Carnival

Carnival runs from the Friday the 5th March to Tuesday the 9th, 5 nights of partying, seems simple enough on paper. Well the whole event becomes a ground-hog day experience; you sleep late, you get up, you laxe around, you get ready to go out, you start drinking, dance and follow samba processions, you get home very late and go to bed= repeat for 5 days!!!

Carnival has been amazing and I would love to come back another year, everyone is just so happy and up for a party! My body did start rejecting me after the 3rd or 4th night of drinking and 4am bed times, but it was necessary to push through the pain barrier and complete the 5 days. As the barman at our hostel said, ´too much cachasa? So much cachca?´

The people were great where, we were staying as as we were there for 7 nights we made friends with the staff and we out with them at night. John and I become good friends with the barman who resembled Fagin from Oliver twist, and he made it his mission to give out as much free drink as possible, no one was complaining.

So I guess the best way to recount the week of debauchery is to give you a day by day synopsis with random words, although they did all meld together, especially since the same 5 songs were played repeated for the 5 nights!

Friday- day 1
A big stage in the main square with bands playing samba and popular music, lots of food stands all around with BBQs and people spraying foam at you. Big effigies or giants and scary looking people all around the town, hanging out windows and in the square. The beer for sale on the street is only 1 poundfor a can so you can imagine the aim, drink drink drink! The people also have a focus on making out, which is pretty wild, which I am sure is partly for show! The people are also really friendly.

We went out the first night with hostel people and there was dancing everywhere, and you follow the music round the streets. You follow the different samba schools and their dancers through the old town and always end up back at the main square.
The night saw the beginning of the ´Sophie, Sophie, Sophie´ chat by the hostel staff members. For some reason the barman and his friends took an interest in me and my face. Basically of the course of the whole of carnival, everytime one, or all of them saw me they began to chant my name, I dont know if this was because I was one of the only European girls in the hostel, but it became a frequent chant, and now I am sad when I dont here my name being chanted wherever I go. The chant was usually followed by attempts to get me to so cachaca shots, but I drew the line before dinner!
A great night, not too late, in before 4, and a warm up for the nights to come!

Saturday- day 2

Mud, mud, mud. It is traditional on the second day of carnival in paraty to take part in bloca de lama which is a mud festival where everyone goes down to the second beach of the town where there is a large mud section on the bay. There you cover yourself head to toe in mud and then take part in the dancing and drinking on the beach. There is live Ska7punk bands and everyone dances around in their swimwear and covered in mud. Many of the brazillians dress up as cavemen, symbollising primitivism. This means lots of real animal skulls on sticks, horses and dogs covered in mud and with seaweed and bones hanging from everyone and everything. After a few hours you go on a procession through the town with a liudspeaker and a flaot in front leading the chant of ´OOGA OOGA EEH EEH´. People throw around canisters of orange smoke (which burns the skin) and lots and lots of beer. It was a really creepy expereince and people get pretty wild runing and chanting and screaming. People looked scary too! Look at the links below for an idea.

So after this we triioed back home with everyone and began the long queue for hostel showers!

http://gobrazil.about.com/od/brazilcarnival/ig/Paraty-Mud-Carnival-Photos-/Paraty-Mud-Carnival.-3nV.htm

In the eveinng these things occured: girls dancing, meeting brazillians, drinking out of random people´s bottles, penis masks with condoms hanging off the noses, men dressed as women (which aparently is very common for all men to do during carnival), sexual connotations everywhere, an elected king of the carnival who had his own float and a tacky robe and crown, the queen of carnival is this very old granny who also has here own float and she rides around dancing, girls, music, dancing lessons from brazillians, people staring at us for being so out of place, cachaca, big models of monsters, demons, marching through town to samba bands etc.

The second night was epic and we managed to last until 4, the music really good and we met some Brazillians we had become friends with and we hung around with them. That evening there were these three little girls, about 8 years old, who were with their dad who owned a beer stand. They were like a miniture ´Destinys Child´, some of the best dancing I have ever seen. Each carnival song has a setof moves and the little girls started to teach me the moves. They were mesmorised by John and I, as we were so pale and fair haired beside them. We ended up dancing with them for a long time and then our Brazillian friends helped them talk to us. They told me I was beautiful- biggest complement EVER!!!!

Sunday- Day three: the fancy dress evening, about 30 men dressed up as the powerpuff girls and wheeled around a big soundsystem. They were dancing and grinding with each other and getting the crowds to join in. They also had with them a with giant paper mache penis spraying water at everyone! They also had light up penises in their pants, very classy. Face painting with hostel ppl, silver paint everywhere!

Day Four- After having our faces painted again, this time with pink glow in the dark paint, and several chants of ´Śophie, sophie, sophie´ and cachaca pressure drinking we headed out for more samba, processions and dancing ( I think you get the jist of it now). The atmosphere on this night was much more frenzied, I think as it was the second last night and people were really throwing themselves at each other!

Day Five-
Completely exhausted and really not feeling like going out, we were cheered up by managing to find a creperie to celebrate Shrove Tuesday. Once back at the hostel it was inevitable that we were going out. This night was much more chilled, the town people were alspo exhausted but it was a really happy atmosphere. We had befriended the tallest man in Paraty who was at least 6 foot 5 and we followed him onto the dancefloor, as the only tourists. The bands were good and we stayed out late, bobbing instead of dancing but having fun nonetheless.

You start seeing the same people every night and you have become part of the celebrations. It was such a great time and I have completely fallen in love with Brazil. The people are so great, and always so welcoming and up for fun.