It all started waaay back when.... years ago. Jumping at the chance of another free ticket holiday, Serena and I found ourselves on a tour in Egypt. We were joined by 16 other travellers 8 of whom were from Brazil. Sailing down the Nile on our Falucca, the light Cairo breeze blowing, our Brazilian travel companions started to tell us all about their country and about the giant party that happens every year in Rio de Janiero for Carnaval. Many Cairo beers later, it was decided then and there that YES! We would go to Brazil for Carnaval! And so the dream was born!
That day on the Falucca with our Brazilian friends way back when...
Years later, Serena and I once again visited the idea of our travels and where we were to go to next and we remembered that day on the Falucca and our promise to go to Rio. But if one is to travel all the way to Brazil, we may as well take 3 months off to see South America properly. Inorder to take 3 months off we would need to quit our jobs, and if we were to quit our jobs we may as well continue to travel the world starting off with the biggest party in the world... in Rio for Carnaval.... and so the spark continued to grow.
But as life typically does, it kept passing by and before we knew it, it was years later and one of us was still working at Skyrail for the past 8 years and the other was working as a travel agent sending people around the world and not the least, to RIO for CARNAVAL. After coming home from a European holiday I decided that was it. We needed to make our travel plans a reality. So calling up Serena to come over for a glass of wine (ok maybe a couple of glasses - just to get us in the Carnaval mood), we started to plan our journey. Things took a slightly different turn when I said I didn't want to wait till February 2011 to leave so we rearranged our itinerary and July 2010 became our new departure date starting our trip in LA and across the US.. Our plans of Rio were set aside... for the time being. One month before our departure date, I was at work and talking to a colleague about Carnaval when she mentioned that is was to be later in 2011. I just had this feeling... rather than it being run in the typical February as it had always been, it was going to be in March... the feeling got stronger and then I realised that the main Carnaval parade was to fall on my birthday, March 6th... but not just any birthday.... my 30th birthday!! It was a sign! It was meant to be. So calling up Serena right then and there, I told her we were going and booked in our trip immediately! Who knew where we were going to be around that time but it didn't matter. WE WERE GOING TO RIO CARNAVAL!
Oh my goodness, where did my Margarita go? A quick bevvy in Dallas airport
And discovering the comforts, or lack of, on the Dallas airport floor
Being on a package tour with Kumuka we had a few trips planned to give us a more cultural insight into the city and allowed us to meet other fellow like minded travellers too (most of whom were Aussies!) Therefore the next 5 days were generally filled with one half day tour, Chopp Brava Beer, a nap or two, more Chopp Brava beer, a visit to our favourite restaurant and waiters followed by dancing in the streets till the wee hours of the morning.
Our first (of many) Chopp Brava beer
The view from our favourite restaurant - prime people watching position
Our first street party in some random alleyOur cultural portion of the journey included a cable car visit to Sugarloaf Mountain with beautiful views overlooking the city and Copacabana beach, a train trip up the hill to see the amazing Christ the Redeemer statue and a jeep tour through the rainforest clad hillsides of the outer city. We decided it was our Brazilian version of the Kuranda Experience - cable car, scenic rail and army rainforest vehicle!! Made all the more funnier by the fact that, at our hotel we ran into Michael Woodwood, the son of the owners of Rainforestion in Kuranda. (Cairns people will understand this!).
The views looking down to Copacabana beach
An incredible statue
Serena checks out our jeep
Heading up Sugarloaf mountain...
Our signature shot looking back towards Rio
But what 'made' the trip were the street parties and the Grand Parade. On the Saturday night we headed out into the street to our usual restaurant spot for more beers, food and people watching. We saw men in tutus, dresses, skirts, VERY short shorts, jocks - you name it, they wore it. The wilder the better. Women were dressed up too but it was the men that kept us entertained with their array of general women's clothing, which we've been told is standard at any Carnival around the world.
The sights on the crazy streets of Rio...
Yes they are ALL men!!!
Yes they are ALL men!!!
Nice.... stripes!
Watch out for those forks!
Hey there huney buney!
Serena and I get in on the fun with a few outfit accessories of our own!
Staring out into the crowded night we noticed a lot of men also without shirts on, trying to parade their so called sculptured bodies. And then we saw them.... 2 visions out of a Gay mens magazine. T.H.E best bodies we've ever seen in our lives in the flesh! Buff, bronzed, sculpted bodies. And stare we did.... until we got sprung staring at them, by them! We were very soon joined at our table by these 2 local Brazilian fellows and their weedy (but very entertaining) little friend much to our horror!! What on earth were we going to say to these guys after we very obviously got caught gawking at them. But luck was on our side.... they had no English and we had no Portuguese! However we managed to communicate with their little understanding of English and our little (very little!) spoken Spanish and it turned out to be quite an entertaining evening. We were then invited by our new found best friends to go dancing with them and seeing as it was my last night as a 29 yr old, we both agreed 'You're only in Rio for Carnaval once!' so off we headed into the streets to where the latino music was pumping, the people were shaking hips and beer was being handed out amongst friends. What a night! We had so much fun dancing with everyone in the street and hardly even noticed that it had started to lightly rain which was actually cooling us down. We met old men, a group of fantastic young girls, drag queens and generally a lot of drunken but very happy Brazilians - all with no English of course! At midnight we celebrated the arrival of my birthday with more beer and salsa-ing (and maybe even a Brazilian kiss in there somewhere :)! ). It all ended at 2am in the morning when the band stopped and exhausted we put our new found friends into a taxi and we walked the whole one block back to our hotel. Now this is what Carnaval was all about! Oh and I really should mention that although they looked like they had just sprung from the cover page of GAY WEEKLY, there weren't! Yep, we were surprised too!
Preparing for our next night out on the streets of Rio
Cheeky Devil?
Our new found Brazilian friends Raffael and Vitor
And their little friend Caio joins the Devilish ranks
Dancing and more in the streets!
Our group of wonderful Brazilian chickies we met
More Brazilian dancing friends!
Serena finds her dance partner for the night!
A local lady who 'tried' to teach us to Salsa.... not much luck there!
Before we knew it, the evening had come around again and it was preparation time. Time to prepare for the biggest PARTY in the world! Donning our Carnaval masks we headed to the foyer to join the rest of the Kumuka group and hitting the subway into the insanity that is the various streets of Rio de Janiero during Carnaval, pushed and shoved our way onto the train. Walking into the Sambadrome was an amazing feeling. Crossing the bridge to get into the stadium, we could see some of the schools preparing with their costumes all brightly coloured. The roar coming from inside was so exciting. So we found our little spot in Section 5 and bit by bit we were joined by throngs of people lining the concreted stairs looking down to the parade walkway.
Carnaval Gals
Preparations in the street get ready to enter the Sambadrome
Let the PARTY begin
Getting in on the fun - another signature shot!
The inside looking down the Sambadrome
I caught one of the Parade dancers on the way out
A quick insight into what Carnaval is all about. In 1984 a Rio Architect was commissioned by the city council to design and have buil the Sambadrome so that schools could compete in festivities of costumes and music during the festival time. The Sambadrome itself is a very straight, long building with seating running down both lengths of the main parade drag. 6 schools compete, getting 1.5 hrs each to parade down the entire length of the drome with costumes, colour and theme of their choice. There is a 30 minute break in between each school (mostly to give us watchers time to rest our feet that we've been standing on for the past hour and a half!) The night begins around 9pm and finishes at 6am the following morning. There are 8 different categories they compete in all based on timing, rhythm, colour effects, costumes etc. It is an abundance of happy people chanting, waving and enjoying all the festivities that only a South American country can provide! We managed to hold out until half way through the second last
school at which time (3am) our feet begged us to go home!
Catching a taxi, we were told (in Portuguese!) by the taxi driver that he had to take us around the city as many streets were closed to to the Parade. We said that it was fine until we suddenly found ourselves cruising through the favellas - the slums and dodgiest part of Rio. We did notice though that he didn't take his foot off the accelerator and we were soon out of there back in the comfort of our hotel. Phew! We survived another night on the town in Rio!
Our last night in Rio saw us heading to Copacabana beach all together as one Kumuka group. Copacabana - where music and passion is always in fashion! (We were loving Peter Allen at this point!). Once again there were throngs of peple dancing and singing in the street. At one point we found a bus with a jazz band on top playing music and slowly cruising down the boulevarde. Everyone was singing along and slowly moving down the beach front with it. So we thought ' when in Rio......' It was then time to move onto Ipanema of course! This had to be the craziest time ever. I have never seen so many people in the streets. There was music coming from every corner, costumes and feathers a million. It was only when we got caught right in the middle of chaos, in a shoulder to shoulder packed street where we all had to hold onto each other's hands so we wouldn't get lost, that we realised... tonight was GAY night! We girls were fine but the Aussie boys we were with felt a little out of their league!!! After winding our way out of the crowd, we got ourselves some street meat (the term used for meat skewers sold at little street side booths) and some corn on the cob, we decided that it was time for us to head home as this was all becoming a little beyond us North Queenslander Aussies!
Party revellers samba their way down the street
While the band plays where else but on the bus roof top
He's totally into it...
They're totally into it...
And we're totally into it!
The boys enjoy their beers at the beach - Ben, Tim, Michael and Luke
With beer in hand, I attempt to phone home (not!)
Don't the boys look just sweet!
A random shot taken into the crowd captures Serena and a random guy!
A slightly different take on Snow White!
Finally, our our last day the sun decided to show up! It was a stunningly beautiful Rio day so where else to go but to the beaches of Rio! However, not before stopping by our favourite little restaurant for a bite to eat and to say goodbye to our new found waiter friends.
Our last meal at our favourite restaurant with our favourite waiter
By now we were as good as any local at using the subway system so we headed down to Copacabana beach, rented ourselves 2 chairs and an umbrella and took in the first rays of sunshine we'd seen in over 4 months. We also took in the sights of those world famous round butts on their women!! Wow... some took our breath away. Could they actually be natural??!
A man sells bikinis off an umbrella at the beach!
We share a last beer with Michael before heading off to the airport
All butts aside (nice pun Heidi!) it was that time of the trip... the time to head back to the hotel. pack our backpacks and head for the cold, wet north of Vancouver that we now call home. So now we have returned home, with the wonderful memories of our time in Rio for the biggest party in the world and me, another year older! It only continues to get better and better! And best yet, we survived Rio during Carnaval without a mugging or pick pocketing between us!
