Carnaval!

Trip Start Jan 16, 2005

Trip End Feb 14, 2005

Loading Map

Map your own trip!

Show trip route

Hide lines

Flag of Brazil Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Thursday, February 3, 2005

02 Carnaval

Carnaval! Since the first time I went to Mardi Gras in New Orleans this has been on my to do list and now I am finally here! I don't typically book a place to stay in advance but since this is Carnaval, figured I should do it. It sounded easy enough on the website how to get from the airport to the hostel on the local bus so I headed for the busses. Finding the bus ended up being a challenge, but a friendly local who also spoke English helped me find the correct bus. Thought I was home free until I realized that there were no scheduled stops on this bus, you had to know where to get off and shout for the driver to stop. As I am frantically trying to follow along in my guide book maps where we are the same friendly local can see that I am panicking. I show him on the map where I need to go and he drags me to the front of the bus as he is getting off and tells the bus driver where I need to be dropped. (I really have to remember to be more accommodating when I run into tourists where I live!) My directions from this street corner say it is just a few blocks this way and that, no problem. About an hour later after I have completely sweat through my cloths and it is now starting to rain I still haven't found the place and am beginning to think I will be spending the night on the beach. I know I am close but I decide to ask a cab driver to just drive me there. The first two say they don't know where it is. I finally find a driver who knows it but he says he is on a break and I should just walk, which I would have gladly done if I knew where it was!!! Eventually I get another cab driver to talk to the one who is on a break and I finally make it, needless to say at this point I am ready for the party to begin! Ahh, the life of a gypsy!

I was staying near Copacabana beach. My typical day was sleep until late morning (how late depended if I went to bed the previous night before or after the sun came up), get some food and beer, head to the beach for a while, after that sometimes a street party/parade, sometime during the day switch from beer to caipirinhas (Brazilian rum with sugar and limes--yummy!), dinner many times at a churrascarias (all the meat you could ever want to eat), figure out where the party was that night and go, repeat. Here is a picture of the beach nearest me Copacabana and one of the street parties--madness! The first morning I woke up in the hostel and met one of my bunk mates, Kimmy, and we hit it off right away. Later that day we met Nigel and the three of us became fast friends. They were my Carnaval buddies.

03 Copacabana beach

04 street party

05 Carnaval buddies

Of course one night we went to the Sambodrome for the official Carnaval competition.

13 sambadrome

14 me at Carnaval!

Samba schools from all over the country come to compete. Each school has its own parade that lasts for about 90 minutes with extravagant costumes and floats.

I was in the cheap seats with all the locals so when the local Samba school was parading the crowds in our stands went wild! We had all been given flags to wave for this school. There was a helicopter that had been flying up and down the parade route all night. While the local school was parading the helicopter hung out over our stands and would dip its wings so the down wash was blowing on us, everyone would hold their flags up and scream! You just couldn't help but jump up and down and go nuts, the energy was contagious! We were at the end of the route, and as this school finished instead of wandering off like the others had, they all stayed and packed into the finish area and played to our stand. All the different costumes with so many brilliant colors, crammed into that area and everyone going mad--it was fabulous!

15 crowd

We also managed to take one day to do some sight seeing. We went up to Sugarloaf and had some amazing views of the harbor. From there we took a helicopter ride around Christ the Redeemer (referred to by my British friends as Mate on the Mount). Beautiful views!