Carnival at Salvador de Bahia
Trip Start
Jan 10, 2008
1
13
95
Trip End
Ongoing
Salvador de Bahia, Brazil
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Carnival in Salvador is different from the Rio de Janeiro version that we see on TV with feathered costumes and choreographed samba dances. Salvador is more like a massive street party, where there are floats with what's called a trio. Which is a band (apparently there are called a trio because in the good old days it would be a small car with a few guys playing their instruments driving down the rod and so they would only be able to fit three in)
Crap Elvis and the Sons of Ghandy
. Nowadays a trio is a massive band with a singer or DJ. The float is custom made and towed by a truck very slowly along the street. Surrounding the truck is a roped off area held in place by 'the rope people'. Inside the roped off area is the bloco. To be a part of the bloco you buy a T-shirt at the price of between $100-$1000 and this gets you entry to dance inside the bloco and also use the facilities as following the float will be a support float with toilets, a bar etc and more people dancing. A bloco can stretch for easily a few hundred metres for a popular band or dj. Outside of the blocos, there is also the option of purchasing a place in a camarote which is a building that is along the route of the carnival but with a better view and cordoned off from the public - you usually get a T-shirt for a camarote too. Then there are the people who do not pay to attend the carnival called 'da pipoca' (popcorn) probably because of the way everyone is dancing up and down to the music. It can get very crowded in the popcorn areas because there are so many people, especially near a float that is really popular as everyone tries to follow it along dancing as they go. In Salvador there are three main routes circuits - Barra, Campo Grande and Pelhourino all very different.
Carnival goes for 6 nights so started on the Thursday. We headed to the circuit close to us - Barra. There was such a buzz in the air and to us it seemed massive and busy but Thursday night is still quiet because a lot of people are still working on the Friday and then they have public holidays through to Tuesday when Carnival ends
Crazy Carnival
. We spent about 5 hours watching and dancing and wandering around and got home ashamed that it wasn't even midnight yet! The Brazilian people are amazing, music and dancing is such a part of life even the small kids can move. Every one just can't help but move when there is music around. We even were served drinks by people who just were having so much fun dancing they continued to dance while serving us. It was fantastic.
The second night of Carnival we did pretty much the same thing headed out and enjoyed the scene at Barra and the third night also. During the day we wandered around the area and tried to catch up on some sleep. On the Sunday we decided to check out Campo Grande during the day and then have an early/quiet night. On the Monday the people we were staying with took us to Pelhourino, which is the tourist/artisan centre for Salvador. This was quire different to Barra as Barra was a long stretch along the beach but Pelhourino is cobbled streets surrounded by very old buildings and churches. Pelhourino has a really cool vibe and we enjoyed wandering around and listening to music.
Amongst some of the blocos are various blocos that have become quite famous. One is La Maquerinas, men who usually wouldn't been seen dead in women's clothes who each year dress up as women - there is always a theme this year is was Barbie so all these men were wearing a pink wigs, pink skirts and a pink jacket
Carnival
. Also impressive are Filhos de Ghandy (Sons of Ghandy) this is a group of men who admire Ghandy and his philosophies and dress up as him and march together. There are about 5000 who dress up as Ghandy with a terry towelling hat, skirt and lots of beads. Sons of Ghandy have been marching for 56 years now and the men get completely decked out with matching shoes and socks, a carry bag all etc, all manner of 'sons of ghandy' accessories are available. The beads that they wear have become so popular that everyone wears them now. Tuesday night was the last night of Carnival so we headed back into Barra armed with Red Bull and my new favourite drink Caipirhina's. We were especially excited as Fat Boy Slim and David Guetta were on a trio. We resolved to see as much of them as possible and were not disappointed! They were fantastic. We did get a little carried away though as we'd been very careful to avoid massive crowds and areas that were crowded with too many people where little people like us could get crushed and al of a sudden found our selves in a massive crowd in a narrow part of the street with no way out. Finally we managed to find somewhere to stand until the craziness passed , we managed to come out unscathed except for being fleeced for the small amount of money in Matt's pocket - no one even tried to take the toilet paper in my pocket!
During Carnival the street pretty much becomes any man's urinal so after 6 nights of this there was a kind of permeating urine stench around and so eventually we got a bit over it and went home - even the next day I was sure that I could smell urine
Watching Fat boy slim at Carnival
!Had a couple of interesting experiences with the men of Salvador who as I had been warned are quite forward. One man gave me a kiss and cuddle and then offered to buy me from Matt - fortunately Matt saw the value in keeping me and declined his offer. A very forward Son of Ghandy chose to give me a massive slobbering kiss right in front of Matt - much to Matt's disgust and mine and everyone around us protests.
The official language in Brazil is Portuguese which has also made things interesting as we have been spending time learning Spanish , so Portuguese should be similar to ave had many attempted conversations with people but not gotten far due to the language barrier. In theory Portuguese should be similar to Spanish but there are many different words and the pronunciation is very different so it becomes quite confusing, especially when you are not that good at Spanish either. We quite often order a meal not really sure how many meals we'll get and what they might be.
After Carnival we stayed in Salvador for and extra day to chill out and relax after the craziness of Carnival, we wandered around, watched the sunset at Barra beach and cheered with everyone at the beautiful sunset then headed back into Pelhourino for a drink and some food on sticks - we have found that god food comes on sticks in Brazil! And an early night before a day of travelling 8 hours to Ilheus and then doubling back for a couple of hours to a small fishing village called Itacare.
Comments
Hi from Joy
Glad to hear that all is well. Would love some pictures if you get the chance to post.
Keep safe. Joy x
Re: Hi from Joy
Hey Joy - have lots of photos to upload but have been having trouble uploading them as the internet connections aren't advanced enough or something, will keep trying andf let you know when we get them up.
K xxx