`At the Copa! Copacabana!! The hottest spot north of Havana!!´
`Tall, tanned, young and lovely..the girl from Ipanema is walking!!´
And of course, who can forget `When my baby smiles at me I go to RioooOOo!! De Janeiro!!!´
These are just the small number of songs that have been stuck in my head since we arrived in this city. Its no wonder that this city have inspired famous tunes as these as it is truly unique and unforgettable.
Glen and I arrived on Friday from Manaus, and have been caught up in the Carnival madness since we came. The whole city has been plunged into a pool of hedonism, sex, flesh, dancing, samba music, costumes and copious amounts of alcohol. Like most pools however, there are also large quantities of human urine. Ew. I definitely long for streets that do not moonlight as toilets. Guys and beers are really not the best combination sometimes.
But I digress. This is a fantastic time, if not completely and utterly overwhelming. The first night Glen and I spent wandering around, getting lost in little streets and being swept up by the massive street parades (known as blocos or bandas) and impromptu parties. Everyone is dressed in costume, or at least parts of them are!! Anything passes as Carnival wear here, from tiaras to novelty sunglasses to alien suits to masks to some bizarre krumpler/cross dressing outfit that we came across last night. For Glen and I, our adornment of choice have been two eye masks lavished with plenty of glitter and big swirly lines. Glen also has this funny orange headband with orange hearts poking out like antenna, and for me, I have my gold sequined tiara that I have been wearing. I have grown very attached to this tiara, I think it must be the princess in me. You have to love a festival where it is perfectly acceptable to be wearing a gold sequinned tiara to anything and anywhere like I have been. I have worn it to restaurants, street parties, samba parades, bathrooms, the beach, uhh..this internet cafe right now. I love it. They will need to send security to remove it when Carnival is over.
Highlights of the weekend so far:
- Having dinner at Nova Capela, one of Lapa´s oldest dining institutions. Glen ordered ´cabrito´ which due to the funny Portuguese/Spanish translation, it may be goat. Or lamb. I had ´polvo´ which was octopus, and was expecting a small polite platter of chopped octopus in sauce. Instead, I received a plateful of spinach, and underneath was a creature of the deep that two men had to capture using weighted nets and a three-pronged fork. It was HUGE, and tentacles intact and as long as my arm. Needless to say, I pilfered from Glen´s goat/lamb.
- Meeting a group of med students who could speak limited English/Spanish and when they found out we were Australians, they tried communicating with us by yelling out any Aussie related thing they can think of. This resulted in them shouting ´Frenzal Rhomb!!! AC/DC! Highway to HELL!!´, then high fiving us triumphantly.
- People-watching. Brazilians are HOT. The men are unbelievably buff with all the soccer, and capoiera and whatever else they do. The women are naturally curvy, and have gorgeous features. They have humps and they certainly know how to move them.
- Samba Parade on Sunday night. This was AMAZING!! It definitely puts the Perth´s Christmas Pageant to shame (although there was no Fat Cat doing the samba so naturally I was quite disappointed). For once in my life, I am stuck for words. It is literally undescribable. It was such a feast of light, and sound, and energy (okay, I sound like I am describing a lightsaber. See how hard this is for me?), and people and dancing. And the floats, the costumes!! There were six samba schools who paraded, each school had over 1000 members, and five floats. It is a spectacular production. Each school had a theme and the whole process takes over eight months to prepare from start to finish. My favourite schools were Porto Da Pedra, which had a Japanese theme. There were samba geishas, and huge sushi restaurant floats. People were dressed as cherry tomatoes, bonsai trees and sushi boats, just to name a few. One float had a giant sumo wrestler resting in a huge rotating tub on the top. My other favourite school was Portela, who had an Environmental theme. This was Glen´s favourite. Their floats had enormous stingrays, elephants, cheetahs, eagles and water fountains. Each wing represented an animal, plant or fruit. We are planning to buy a DVD of the parade as soon as it is out, this will be the best way so we can actually show what we have seen. Alternatively, it may be out on Youtube so check it out if you can
- Glen and I doing the nasty bump-and-grind in the middle of a circle, surrounded by costumed Brazilians chanting ´Chope! Chope! Chope!´. Let´s hope this is not Portuguese for ´Loser! Loser! Loser!´
These are just a few highlights that we have had over the past few days. There are so much more. Tomorrow Glen and I leave Rio for our 7 week overland tour through South America. There will be 34 people in our group. Yegods, I hope they are okay people.
We don´t know when we can get to the internet or a phone again, but we will try if we can.
Take care, and see you all on the 27th March!!
Love Sandra
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