Carnival Day 1: Friday Feb 17th

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Friday Feb. 17th:

First day in Rio. My cousin Raphael, put together an awesome pirate costume for me to use during carnival. My cousin Guilherme puts together a Rambo costume complete with a six-pack.

We head off to what sounds like a promising first 'bloco': 'Vem Ni Mim Que eu Sou Facinha' in Ipanema. This pretty much means: "hit on me because I'm easy".

However, I think the marketing is all this bloco had going for it. Upon arrival, we realized that there wasn't a live band at all...instead just a few large speakers playing a variety of 'hit songs'. Around which hundreds of people had gathered.

After kicking back a couple of beers, Guilherme and I decided to meet up with a couple friends of mine  (Alice and Cynthia) who were at another bloco near a Pedra do Leme. However, by the time we got there, which wasn't very late (11:30PM), the band had stopped playing. No music...not even hit songs playing from large speakers. 

Both Gui and I were somewhat diaspointed with carnival thus far. 

Cynthia led us to a bus stop where we could catch a bus back to Niteroi (the neighbouring city where we were staying). It was already midnight and I was planning to wake up at 5AM in order to make my way to Saturday's bloco up on the hills of the Santa Tereza neighbourhood.

A series of events followed (I won't go through the details here) creating miscommunication and ultimately leading in us missing a bus back to Niteroi. These buses don't come very often, and when we missed the 12:30AM bus...I knew it would be about an hour til the next bus. It takes nearly an hour to get to Niteroi by bus...so when 1:30AM rolled around, and I realized that even if I caught a bus back to Niteroi at this stage, I'd get a maximum of 3 hours of sleep. This wasn't an issue for Guilherme since he hadn't at all planned on going to the bloco Saturday morning.

So I called up my friend Cynthia and asked to stay the night at her place (some 100 meters from our bus stop!). Gui said he would wait for the next bus. So we split ways. Cynthia and her mom were amazing hosts and made me feel right at home. The next morning Cynthia and I would head out to the bloco in Santa Tereza. My fingers were crossed, hoping that Saturday would bring a better taste of carnival...

The Rio Carnival

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This week I witnessed Carnival in Rio. I had mixed expectations. I met people who told me they absolutely despise the craziness of Carnival and take the time off work just to get away to a beach house. Some say it's their favourite time of the year...a time to go on the streets, wear whatever you want, do whatever you want...anything goes. Rio de Janeiro has hundreds of street 'blocos' going on all over the city. These are essentially street parties...attracting thousands...if not millions of people (such as the popular bloco: Bola Preta which has seen some 2 Million attendees in the past. These parties begin as early as 6 in the morning and can go on until late at night. However, I found that the most of the blocos happened during the day and rarely went late into the night.

If I were to compare Canadian festivals to carnival...I would say Carnival is where Halloween meets Toronto's Nuit Blanche meets Canada Day times at least 13 days.

Halloween because tons of people are dressed up in costumes at any moment of the day. On the subway, at 6AM, in restaurants, bars, walking on the streets.

Nuit Blanche: because of huge flux of people moving from one event to another...and the entire city appearing the be one big playground. Deciding on which events you want to check out and planning your adventure.

Canada Day: for the free concerts, street parties, fireworks.

Times at least 13 days: well Carnival is officially only Saturday to the Tuesday preceeding Ash Wednesday. Four days. But Rio has extends this party. Blocos begin in during weekends two weeks before carnival: so that's another four days. Then although, carnival 'ends' Ash Wednesday...there are still blocos going on Wedneday, Thursday night, Friday night, and the 'hangover blocos' Saturday and Sunday after carnival. So that's another five days.

In the next few posts...I'll describe my days of Carnival.

Carnival. Phil gets in the parade.

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So carnival is fast approaching here. In Rio, Carnival started at the beginning of February. I just came back from a weekend in Rio, and people are going out dressed up in a variety of costumes. Every weekend there are street parties in different parts of the city.
But the REAL carnival will begin this weekend. From Friday until Tuesday, the entire city will turn into one massive party zone. Every hour of the day there will be something happening somewhere.
And of course, there is the famous parades by different Samba schools competing in the Sambódromo. Some 30,000 people gather to watch these samba schools who have an hour each to dazzle both the audience and judges. Huge elaborate floats, beautiful costumes, pounding drums, singing and dancing are all part of the parade.
Thanks to my aunt, I'll be participating in the parade of one of the samba schools. It's been my aunt's dream to get into a parade with one of the schools, and hers managed to get her, me and her two sons in on the Rocinha's Samba School parade...I have to say, that I never in my life thought I'd be doing this!
I will be dressed as a beggar...but the costume is quite elaborate for a beggar. I've memorized the theme song...and so on Saturday I'll be dancing and singing for an hour straight as the school walks down the Sambódromo.
I went to a practice sessions over the weekend. It was a blast, the energy of just being with a huge group of people singing the same song and dancing was amazing! Although, I do have to say that at some points, it was getting tiring singing the same song over and over again for over an hour!
But when Saturday comes...everyone dressed up, and a crowd of 30,000 people...I really don't think I can run out of energy!
Wish my school luck! Below you can watch the school's performance last year!