Carnivale in Brazil....4 points of view

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The below text is transcribed from interviewing my friends after our trip through Brazil. Janet and Bianca were staying in Sao Paolo for a few months and had invited us down for Carnivale. We took a 45 hour bus (normally 36, but we got stuck in the rain for 10 hours) ride to Salvador, flew to Rio, and then bussed in back to Sao Paolo.

Things I'd like to remember?....the gang covers it mostly below, but I'd mention some
of the small things like trying to order gin and tonics and getting either or, meeting
Kika whence we moved to Barra, the first night of dancing/pickpocketing, the wait for the
waters to subside in the bus, the Rio samba parade, the beach, OTT Mercedes, playing
basketball in Salvador near the site of the 'death march', dancing to old school at
emporio in Ipanema, translating for Elain...and best of all...the mall...:)

Comments from others........

Janet says: "It was fucking excellent...the best holiday I've
ever had.Â* We celebrated Carnivale in Salvador with some of my bestest friends and we
lived right in the center of the Carnivale activities.Â* met some local
people....bought the t-shirts (seen that, done that)...sampled the local food....enjoyed
the caipirinhas...Carnivale was mad.Â* Getting on top of the lorry in the parade was
such a priviledge, going under the water spray and getting soaking wet....getting rained
upon and still having a good time.Â* Snogging local Brazilians.Â* Visiting the
most gorgeous beach in the world, playing with the 3 meter high waves and losing my
bikini.Â* Rio was cool but it was dissapointing ...the nightlife was
dissapointing...met a really nice guy.Â* I think that is what made it for me
actually.Â* Living at the hostel was like living in the student residence where
everyone was on holiday.Â* Entertaining some newly made friends.Â* Going up the
corcovador and seeing the entire (well not the entire) rio from up there was cool.
And then going to the beach at 7am on the last morning and watching the joggers and seeing
the entire Copacabana beach in a light I'd never seen before because the sun was just
rising.Â* It was stunning, it was absolutely stunning. Â* There are just so many
little things...I can't tell you...there are so many little things...you can see how
disjointed this already is...it seems so far away already as we've done so much (Editor's
note:Â* She's saying this the night we got back). Â* It feels as if we've done so
much travelling in the last 2 weeks and we've only begun our around the world trip.
I hope it remains as exciting."

Bianca says "I'll say you something when I'm pissed...I didn't
say anything...shut up Ravi <giggle>"

Johnny says "Back in Sao Paulo...Rain <sigh>...the feeling
I have now is eahhhh...I'm a bit hungry and a bit tired...I wanna get drunk.Â* I want
to go to the pool.Â* The temperature is nice, I'm not sticky all the time.Â* But I
miss it, I miss the heat, I miss the sunshing, I miss the fun and you can always take a
shower and go to the beach or to the pool or you can hang out in the air conditioned room
and watch TV.....but I really had a good time.Â* The best time, I stand corrected
(Janet prodded him)....actually I loved the 36 hour bus ride or perhaps the 365 hour bus
ride <cackle>...I slept, I listened through a book that Ravi brought...started a
second one...I ate and it was good.Â* Coming to Salvador, for me it was like oh my
god...it looked like total chaos and mayhem...everybody was crazy...the locals were crazy
and we were getting crazy. Got into the room and found a cockroach on a bed...Ravi killed
it so we gave it to him.Â* And then we just...well, the room was not good, but it was
ok for us though we felt we were in a hospital laying in a row...then we went outside and
all those carnivale trucks were parked right outside....(Janet asks how Brazilians snog)
It was really weird, not talking about snogging yet...you walked out to the street...and
there were a lot of people in the streets and like every other girl is looking at you and
smiling...weird...and you drink your beer and you turn around and somebody is tickling
your neck and its a little girl tickling my neck...not a little girl...I dont think they
were prostitutes...maybe it was my pale skin that was exotic.Â* Problem is that you
cant really talk to them...you can say hi, what's your name, I really don't speak
portugese...the weird thing is that they may be walking with their friends or boyfriends
and perhaps their boyfriends are encouraging them.Â*Â* Allright so how does
Brazilians snog...they are good snoggers, they know how to do it (Janet - was she a good
snog?) (Bianca - Her brother wasn't) eeeewwwwww, her brother wasn't? (Janet - !)Â* Ok,
that was her...shit....the first girl that I was supposed to meet, but she didn't show
up...but I didn't snog for points (Janet -Yes you did...you fucked for points too) No I
didn't...I was planning on showing this to my family (Janet - your mom will be proud of
you).Â* The beach trip with our bus friends was really cool...I loved itÂ* (Bianca
- ah coconut with whiskey)Â* All the food...carne do sol....got burned to a crisp
(Janet - Looked like a lobster) Felt like a lobster (Janet - Missed the block).
Antonio, he's the man...kept the beer flowing, mixed the whisky.Â* An example, I went
for a swim with Antonio Cesar and as soon as I came out of the water he just handed me a
beer glass....he was taking care of everybody.Â* (discussion of the low cost of
alcohol ensues).Â* I was trying to put on sunscreen and sunblock but obviously I
didn't put on enough and I paid for it.Â* And I met 2 of Antonio Grande's cousins and
they were nice.Â* I spent half an hour speaking portugese to them and all they found
out was that it was my first time in BRazil and one of them asked me if they could have my
blue eyes.Â* And I tried to have Erico teach me to say "You don't have to have
blue eyes to be beautiful" (Janet & Bianca - Puke Puke...If I didn't know you
better).Â* Puke off yourself, Janet...I didn't snog anyone in the toilet.Â* (Janet
- I met them in the toilet, I didn't snog them there).Â* We ended up in Pelerinho
every night and met the same people and we never got rid of them after that (Ravi -
Them???!?!?! try her..)Â* We moved to Barra and Ravi found his mall.Â* He was
happy.Â* (Bianca - we went swimming at night)Â* They went swimming after finding 2
foreskinless guys.Â* Me and Ravi stayed out of it.Â* We let them swim with 2
foreskinless guys.Â* We stayed in Barra, went to the beach, had a good time and
decided, lets leave for Rio.Â* Ravi and I decided to take the plane and the girls took
the bus.Â* On the plane, I met Annie.Â* She gave me this bracelet and it says
"Embranza do senhor do Bonfim do Bahia"...I don't know what it means.Â* She
was a nice girl.Â* She works in some sort of company.Â* I promised to email
her...I already did.Â* I should check my email soon.Â* Anyways, we got to Rio.
We got a very good reception.Â* HAndled by the tourist office.Â* Ravi got
his ticket verified that he could change it.Â* So we got a Taxi to the hotel.Â* We
dropped our stuff off and went to the Samba parade and we were thinking of the girls on
the bus as we were watching the parade go by.Â* At the parade, right behind us, we saw
the most beautiful girl I've ever seen in my life.Â* She was 15 so I didn't ask for
her phone number (Ravi - a very obvious 15) as Janet would chew my head off.Â* We were
kind off suspicious of all the Taxi drivers...we made it allright even though they were
laughing at us.Â* Got back to our hotel room and watched crappy TV.Â* Spent the
next day at the beach.Â* First a swim at the copacabana with lotsa dirt in the water.
But then we went to Ipanema, and it was much better...clean except for the man
eating fish.Â* (Janet - you're not saying how it felt...how it pleased you?
Express yourself!)Â* Well in a way, you have to go there yourself...you can read a
thousand travel descriptions, but you have to go.Â* I liked it but somebody else might
not like it.Â* My only regret is that I don't speak the language or anything similar
as it would have made the trip even more interesting.Â* I thought I was the only one
who felt the man eating fish...there were big and little fish and sometimes I felt a
little stinging sensation on my body.Â* It stopped as soon as I left the water and I
was not scared.Â* We went to pick up the girls and missed them Â* (B -were you
worried?) we were more like upset.Â* We had to find them. Â* Next day, still don't
know where the girls are but Ravi organized a Favela tour. Â* I didn't know what a
Favela was til I got in the car.Â* It turns out that FAvela is the name for the slums
in Rio.Â* Anyway, you can call it slum or you can call it a place where people are
trying to make a place for themselves.Â* The Favela's are run by drug gangs.Â* The
drug gangs make sure there is order.Â* Our tour guide spoke of them as good guys and
there was no robbery of tourists happening in the favelas, because the drug dealers had
told them not to as it would scare the rich people who come to buy cocaine.Â* But I
liked the Favela...I could live there.Â* After this, we went to the web cafe at
another mall and found out where the girls lived...cool...went back to the hotel and
called them...(Janet - swimming, went for a drink at copacabana beach).Â* (Bianca - it
was so dead there)Â* (Janet - it was crap, disappointing, disappointing) (Bianca -
Zero points).Â* Sugar loaf.Â* Nothing interesting happening but Janet still had to
spend the whole next day with a hangover.Â* (Janet - I had an ultrastrong
Caipirinha).Â* The strongest caipirinha known to man.Â* And I think this was
justification for spending the entire day in bed.Â* (J - I came to the beach)
After going for a swim, Janet decided to leave because it started to rain and she doesn't
like getting wet.Â* (Bianca - The waves were small.)Â* So we named them
Biancas...Actually not the waves, but rather the way you crashed into the sand after being
caught by one and then putting your entire swimsuit on. We had 2 norwegians with us, Roald
and Margarita.Â* We went to the supermarket and cooked spaghetti (24 hrs but closes at
10)....we ate the dinner, drank the beer and went with everyone at the hostel to emporio
where they also had some of the strongest caipirinhas known to man and they played cool
music chemically free of samba.Â* We got drunk...totally wasted...best part was where
we danced to Fuck You, I dont wanna do what you tell me.Â* (J - that was our
song...everyone was saying that they loved watching that norwegian guy...how the fuck did
you get so pissed?Â* Only 2 Caips..not much better than me) <sigh>Â* I say
'no comment'.Â* I could defend my case but there wouldn't be any defense.Â* (R -
You don't want to elaborate on waking up inÂ* copacabana?)Â* (J - What's that
girls name?Â* He gives me all his money to get him home and fucks off with some girl
and I think hes in some gutter.Â* Everyone was so annoyed with me for looking for you)
Sorry.Â* No, there is nothing to say.Â* We went to see christ statue which was a
nice experience.Â* We decided to leave the next day to go back to Sao Paulo.
(Bianca - What did you do the last night?)Â* Watched married with children.
<CAckle from the girls>Â* (B&J - We made our own Caipirinhas...played chasey
and got stopped by the police so went swimming) (R - :))Â* When we left Rio, a glue
sniffing dope stricken kid shook my hand...kinda weird.