Carnaval...

Our first taste of Carnaval happened by chance after we left the German restaurant. We had sought out ¨Rio´s Largest Bookstore", which was downtown near the restaurant, but it was closed so we kept it on the checklist for the nest couple of days. Fortunately, we found a crepe stand selling coconut and sweetened condensed milk crepes, so it was ok. Instead, we decided to wander through the streets downtown. There were many street vendors selling costume accessories and beer, so we kind of just followed an increasing density of vendors as we wandered deeper into the heart of downtown. As we walked, there seemed to be more and more people crowding in the streets all walking in the direction we were. Could this be a Carnaval event? Were we about to get our first taste of this magical week long celebration we`d anticipated so much? Well, eventually we reached a huge gathering of people who were all rushing to get in one of about 50 lines leading into this giant building. A stadium perhaps? Unsure of what was going on, we decided our best option was to jump in line. After a bit of standing there we realized that everyone else held tickets of some sort, so we went to explore what we were actually in line for and how to get tickets. Turns out it was just the ferry terminal and everyone was rushing home after work. Crazy. So we walked back in the direction we came from and heard some exceptionally loud music. With Samba school`s instruments as our guiding light we eventually found a largs stage of musicians and dancers and a whole bunch (the number is disputed) of people all partying in the streets. Needless to say, we joined in. We bought some Antarctica beer, which, as the name implies, is best consumed immediately from removal from the ice in order to avoid any flavors that might emerge from the corn based beer upon warming. We fought our way towards the stage and just as we reached a spot that seemed close enough the entire band and dancers began to parade through the crowd, encircled by a few dozen large men linking arms. And, like a bubble floating up through mollases, the entire mass slowly pushed through the crowd playing samba music and dancing. We walked with the parade a bit, and then got out in front to get the outside view and view the crowd rather than be in it. At roughly the moment we got to the front of the parade a bunch of fireworks went off in the square we were standing in and lit the night. Cheering ensued and the parade continued. We found a large government building in the parade´s path and perched ourselves up on some steps to get a better view and a seat.

bloco party in the street

While sitting there, a nice older guy who spoke decent English approached us and explained to us that the party going on was called a bloco and its one of 20 or so that would be happening throughout the week of Carnaval. He told us about the samba music and then gave us some ideas of what to do while we´re in Rio. After about 20 minutes he finally asked "Is my English improving?" and left us to continue our night, at which point we figured would consist of finding a churro stand and then working our way back to Copacobana to find our hotel. All the churro stands were closed, however, so we spent a while searching for an open one and then came to what looked like the remnants of another very loud bloco with a large float covered in speakers that were blasting our ear drums. We eventually found a bus headed in the general direction of our hotel and called it a night.

We woke up and asked the hotel receptionist about hiking up to Christ. He recommened a bus route, so of course, we didn´t follow his directions and attempted our own wayfinding to get there cheap. We walked FAR. After taking the metro to the base-ish of the neighborhood that led up the mountain to Christ we walked through the Santa Teresa favella (what exactly is a favella anyway?) and then some more through another neighborhood and then some more up through the Tijuca Forest National Park, until finally reaching the parking lot where all of the taxis and tour vans that were passing us on the way up were parked. After minor confusion we were told we needed to wait in a line to buy a ticket, although we weren´t sure what the ticket was really getting us. We barely had enough money to buy the tickets that we weren´t aware were required (even though John was here 2 years ago). Then, we got in another line, because that seemed like the thing to do and were quickly given the VIP service and waived to the front to hop in the front air conditioned seats of a shuttle, but really because we were a group of only two. No ticket needed yet. Once we arrived at the end of the road we gave our ticket to an attendant to enter the actual area of attraction.

View from the road about half way up the mountain

Acacia pointing to where we're trying to get to. That little figure way up on the mountain in the distance

We jumped in the elevator and arrived at the top, which was the ultimate clusterfuck of people all trying to pose like Christ on top of the railings meant to keep you from falling to your death, while their friends and family all sprawled on their backs on the ground attempting to photograph their friends with the statue. We took our obligatory pictures, and got a clear, but hazy 360 view of Rio.

View of the botanical gardens and the south side of the city from Christ

Imitating the busts

We felt like we should attempt to get our money´s worth hanging out at the top, but we were both incredibly hot, hungry, and thirsty. Also, crowds suck. So we began the long journey back down. Acacia fooled John into running part of the way, because it would be faster, which worked until John fooled Acacia into stopping to look at a monkey. Once out of the park we were able to catch a bus heading down (we didn´t care where) and ended up downtown. After stuffed churros and a per kilo buffet (this time Acacia was having the breakdown, but was just being a grump, not quite at the willing-to-eat-disgustingly-old-food point... standards or??) we went back to Rio´s largest bookstore and enjoyed the AC and bought a couple new books for way too much money, even after some successful haggling. We recouped at the hotel and then walked along the beach to Ipanema, where a local studying to be a tour guide had told us a bloco would be that night.


Upon reaching the Ipanema beach we made a similar attempt of following an increasing density of people and certified Antarctica sellers towards where we figured a bloco would be. Upon arriving at a square where hella people were dressed up, drinking, and starting to party we grabbed a seat to watch the action. We tried to quickly buy some beer and juice at a nearby market and burned about 30 minutes waiting in a massive amoeba of dumb underage kids trying to count their last pennies to buy some liquor and soda from the world´s most oblivious and slow cashier. We walked back to some seats in the plaza and sat there drinking beer for a while, just people watching and waiting for something exciting to happen. After a rather long wait, we were prepared to bus downtown to see what was going on there, but decided we should walk back towards the beach to check out the scene. We kind of just went with the river of people flowing along the beach walk towards the north end of Ipanema beach. Acacia spotted a crepe stand so, naturally, we got ourselves a coconut and sweetened condensed milk crepe to eat with our beers on the beach while we watched the line of dudes all peeing into the waves. At the north end of the beach we found a large crowd surrounding a stage of samba performers. Rather than join the crowd, we climbed up onto some rocks, the same rocks my dad had snapped a photo of some big Brazilian butts a couple years earier, and enjoyed the music from our perch up above the action. After killing our beers and then relieving our bladders, with me using the ocean and Acacia a port-a-potty, we decided to fight our way through the crowd and make our way to a bus downtown. Crowd fighting proved more difficult than anticipated as we almost ended up in the middle of a fight and came within inches of getting nailed by a fire cracker, but we finally got through to a bus stop and waited for any bus that was went towards downtown. Also a challenge because we only knew the word ´centro´ which didn´t appear on any of the first dozen buses, so we hopped on a bus that a bunch of costumed people were getting on figuring they were probably heading to the party. After a looooong bus ride and seeming to go everywhere in Rio besides downtown, I finally just said we should get off at the next stop because we were in an area I recognized as being close to downtown. It just so happened that the next stop was at the sambadrome!

At the sambadrome watching Carnaval Day 1 of 2013!

Even better than downtown, this is where the official parade was going on. So, to feed our indulgences yet again, we bought a skewer of fried shrimp and an abacaje and then made our way towards the entrance. Scalpers surrounded us so we eventually tried to haggle for tickets into the parade, but the language barrier and complete lack of knowledge about where the good seats were made doing so nearly impossible. Acacia came up with the idea of getting a predetermined amount of money we wanted to spend and just walk up to the scalpers with it in our hands until one of them traded us tickets for money. Worked like a charm! We ended up in the first section, which was where the dancers and floats began their parade down this massive stadium that was essentially bleacher seats along either side of a quarter mile stretch of road. The place was packed with people drinking and dancing this crazy fast ´samba´ business to the samba schools´ parade of a band followed by floats, a few competitive samba dancers and large number of costumed public that just signed up to be in the parade.

Each school spent about an hour doing their best to impress the judges and get a spot at the champions competition the following year. Fireworks introduced each new school which we stayed for 4 of. By about 3am we decided it was time to start heading back to our hotel. We grabbed some more fried shrimp on the way out and then wandered in the direction we thought a bus would be in. After several blocks of walking through a fairly sketchy area of Rio, we realized that the same ease of walking we had with no vehicles on the road also meant that we hadn´t seen any buses. Damn. Fortunately we found a metro station within eyesight of the bus stop and caught a train towards Copacobana. We got back to our hotel around 4:30 and then showered and crashed for a few hours of rest before breakfast and checkout...