Carnaval in Rio

Whoa...where do I begin?

I guess the best point would be when Kirk finally met up with us. After a flight delay in Dallas due to a bird in the engine of the plane that was supposed to take off in front of his, Kirk missed his connecting flight from Miami to Rio. Luckily, the attendant at the airpot booted somebody off of the last flight from Miami to Rio for that day. The story ended happily when he landed in Rio just a couple hours behind schedule. Only bummer was that the weather took a slight digger and we transitioned from sun to off-and-on showers.

From there, we didn't waste much time finding the party. Initially, we were just going out to have some lunch, couple drinks, and a walk-around. Before we knew it, we were dead center in the middle of a "banda" by the beach. A "banda" is, basically, a block party revolving around a float filled with musicians and a parade of people following the music. Caranaval here, seems like a great excuse for everybody to dress up...young, old, and transvestite. It's quite a sight.

We followed the "banda" until it dispersed close to sunset. We walked over to a point at the end of Ipanema and Leblon beaches and caught the sunset while enjoying a couple caipiroskas. Kirk took a little adventure down a storm drain while looking for a suitable "bathroom". He made it back up okay using all fours...we made sure he showered.

That night we headed back out in Ipanema to join the homosexual masses. We neglected to note in our research that Ipanema is the gay mecca during Carnaval. We mingle with some friendly characters, but we mostly did a lot of looking. The scene was pretty crazy. These boys and girls were letting loose in a serious way. All of us were hit on by at least one member of the same sex that evening...flattering, but no thanks.

We had high hopes that the sun would peek out the next day, but no such luck. After nursing our fragileness we popped over to Copacabana beach to check out the scene...hopefully, a little more hetero. It was actually mellow compared to the party we stumbled upon the previous day. Thank goodness because little did we know what lay ahead for us that night.

When someone thinks of Carnaval in Rio, I'm pretty sure the first thing that comes to mind is half-naked women dressed in extravegant, glittering costumes leading a huge procession of drummers and dressed-up samba dancers down the street. This part of Carnaval is called Sambòdromo. It's a stadium with a stretch of road 1 km long soley dedicated to Carnaval and it's famous samba parades. Here's a quick tutorial on how it works...

There are multiple Samba Schools in and around Rio de Janeiro. These schools spend the entire year preparing their processions...themes, costumes, bands, etc. Believe me, no expense is spared. Carnaval is the "big dance"...all of the Samba Schools compete for the title of the best in the city. Sambódromo is where all of this takes place. The first Samba School begins at about 8pm and the processions keep going until the sun comes up. It's curiously similar to any sporting event. There are fans and supporters...you can even buy t-shirts to show which school you're rooting for. There are vendors set up all around the stadium selling beer and food. The party extends all-the-way around the stadium much like a tailgate party.

We decided against purchasing tickets to enter the stadium because they were EXPENSIVE! Taking the cheap way out, we wandered over to the staging area where the multitudes of dancers lined up for the parade. IT WAS SO COOL! Everyone was so pumped to share their experience with us. They jumped at the opportunity to be in photos and a lot of them even let us try on their headpieces...which were actually pretty figgin heavy. I don't know how they Samba for a kilometer with these things on.

We stayed in the staging area until the very last school left for their turn in the Sambódromo...it was about 6 in the morning. From there we wandered back over to the food stalls and the party was still in full-effect.

We, finally, decided to call it a night when dawn was on the horizon. We never would've noticed how late it was had it not started to get brighter. There were gobs of people still dancing in the streets when we headed to the bus stop to catch a ride back to Ipanema.

So how do you follow a night like that? We weren't exactly sure either, but the following night was the Tuesday before lent...there had to be something great going on.

After a couple beers and a little research in Ipanema, we found ourselves at a HUGE party at the base of the Lapa Arches. How great...sightseeing and celebrating at the same time. There was a free concert set up and thousands of people dancing and wandering the streets. We enjoyed the world's strongest caiprioskas as well as our new favorite Brazilian hot dogs filled with EVERYTHING...they even put a quail egg on top!

After a few hours of taking in the scene at Lapa we decided to make our way back to Ipanema. We took the most GNARLY bus ride to date. The doors opened up and we were presented with a bus full of people still enjoying the party. The driver was a maniac, but luckily everyone in the bus was too busy socializing to notice. Note: the bus ride from Ipanema to Lapa took about a half hour. On the way back, it only took 9 minutes!

We had a nightcap at a party on the beach in Ipanema and then called it. Our livers had had enough. I can see now why Carnaval in Brazil is a once-in-a-lifetime experience...it would be physically impossible to do it twice.