Carnaval!!!!!
Trip Start
Dec 06, 2005
1
28
80
Trip End
Jun 17, 2006
Salvador,
Brazil
Friday, March 3, 2006
Three circuits around the city hosted around 20 "blocos" (these bands on trucks, surrounded by paying fans inside a rope) each night for 6 nights, with the circuit taking the blocos around 6 or 7 hours to complete. The circuits are overlooked by "camarotes" - small bar/clubs on balconies where you also have to pay to get in. It´s a massive week for tourism and everyone wants a piece of the action - the blocos and camarotes can cost between 50 and 300 reals (A$30-200) for entry, there are street vendors EVERYWHERE, kids and adults trying to flog anything and everything to every tourist they see. It can get annoying, you get pretty used to saying "Não Obrigado" (no thankyou).
The hostel where I stayed was awesome, called the Nega Maluca (crazy old woman), had a great vibe and most of the people got to know each other pretty well, we were like a big family for a week which was great for me when travelling alone. It was in the 'old city' area of Salvador, called the Pelourinho, which had one of the carnaval circuits, with a more family atmosphere than the other circuits, as well as some great bay views, massive old colonial buildings, cobbled streets, and plenty of tourist shops and food-by-the-kilo eateries.
The other two circuits were in a central area called "Campo Grande" and a beach-side area called "Barra".
01 Carlos and I in Olodum outfit
Saw the Campo Grande circuit one night, but it had a much less happy, more aggressive, busier, heavier atmosphere, and wasn´t nearly as fun as the other two. The Barra circuit was the highlight for me, with everyone having a great time, and it never really got overly aggressive or too crowded. All three circuits became pretty disgusting towards the end of the night, there weren´t any bins to speak of so rubbish just went onto the street, where it would be picked up if it was a beer can, or left for the street cleaners after the night finishes around 7 or 8am. Certain parts of the circuits also stank of piss, due to a combination of insufficient and too-far-away portaloos...Pretty gross.Together with a big black american, Carlos, and two canadian girls, Danielle and Rebecca, I bought a ticket to a bloco of a band called Olodum. This band is more focussed on afro-brasilian percussion, but still has singers and a full band on top of the moving truck. They´ve been around for 26 years and rather than giving their paying fans just a t-shirt, they gave us a full costume - see photos - which looks wicked :) We payed A$100 for 3 nights of bloco (an absolute bargain compared to most blocos), of which the night at the Barra circuit was my highlight of the Carnaval. Another night was in the Pelourinho circuit and they were delayed 4-5 hours which was very disappointing and we didn´t really feel in a big party mood after the wait! And the other night was in Campo Grande, where I got some photos but after a few hours the unfriendly, heavy atmosphere of the circuit wore us down.
02 Huge bride statue with love hearts
The band was fantastic, they had dancers up the front, and a group of excellent capoeira artists, as well as hundreds of people in our cool costumes dancing along, all around the 2 trucks (one for the band to play on, one support truck selling drinks and with toilets).Maybe I should talk about Brazilian men now. During carnaval it´s become accepted for a lot of them (in their teens and 20s) to force themselves onto pretty (or even not-so-pretty) girls, using their strength and size to try and get close to and kiss the girls. It´s pretty disgusting and a lot of female tourists feel understandably uncomfortable. Of course, there are probably many nice blokes, but the aggressive ones leave the impression that everyone remembers.
The music that a lot of the bands play is very similar - popular Brazilian styles called Axé and Pagode, and a lot of bands play the same songs! I guess it´s hard to have an original repertoire to last for a 7 hour circuit, but they could at least choose different covers! It seems like there is like a top 10 song list for this carnaval, and every band has to play every song on that list during their circuits, as well as their originals. Makes everyone know the top 10 songs back-to-front after a few days, but it bored me a little, some variety would be nice. So on the last night, we definitely got some variety - popular british DJ Fatboy Slim played on a bloco, surrounded by ecstatic gringos and gringas and not many locals at all! I wasn´t into it at the start, as a local drum´n´bass DJ opened the show for him, but with a bit of persuasion from some mates from the hostel, I let myself get swept into the euphoria and had a great time, following the bloco until the very end (outside the ropes, didn´t wanna pay A$200 for a ticket).
03 Awesome kids drumming troupe
I mean, it wasn´t "carnaval", with loads of white guys and girls dancing badly, but was fun and good for a change. And I really enjoyed some of the samples he used - stuff like "billie jean" and "sunshine of your love". 2nd best night of carnaval for me.Salvador was one of the least safe places I´ve been, but luckily I didn´t get into any trouble. Took precautions like stuffing money in my sock when going into crowded areas, not keeping anything in my pockets (pickpockets are everywhere), only taking my camera out when with a group or near police (21 thousand cops patrolled the circuits every night, making everyone feel somewhat safe), etc.etc.
Other than the carnaval parades, I didn´t get up to too much in Salvador, saw a few tourist attractions, went to a decent beach, ate pretty poorly except for one night at an awesome churrascaria (all-you-can-eat place with divine meat), struggled to get change even with a R$10 (A$7) note, and became acquainted with a bunch of cocktails made with the local sugarcane rum, cachaça. After the week of partying was over, I caught a 30 hour bus back to Rio, which broke down, but hopped on another bus 1.5hrs later and all was ok. Longest bus trip of my life, but not really all that bad, I think I must be getting used to them.
