Saturday April 2, 2011
Cloudy!
Malibu, California
So the main purpose of our trip was to enjoy Carnaval. And boy, did we! We went to the famous Sambadrome and saw the schools compete. The samba schools are from the favelas, but through corporate sponsorships, they have been able to create elaborate floats and costumes. Each Samba school parades down the Sambadrome for about an hour. The parade tells a story. We saw parades from two Samba schools. One parade was about the animal kingdom and the second parade was about Hollywood! We had reserve seats near the end of the parade which was nice but unfortunately could not get a good view of the folks dancing on the floor. Each parade is opened by a Maestro followed by dancers, floats, more dancers, floats, dancers etc. Each samba school has about 8-9 floats! And as you can see from the photos and videos they are elaborate! They people dance to the music specially composed by each samba school. We got a guide which has the storyline for each school's parade and the words to the music but it was in Portuguese so difficult for us to follow. The audience watching have flags and T-shirts of the samba school they want to support. And there are thousands of people cheering and dancing throughout the night. The parades start at 9pm to fireworks and typically ends around 3-4am or so. It is held on the Sunday and Monday before Ash Wednesday. Quite a show.
Getting to the Sambadrome and to your section can be a challenge. We hired a radio taxi which is an official Sambadrome taxi so was able to take us directly to our destination. Otherwise, one has to walk through some seedy areas but given they are tons of cops should be safe. But even outside the Sambadrome, everyone was partying and getting drunk. The "locals" sit in the free sitting zone and it is PACKED with people.
If I have a chance to do it again, I would join a Samba School and march in the parade. We met a couple from the States who just did that. Amazing.
Unfortunately, my battery died on my camera so had to take photos with my iphone. They weren't coming out great so instead used the video feature of the iphone. (I should start using it more!)
We left around 1am and were able to get a radio taxi right outside the gate. Very easy. but a late night for us!
View of Leblon and Ipanema on Carnaval night
The parade was broadcast live. The TV studio is in the dome. The Sambadrome was designed by Rio's famous architect Oscar Niemeyer and seats 90000 people. It was packed! The Sambadrome was specifically built to handle the Samba School parade/competition
Nicky and Sandra dressed up to party!
Look at those outfits!
All the floats had dancers/singers dressed in elaborate costumes
Here's a video of the ambiance
Carmen Miranda! The most famous Brazilian actress
And King Kong!
My only regret is not being able to see the folks parading and dancing on the floor. Also the prices are so expensive for good seats (1000 USD plus) that our taxi driver said that most people watch from TV and do block parties instead. Because ordinary Cariocas (Rio residents) can no longer afford the prices, block parties are becoming more popular.
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