By far, this parade is a whole lot better than Friday's. Nearly everyone is wearing a costume and you could tell that a lot of effort was placed in many people's costumes: Pac man, pirates, vikings, smurfs, insects, nurses, policemen, cavemen, babies, hippies, superheroes.
The music was also a significant improvement. There wasn't any singing, but instead people playing brass instruments: saxophones, trombones, trumpets...
A vendor asked me if I wanna buy a beer. I had only awoken some 2 hours ago. I had had a coffee not that long ago. And now, a beer? I couldn't bring myself to do it. But once I got into the crowd of people, well, you go straight into a party mode, and you forget what time it is and a beer seemed like a perfectly good idea.
A couple hours into the parade, I met up with my cousin who had dressed up as Jack Sparrow (to the tea). He and his friends had built a pirate ship out of cardboard and styrofoam. Six people fit into the ship! I made my way to the stern of the ship and enjoyed the rest of the carnival with a somewhat celebrity status. Everyone wanted to take pictures of the ship and the pirates, everyone wanted to get inside the ship, everyone giving compliments about the ship. Jack Sparrow particularly got a lot of attention. If my cousin didn't have a girlfriend, he could have easily kissed the most beautiful girls in the parade....and there were many beautiful girls in the parade.
After the parade had ended, we grabbed a bite to eat, and took a nap before heading over to the Sambodromo where we would parade with a Samba school.
At the Sambodromo:
I had never been to the sambodromo in my life. This is the avenue where the best samba schools in Rio (if not Brazil...if not the world!), parade down. And there I was about to walk down this avenue. We put on our costumes of 'beggars'. There were some 50 people dressed as beggars. The theme of the samba school this year was 'democracy in the park square'. The idea was to demonstrate a mix of all people from all walks of life together in one parade. In other sections of the school, people had ostumes representing different people in society: politicians, athletes, farmers (supposed to be representing the MST), merchants. There were huge cars with eleborate sets representing ancient Greece (for democracy), the park square, a huge set with a mother carrying her babies in a stroller.
We walked down the avenue for just over an hour. Singing the same tune over and over again. Smiling and dancing. Looking up to the crowd in the sambodromo and waving. Getting drenched in sweat underneath our heavy costumes.
By the time it ended, I was losing my voice. I have to say I am happy to have had this experience, but I have to admit that I think doing in once in a lifetime is enough for me. One day I'd like to go back to Sambodromo as a simple spectator to watch all the samba schools go by.
Below, I have included some photos of the entire day as well as a video from our samba school at the sambodromo.
You can see our 'homeless crew' at 19min:
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