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DAY ONE - QUINTA FEIRA, Feb 11, 2010.
I'm staying at a hostel in Pelhourinho during the week of Carnaval, the room is huge with 6 sets of bunk beds, some three stories tall.. 14 beds in total . One of the walls had ceiling-to-floor windows overlooking a street on the Carnaval route. For a week straight the sounds of drums and trumpets filled the room accompanied by a breeze of Bahian food that filled the air, only seeming to die down between the hours of 5am to 9am... even then, you'd still hear that one lone trumpeteer refusing to let the spirit die. It sounds annoying and tiresome, but it was so wonderful , the room was alive with this sense of positive energy and whimsical happiness.. constant happiness- maybe because I love the sound of drums, but it really was absolutely awesome.
Outside the hostel door
That morning (and for the rest of my mornings for the next 2 months) I woke up in a sweat because it was so hot outside and the breeze flowing through the windows wasn't enough to calm the heat, so I took a cold shower. In Brazil, most of the showers have an electric heater box connected to the head of the shower where you can flip from "summer" to "winter" mode (cold to luke warm) . 80% of Brazil uses this type of shower, so they are safe for the most part but, the sketchier the place --> naturally, the sketchier the shower box- sometimes with cables hanging out duct taped in some places- and its always in the back of your head, the idea of "electricity" , "water" and "me" in the same sentence.
I was traveled with a friend and he actually got shocked pretty bad when we were in Morro de Sao Paolo when he switched to "summer" mode- knocked down the shower curtain, sink, everything. Anyway apart from the sometimes sketch heater box, showering becomes really exciting ... but in the hostel, the showers were like 2 x 2 and the walls were covered with strands of girl hair (sharing three showers between 50 girls- its bound to happen)... ughhh that makes me gag just writing it, you know how i feel about hair - so each shower I took was a mix between a borderline panic attack and greatness.
So, everyone I had talked to about Carnaval in Salvador told me "You have to get tickets to a bloco one night... have to!" Okayyyy, whats a bloco? I rally the girl in the bed below me (Jena, an american girl studying abroad in Chile) to blindingly go on a bloco mission with me. In order to get tickets to whatever this thing was, we had to take a bus 45 minutes into the heart of Salvador- which wouldnt have been too long , but the traffic was terrible.. today was Day One of Carnaval. Made it. Check. Wait in line, get to the register and the ladys like, "Ok, who do you want to see?" What do you mean who do I want to see...? Then she looks at us like oh god, here we go...
... you can be one of three things at Carnaval: pipoca , bloco or camarote. Carnaval happens in 3 main places: I spent most of my nights at Barra- along the beach, Pelhourinho - the older historical part of the city where my hostel was , and Campo Grande (in between)- people said it was more dangerous and crowded, so I never went. Why go when you can go to the one by the beach.. was my reasoning. Big floats with singers and dancers on the top go down the Carnaval route, theres a roped off section around the float- bloco - everyone part of the bloco wears the same shirt .. your ticket is your shirt and you pick which singer's bloco you want to be apart of for example more famous = more $. So there's that, or you can buy a ticket to get entrance into a camarote which are like long multistoried bars along the route where you can stand above on the balcony and lookout- getting a better view of whats going on- some have free food and booze, depending how much you want to pay. Then Pipoca, popcorn in portuguese (because its what the crowd looks like jumping up and down from far away.. popping popcorn..) possibly the most fun, but kind of more dangerous- its the carnaval open crowds: easier to get robbed or trampled by a bunch of huge drunk dancing dudes.
What I wrote confused me and I was there, so here are some pictures to explain better...
Kind of an aerial view, you cant really see the big floats but everyone in purple is a part of the bloco, the screen in the middle is the float ahead, the buildings are filled with people a part of the Camarote and the people on the sides are Pipoca , the beach is on the right :)
I got tickets to Jamill's bloco- the float in the background is Jamill and everyone in yellow is a part of my bloco (taken while walking forward with my disposable camera)
The white long building is the Camarote, you can see the people on both floors. Camarotes are kind of lame because youre not part of the action..
Back to buying the tickets.. "Who do you want to see?" I looked at her puzzled and she points behind her, there were huge posters hanging of the different singers that I could chose from. I recognized one. They ranged in price from $100 real to $400 real depending on the singer and the night. She convinces us to go with Jammil- "he's very brazilian, very fun, very good" then she starts singing his song and dancing trying to put tune-to-face for us... nope, not a clue. Anyway sold. Jammil it was. She gives us the tickets and is like "okay nowwww, go turn these in for your shirts." haha seriously. This was a hugeeee process- this whole thing. The mall was a maze that not even a trained super rat could've found his way through- finally, we turned our paper tickets in for neon yellow jerseys and jumped in a cab back.. sweet only 6 hours later!
Anyway , by the time we got back to the hostel everyone was already starting to drink Natasha downstairs. Natasha = $9R for a bottle of vodka --> $4.50 USD . Me and Jena showered quick (aaah shower :) ), changed and rushed downstairs. Each night everyone congregated downstairs and pregamed until it was time to leave.
the route of Barra-Ondina starts at the lighthouse (2) and ends at a statue of Christ (10)
A big group of us headed down to Barra for Carnaval Night One! Its funny looking back because the first and second nights, everyone looks good, full of energy, pumped up, and excited... then by night 5 and 6- everyones exhausted and is forcing down the first two drinks of Natasha. For most of us, this will probably be our only Salvador carnaval experience and the hostels during carnaval week are expensive so... "Im a little tired- I think Im going to go to sleep early and read" kind of isnt an option. You gut it up for a week- I mean everynight I had a blast, it was just the starting motivation that lacked sometimes.
Walking up to the main street was nuts! The first night- out of all of them, was actually the least crowded- I mean, it was crowded but walkable. We went in as pipoca- theres beer vendor all up and down the pipoca side- selling cheap Skol or you'll find the occasional entrepreneur selling shots of whisky- redbull he brought from home or you can go down the steps to the beach and get caiparinhas. Everyone warns you "Dont go down to the beach" but after drinking and dancing all night, the robbery prevention tips seem to go out the window. So we danced allll night long- twirling and jamming to the beat of the drums- its a pretty good workout .... about 4am we felt a little drop fall from the sky.. "was that? ... No couldnt have been." Then all of a sudden: WOOOSH! it started pouring and the sweaty dancing crowd went wildddd, cheering on the rain, raising the festivive-ness so much higher! It was so awesome , and then just like it came, it went. We kept dancing , its fun because the music is constantly changing with the floats passing by. Me and Tim (the guy that got shocked), my friend from London, wanted to check out what it was like a little ways up the route, but in order to get there you would have to battle the crowds which seemed more of a hassle than risking your chances on the beach. I mean, all thats going to happen is you get robbed- neither of us had anything on us. So we battled the beach, as we're about to get to the steps to go back up- it gets kind of dark and we're talking about god knows what
Before carnaval what do they tell you:
1. No beach
2. No english
3. Nothing valuable
4. No dark secluded places
5. Dont wear flip flops
Throughout my entire backpacking trip through Brazil - this was my most idiot moment. Im speaking english with a tall blonde brittish boy, in sandles, on the beach where this part happened to be darker. Well done Elise.
So we're chatting and see these two guys sitting there, think nothing of it. One guy comes up to me, a skinny small guy... and pulls something really hard off my neck...? CR*P- my St Christopher gold necklace . Idiot! I always wear it , I compeltely forgot I had it on. I pannickly (that cant be how you spell that) feel for my neck , feel the chain but no charm. I love that necklace. LOVE-that-necklace. I ask Tim "Is my necklace still there?" In a nice, bit of a confused response , he says " Oh , were you wearing a necklace No, I dont see it." He wasnt even aware the guy took it. Then I dont know what happened, but kind of a blur came over me and something snapped.. I was so furious and without thinking, ran back to the skinny robber who was still sitting in the same spot- hadnt even left or anything (If I was a robber I would've fled the scene)- and started screaming at him. it was more like a mix of a scream- cry with a hint of desperation and a dash of crazy "GIVE ME BACK MY f**king NECKLACE!! " over and over. I cant believe how I was screaming at this poor man. No, not poor man, he robbed me! ... and out of all things, my St Christopher necklace... c'mon. So, Im causing a huge scene and he ends up giving it back to me and apologized! I remember the look on his face was like "Good god lady, just stop screaming, here, take your stupid charm." "Im sorry Im sorry" as hes giving it back, and I reply with "Thank you so much..." thank you? thank you for giving me back the necklace you ripped off my neck..? We completely deserved to get robbed though.
By this time, the sun was rising and we hopped into the back of a cab back to the hostel rather trying to find the rest of the group. We get in and the taxi driver begins driving like a mad man down all the back alleyways avoiding traffic with the windows down, blaring Dire Straits' "Sultans of Swing." It was awesome! We yell to him, "Romeo and Juliet! Romeo and Juliet!", but his english wasnt too hot and he didn't know what we were saying. So he lets me flip through the songs as hes dashing down the winding streets and I'm battling the warm ocean air rapidly flowing through the cab... no R&J on the cd. pshhh , lame. So Sultans of Swing remained on repeat, as he had had it before.. We got back to the hostel safe :)
Ok done! End of day 1. I didnt take my camera out, (thats also a "dont do" ) so sadly there are no pictures from Day 1 .
You got the necklace back!! Haha. That's awesome/scary/but awesome. I think I would have done the same.
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