Carnaval in Brazil!!!

The first day in Salvador was absolutely crazy. We spent most of the morning walking around, and I believe we got asked for money at least twenty times. At least we weren’t mugged, however, which some SAS kids were. The city really didn’t smell very good, and it was a bit on the dirty side. One interesting thing was that in order to make it into Pelourinho (one of the older cities) you had to ride up in an elevator from the level of the port. It was also the last day of Carnaval so there were people EVERYWHERE. We headed back in the late afternoon to get “ready” for Carnaval: aka shower and dinner. I headed back out with my roommate, Christine, our friends Tea and Amanda. We were told Pelourinho was the safest part of the city for Carnaval, so that’s where we headed. We first ran into a group of missionaries, who were very nice and very entertained by the fact that we were Americans. It was really pretty random, but they wanted a picture with us so we figured, why not? Then it got a little crazy because we went down to see the parade.

Carnaval is mardi gras times one hundred. There were sooo many people, it was ridiculously crowded, everyone was drunk or getting drunk, there were vendors selling cheap beer everywhere, and a few interesting costumes. The parade consisted of huge triple-decker sized buses, with singers and a band on top playing music. The buses were about ten minutes apart with millions of people dancing like crazy in between them (which was marked off by ropes. People had paid over $500 just to be in the actual parade with the cars). We were on the side watching and eventually dancing.

Let’s see, I was kissed, gawked out, the works. Some guy was petting me (literally…blonde hair + Brazilian men = petting apparently) for about five minutes before we could finally get rid of him. Another guy picked me up twice for no reason. He just came up from behind me and threw me up in the air. Slightly scary but completely harmless. So it was a bit crazy, but we were still having fun (and completely sober too, I couldn’t imagine being drunk in that kind of craziness). I felt worse for Amanda; she probably got kissed the most because she was short…and most Brazilian men are pretty short. We took a break from the parade and headed back up to the older part of the city to see a more “tame” parade that including tribal-like dancing and Capoeira (a popular dance form that originally began as a means of teaching fellow slaves how to defend themselves without getting in trouble (bc they disguised it as a dance form). It’s practiced on street corners everywhere and they do tons of crazy moves. It’s kind of like break dancing.) After checking out the scene, we decided to head back down to the parade again for some more dancing. By this point of the night, however, (and it was only 9) things had definitely gotten rowdier. People were starting to push us, and then it got a little too sketchy for us. We were getting pick-pocketed every second (hands were constantly reaching in our pockets), but of course we didn’t have anything in them. It was still enough for us to put an end to our night and head back to the ship. Over all, Carnaval was something that I’m glad I got to experience, but once was enough. It was nice to head back early because I had to leave at 4:45 the next morning for a trip to Iguacu water falls.