately - the first group started at 9pm and the final group started around 6am - sunrise.  What a night!!!  The crowd of 90000 had thinned considerably by that time - but Section 13 was still buzzing.  The last group was our favourite - an African theme - the story of an Angolan kingdom and its contribution to Brazil. Stunning costumes and floats!!!
• as each group finished they were ushered out of the area.  Even that was a spectacle - how to get around 4000 performers, many in large elaborate costumes away from the area, and to get performers off the HUGE floats - 4 large cranes were set up for this purpose, and 2 smaller fork lifts were also used.  Then to get them all away from the area (performers and floats - some of which only made it to the end of the parade by man-power), and have cleaning teams come in an clean the whole area ready for the next troop.
• we had a 45 minute wait between the end of one group until the next group arrive in front of us - but the music was ever present, and there were 2 large screens showing various sections of the parade - and there was plenty to look at as the last performers of the previous group left the area and cleaners came in.
• many large costumes were discarded - dumped in huge piles and picked up by waiting garbage trucks. A number of more attractive and easily carried pieces such as head-dresses were pilfered by eager members of the crowd.  A benefit of being in Sector 13 .... end of the parade.  Early in the morning Zac managed to get a couple of pieces .... 

We had a fabulous night .  Walked home during daylight.

An afternoon at the beach

One can't go to Rio without going to Ipanema Beach and Copacobana Beach.  I can say we walked on the sand briefly - HOT, and dipped my toes into the water - COLD - but the sheer spectacle was soooo much more amazing.  There must of been hundreds of thousands of people on the beach - most with red umbrellas.

A young, bikini clad girl asked if I wanted my photo taken with her ..... so someone aimed the camera, a couple of her friends jumped in beside her .... and here we are.  In Peru they would be asking for payment.  In Australia, it just wouldn't happen - can't take photos of other people, especially children.  Amazing!

 Both beaches are really long and totally packed - mostly locals.  Interesting - bikinis are mostly small, while make speedos are mostly larger than back in Oz.  Everybody is out to enjoy the sunshine - regardless of shape or size. Aussie girls usually try to avoid a tan line (from straps) Latin American girls like to have a tan line - so Milka explained to me.

 

Sarongs for sale - wish I had bought some of these.

 

Vendors make their way through the crowds selling food, prawn kebabs, drinks, ice-creams as well as bikinis, sarongs etc.  You don't even have to move from your spot!!! Drink stalls are stationed every hundred metres or so - alcohol of course readily available everywhere. Rio party continued on the beaches as well!!

Loved this sales setup.  Guy walked along the beach with his umbrella, dripping with bikinis. Every few hundred metres he stopped, planted his umbrella firmly into the sand and sat down and set up shop in his own personal shade.  Brilliant technique.    

 

     

cashews...

Prawn kebabs

Apparently recycling is worthwhile - so can collectors were out and about everywhere we went. Very little litter!

Street parties in Rio

Street parties appear to take place all over the city during Carnival. Every day we saw groups of people, many dressed in costumes, some carrying chairs or eskies, walking along streets all over the city. Not sure why they bothered with eskies because alcohol was readily available everywhere along the streets, either from local bars or from the many street vendors Sometimes samba bands and dancers paraded along streets, followed by large groups of people.

One night, whilst looking for a place to eat we got caught in a crowd crush - street party, loud drumming music from a samba band.  Another day, early afternoon, we were attempting to get to the Metro station obviously on the other side of a massive street party (2.2million people reported to be at this particular party). We were holding on to eachother, trying to crawl our way through the crowd, aware that this would be an ideal opportunity for pick pockets.  But we were not prepared for such blatant actions - Lex felt a hand on and IN his pockets, looked up into the face of the guy.  Amazing.  He shouted back to us to watch our pockets.  Zac had the same thing happening to him as the same guy edged past him - Zac had his hands wedged in his pockets and this guy pushed one arm through Zac's trying to force his hand upwards out of his pocket.  Unsuccessful - thankfully. 

Was really wishing we had distinguishing umbrellas. Bet they don't lose each other easily!  

Some time later, in just a few seconds we became separated from Zac and Milka - completely lost them in the massive  crowd.  Just impossible - so many people, loud music pumping out - so for our safety, we headed back to our hotel.

There were many smaller street parties - tables and chairs out on the road outside cafes, bars and restaurants, music, bands, people in costumes and LOTS of alcohol everywhere. The whole of Rio seemed to be in party mode for days!!!!!  From our hotel window we saw 2 or 3 groups parading down the street.

There were a couple of supermarkets across from our hotel - we couldn't get over how much alcohol was being wheeled out all hours of the day and night.  Large eskies were restocked on the footpath - leaving all the plastic shrink wrap for the cleaners!!!

One night after dinner with Tish and her travelling companions, we headed back to a street party near Lapa Arches.  Was awesome catching up with Tish - Lex really gave her a surprise!!!

Mum - this man grabbed me in Rio!  I think it's Mr L.

Great dinner out at Catete Restaurant - a per kilo restaurant.  Huge range of options - seafood, steak, salads.  Fill your plate and then have it weighed.  Amazing place!!!!!

Great food and even better company!!!!!

Andy, Lex, Zac and Al .... in Rio

Tish and Judy at the street party at Lapa.

Tours in Rio

Whilst in Rio, we did a couple of tours - thanks to Milka's organisation - both on the same day, and although a very full day, we wouldn't have been able to do them otherwise.  There were just toooo many people and too many street parties which made moving around the city a little difficult at times.

We did a 'Favela Tour' - an absolute eye-opener!! Favelas are like shanty towns, but they occupy some of the most prestigious hillside locations in Rio.  Amazingly there are about 1000 favelas in Rio.  We visited Rocinha, the largest favela, with somewhere between 70,000 and 300,000 inhabitants.

Our tour included a motor bike ride to the top of the favela.  Holy sh******

A motor bike ride .... Me?  Really???

Eyes shut at this point...

Relief!!!

The narrow road zig-zagged up the steep hillside, and our bikes dodged between buses, trucks and other motor bikes.  Apparently the ride lasted about 3 minutes, but it seemed more like 20!!!!   OMG  Can't believe my first ever motor bike ride was here in Rio!!  [BTW - I had read that our tour was to include a motor bike ride, and I expressed my concerns to Zac, who responded "Really, no I don't think so."  Really Zac!!!]

The wallk back down through the favela was down No 1 street - hardly a street, more like a narrow passageway that threaded down the hillside between small multi-story dwellings.

Difficult to describe what it was like - I wouldn't want to live there - although the view from the rooftops is quite spectacular.  We went into a day-care centre, past rooms with small children and up to the roof top.  Great view from there.

Our guide explained that people here tap into the electricity - so don't pay for it.

 

People we say along the way were very friendly especially the kids, who were very keen for us to take their photos.

Our second tour of the day was a city tour visiting some of the city's attractions - Christ, the Redeemer statue, Sugar Loaf mountain, Santa Teresa (party just getting underway), Selaron staircase

There were massive crowds in all these areas, and since Friday was also the first day of Carnival, crowds were also gathering for the street parties.  Most people were in some sort of costume and many groups were well co-ordinated. Great spectacle.