Carnavale!

Ok, honesty upfront...there will be some omissions from this particular post, as i don´t want my mum to have a coronary... Since I last posted anything, so much has happened. In fact, i´d say anything that could have happened, has happened, since sod´´s law tends to revolve around me. Not the universe or anything, just sod´s law... yey. I´ve had an incredible month though. Got poorly during carnavale, so i mainlined antibiotics along with the caipirinhas, and had an excellent time! We (zaza and I) were staying up the coast of Brazil with aussie Aimee who kindly let us crash at hers. I couldn´t have afforded carnavale without aimee, so god bless her! Brazil is the priciest country in south america, and at carnavale season, i´m being bled dry. I´m looking forward to get a little more for my buck in argentina, though the exchange rate is still a killer. Anyhoo, hardcore girlies that we are, we bussed it in to rio for two insane 24 hour frenzies. We just took a bottle of cachaca, and some money, all that any classy lady needs... And we danced and drank and met sexy boys (and some not so sexy boys, blurgh) till 10 the next morning, when we got the bus back. Carnavale turns Rio into a crazy 7 day street party. The city is divided into blocks, like America, so each area has a block party, inventively called a ´bloco´. You can´t breathe for people and u´d better not have anything valuable on u, because u´ll never even feel the little hands rummaging through ur belongings. And as i´ve mentioned previously, some of the men are so lechy, that u get used to the feel of strange hands invading ur personal space, which is rather twisted...I guess you can get used to anything. And that also explains the lack of carnavale photos so far. The first time we didn´t take a camera out of fear, and the second, we took a crappy plastic camera that cost a fiver. We are waiting, for the film to get developed... i had to WIND the film people! So, i´ve borrowed a nice boys photos for this blog till ours develop...photos to follow...

The locals of rio (cariocas) don´t really get dressed up for carnavale, not for the blocos anyway. At least the ones that stay in rio, a lot of them flee as far away as possible, because they can´t stand their city inundated with tourists. Although the first morning we arrived in rio for carnavale, everywhere seemed eerily deserted. Rather like the beginning of EVERY HORROR MOVIE EVER! not to worry though, it turns out that most of the cariocas had simply fled the city, and everyone else was either at the parades or the blocos. We revisited our old hotel, said hi to the familiar faces, stocked up on alcohol and setoff to the beach. The ipanema bloco was in full swing. It´s basically one giant streety beachy party.

And then, there were boys. Some were gooooorgeous. Some were good fun and some...well lets just say there were moments where Zaza and I had to pull the ol´, ´we´re lesbians, leave us alone´gag to get rid of them. We sat on the beach, schmoozed through the crowd, walked all the way from copacabana beach, to leblom, realised we´d gone too far, had a burger and acai break, then walked back to ipanema.

Here we met Andy and Omar. Andy promptly attached himself to Aimee´s face, while Omar (distractingly white for someone called Omar) told us about himself - his Iranian mum´s genes had been completely bulldozed by his dad´s hearty Irish ones... and he´d been pretty badly sunburned that day, his 2nd day in Brazil. By the end of the night, his sunburned ankles had swollen (is sunburn even supposed to swell?) and he basically was left with splotchy cankles... bless.

We moved from ipanema to Lapa. This involved a stroll/mauling for the boys, down the gay street in Ipanema. We kindly lent them our fairy wings and pretty hair feathers to make it easier for the maulers : ) Lapa was awesome during carnavale, as crazy as ever. We sat on the famous steps, chatting to random strangers, watching the street entertainment, dancing, drinking the night away. Had to leave the samba dance area under the bridge at some point due to the thoughtful projectile vomiter in the middle of the crowd. Nice. People having sex on the street, others passed out, delirious dancing, the smoke flying off all the frying halumi and chicken hearts on street bbqs and samba dancers who started the night naked except for some artfully placed body paint, had sweated away any remnants of the paint and were starkers. At around 8am we somehow got back to the bus station, where i promptly fell asleep on the bus station floor. I was at that point where ur still drunk and the daylight is buuuurning your eyes. it was the only viable option really. Bussed it back to Aimee´s for a 24 hour sleeping session. 2 days later we bussed back in. This time we were gonna spend the night, but when we got there, our hostel booking didn´t exist, yey. After some sad puppy dog eyes, they comped us a private ensuite room, booyah! Keep in mind that by real world standards, it´s pretty mucky, but it was probably the only time i´m gonna be in a private room, cos i can´t afford it otherwise on my bacpacker budget. It´s usually an 18 bed mixed dorm that smells of hostel sex...yummers. So we got ready, unwisely bought a bottle of 80p vodka, (a BOTTLE! granted the bottle is plastic and it kicks like a mother, but 80p!!!) Then caiparinhas in the bar and off we go! We had bought tickets for the sambodromo winners parade, where the top 10 samba schools as decided by the weeks endless parades, flounce past over and over. The stadium is in a favela (slum) and it´s one long road with standing areas on either side on 3 levels. Each samba float takes about 2 hours to get from one end to the other, so it´s a long affair.

For blocks around the sambodromo the city is alive. Thousands of amazing costumes, the people from the floats getting ready, effortlessly carrying awe inspiring skeleton-like gold wings across the square, or dripping glitter, and so happy to be told how beautiful they looked. I felt like that was what being high must be like. Just so fantastical and you feel like you love everybody at that moment. There are a million different sights and sounds and you just dont have the sensory capacity to absorb it all. We took pictures with some amazing people in insane costumes. And i miiiiight have squeezed the gold glitter man a little extra hard when we took a picture so his glitter would rub off on me...ahem...It took 2 showers to get it off and i was just sprinkled with it, that dude must need a hosing.

Now here´s where i admit that about 2 hours in, I got so drunk on the vodka so cheap it´s gotta be lighter fluid, that i lost aimee. Lets just say that 2 VERY nice and understanding policemen helped me get home. There are such horror stories about the Rio police, but mine were independently helpful and not at all lecherous. The first one walked me to the metro, and when i fell asleep on the metro and missed my stop and went all the way to the end of the line (that´s right, i´m thaat stupid) another one got on and woke me up and put me on the right line home... it´s probably the dumbest thing i´ve ever done. Anything could have happened. What a douche. I think the fact that i never carry a bag and look like a local (carioca), has really changed my experience in Brazil. They treat me really well and when i´m on my own, the dangerous elements don´t bother with me, cos i blend in and i don´t look like i have anything worth stealing. Plus i don´t attract even a fraction of the attention someone blonde and fair would. It´s the perfect way to explore a country, because u get to blend in, as opposed to being treated like a filthy tourist the entire time. Anyway, Aimee was there when i got home, thank god, and in true Aimee style, she was really cool about it. I swear nothing ruffles that girl! The next couple of days were filled with more drinking and eating and essentially we had a great carnavale. I´m positive that i´m gonna be back. Ihope next time to Salvador in the north, because i met hundreds of travellers on their way back who said it was Rio to the 10th power. It´s incredibly dangerous, so i didn´t risk it this time. plus i just didn´t have the money, but next time, there´s no question. They have amazing entertainment, and the most intense blocos and while in rio ur more of a spectator, in salvador u are the carnavale.