As and end to the blog, and an end to the trip, here is a sort of epilogue of the journey.
- Number of days travelled: 91
- Number of km travelled: 4010 km one way (more or less), and 6331 in total, only within Brazil!
- Number of "places" seen: 14 if one counts the main places and no excursions
- Number of long distance buses: 13 (it felt like more than that)
- Number of places stayed:18
- Number of countries been in: 2 ( the second one being Argentina for the waterfalls) technically 3 if one counts the country I letft
- Number of states been in: 7
- Number of hours spent on buses: 106 approximately
- Number of books read: 7 or 8
- Number of beaches seen: 14 more or less
- Number of bottles of insect repellent: 10 easily if not more!
- Number of new words learnt: over 50!!
- Favourite city: Rio and Salvador
- Favourite beach: Porto de Galinhas
- Favourite hostel: the one in Salvador, though the one in Pipa is a close second
- Favourite other: the place I stayed in in Santa Teresa was the best!!!
- Favourite person's house: Margaret's of course!
- Favourite "meet": so many to choose from! But I did love the Aussies, and Max of course (this doesn't mean all you others aren't special, of course you are !)
- Favourite travel buddy: Veronica of course. Goes without saying, she is my travel buddy, fellow carnival warrior, fellow house of horrors survivor, and many more.
Special mention to my Christmas family: thanks for showing me such a wonderful time over Christmas! Special thanks also to all the people who put me up in their houses: Margaret, Ana Maria, Capacete/Kelly, and Gilda. You were all fabulous and I really appreciate your help whilst I was out in Brazil, it really meant a lot to me and made my trip what it was.
Lastly, here is my map of my itinerary. Not very good but hopefully it will give you an idea
Wednesday 4 March 2009
More facts from carnival 2009
As the title suggests, here is the extra bits from carnival 2009, starting with a list of a few of the artists we saw and the times we got in every day. Sorry but I will not be referencing every single artist as this would take way too long so if you are interested you will have to look them up
Day 1: Banda Eva, Margareth Menezes, Chica Fé, ExaltaSamba, Pagodar't and a few more I am not so sure about... came in at about 4 or 5 am
Day 2: Psirico, Tomate, Voa Dois and Marianne de Castro (joined by Daniela Mercury) got home at around 2am
Day 3: we were dancing but managed to see Ile Aye at the end of the night, and Ara Ketu as we were going out. Got home at 5 or even 6 am!
Day 4: Pelourinho so we only saw a small band playing samba, a local band playing pop, and afro band walk through the pelourinho at a rather rapid pace. Came home at about 1 am, playing safe!
Day 5: Claudia Leitte, Ivete Sangalo, Jammil, Yuri da Cunha, Daniela Mercury (we went out with her) Came home exhausted around 3am having spent about 9 consecutive hours on our feet
Day 6: Filhos de Ghandi, Ivete Sangalo, Daniela Mercury, Harmonia do Samba, Psirico, David Guetta and Pete Tong, Chiclete com Banana. Came home at 4am
In fact we saw many more bands than those listed, I am sure, but sadly I cannot remember them all already. These are the main ones!
More random facts about carnival....Every day we would go out with our old old trainers and our money hidden in our underwear. Classic feat in Brazil, people put valuables in their underwear. We took no cameras except on certain days where I had my camera hidden in my pouch under my shorts. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!!! Our shoes were utterly disgusting by the end of it. Covered in mud, water, loo paper, wee and god knows what else, and truly stank! The smell during carnival was terrible. There were loads of portaloos everywhere but of course people ignored them and just pissed all over the place. It was horrible. Men peeing just about anywhere they could, women squatting down in the street or by the side of the pavement with no shame whatsoever and just carrying on partying afterwards. And the portaloos were terrible of course, so the city stank the whole time. The littering is also terrible in Brazil. It is a general problem like I have said before as people pollute and throw trash out the window and don't even care, but carnival was even worse. They provide no bins for anyone so people just end up throwing all their trash into the street, and the gutters lay filled to the brim with cans and cups and wrappers. The cans were constantly being picked out of their dripping mess of beer, drink, and god knows what else by people collecting cans. Young boys, men, old men, women, go around collecting empty cans and dragging them around in plastic bags in order to take them to be recycled and get money for it. Carnival was also a bit of a snog fest, with people grabbing each other all over the place, and we had to fight very hard so as not to be grabbed by random men as we went by. As Europeans we found this very hard to deal with. The men have an attitude which is very machiste if no worst, and act as if all women were their god given right. They grab, they talk to you, they try and stop you as you walk by, try and kiss you if you get an inch too close...It is quite tough going! But we were valiant and made it all the way through. The problem is that some girls respond to this behaviour and you would see people walking up to each other, kissing and then moving on. Very strange and not very healthy/clean at all. The worst for this patronising were the filhos de Ghandi, which is quite sad. Originally the Filhos de Ghandi were (and they actually still are) an Afro music band, created by a man who believed in Ghandi and his ideals, and decided to name the group after him. This remains true until today, however during carnival in order to be able to go out with the bloco, people have to be dressed up in their traditional costume. The men use this as an excuse to try and get as many girls as possible, and wander around showing off their costumes and waiting around for girls to show up. It's a real shame as they are giving the actual band a bad reputation and succeeds in annoying most girls.
During carnival we also learnt how to make a quick getaway, as you have to learn to run away from fights and from the police. We saw quite a few fights break out, especially whilst on the Campo Grande circuit, and a few down in Barra too but thankfully nothing ever happened to us except perhaps a bit of an initial scare and dead quick runaways from the scene. We had been told not to trust the police as they are unhelpful and unfriendly and it's true, they would walk by in lines and troups with their helmets shoved down over their heads and the truncheons ready for usage, and if you got in their way they would shove you quite hard out of the way. The main danger is that if a fight starts the police will jump in a just start hitting anyone. We saw a few people get arrested and it's sad because they are quite violent with them and you can tell that they are probably going to go and be beaten up. Even though they have probably done wrong, it still doesn't justify beating them to a pulp, but what can be done?
Aside from all that though carnival really was great. I think it was nice to be able to be in Salvador where it was possible to be part of the celebrations and be in the street and have fun with a crowd, and get to watch all the artists go by. We were incredibly lucky to be able to make it out as pipoca every night and not have had any trouble, and in the end we found that going out as pipoca was pretty good as you get to see a lot of artists go by and you can even follow a few if you trust the crowd that is following them. It was also exciting to get to see a few artists that I had heard a lot about and whose music I had listened to and see them perform live. So all in all, carnival was a good experience and definitely to be done again. I would like to do Rio carnival and Olinda carnival too, then I guess I will truly be able to decide which is my favourite.
Day 1: Banda Eva, Margareth Menezes, Chica Fé, ExaltaSamba, Pagodar't and a few more I am not so sure about... came in at about 4 or 5 am
Day 2: Psirico, Tomate, Voa Dois and Marianne de Castro (joined by Daniela Mercury) got home at around 2am
Day 3: we were dancing but managed to see Ile Aye at the end of the night, and Ara Ketu as we were going out. Got home at 5 or even 6 am!
Day 4: Pelourinho so we only saw a small band playing samba, a local band playing pop, and afro band walk through the pelourinho at a rather rapid pace. Came home at about 1 am, playing safe!
Day 5: Claudia Leitte, Ivete Sangalo, Jammil, Yuri da Cunha, Daniela Mercury (we went out with her) Came home exhausted around 3am having spent about 9 consecutive hours on our feet
Day 6: Filhos de Ghandi, Ivete Sangalo, Daniela Mercury, Harmonia do Samba, Psirico, David Guetta and Pete Tong, Chiclete com Banana. Came home at 4am
In fact we saw many more bands than those listed, I am sure, but sadly I cannot remember them all already. These are the main ones!
More random facts about carnival....Every day we would go out with our old old trainers and our money hidden in our underwear. Classic feat in Brazil, people put valuables in their underwear. We took no cameras except on certain days where I had my camera hidden in my pouch under my shorts. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!!! Our shoes were utterly disgusting by the end of it. Covered in mud, water, loo paper, wee and god knows what else, and truly stank! The smell during carnival was terrible. There were loads of portaloos everywhere but of course people ignored them and just pissed all over the place. It was horrible. Men peeing just about anywhere they could, women squatting down in the street or by the side of the pavement with no shame whatsoever and just carrying on partying afterwards. And the portaloos were terrible of course, so the city stank the whole time. The littering is also terrible in Brazil. It is a general problem like I have said before as people pollute and throw trash out the window and don't even care, but carnival was even worse. They provide no bins for anyone so people just end up throwing all their trash into the street, and the gutters lay filled to the brim with cans and cups and wrappers. The cans were constantly being picked out of their dripping mess of beer, drink, and god knows what else by people collecting cans. Young boys, men, old men, women, go around collecting empty cans and dragging them around in plastic bags in order to take them to be recycled and get money for it. Carnival was also a bit of a snog fest, with people grabbing each other all over the place, and we had to fight very hard so as not to be grabbed by random men as we went by. As Europeans we found this very hard to deal with. The men have an attitude which is very machiste if no worst, and act as if all women were their god given right. They grab, they talk to you, they try and stop you as you walk by, try and kiss you if you get an inch too close...It is quite tough going! But we were valiant and made it all the way through. The problem is that some girls respond to this behaviour and you would see people walking up to each other, kissing and then moving on. Very strange and not very healthy/clean at all. The worst for this patronising were the filhos de Ghandi, which is quite sad. Originally the Filhos de Ghandi were (and they actually still are) an Afro music band, created by a man who believed in Ghandi and his ideals, and decided to name the group after him. This remains true until today, however during carnival in order to be able to go out with the bloco, people have to be dressed up in their traditional costume. The men use this as an excuse to try and get as many girls as possible, and wander around showing off their costumes and waiting around for girls to show up. It's a real shame as they are giving the actual band a bad reputation and succeeds in annoying most girls.
During carnival we also learnt how to make a quick getaway, as you have to learn to run away from fights and from the police. We saw quite a few fights break out, especially whilst on the Campo Grande circuit, and a few down in Barra too but thankfully nothing ever happened to us except perhaps a bit of an initial scare and dead quick runaways from the scene. We had been told not to trust the police as they are unhelpful and unfriendly and it's true, they would walk by in lines and troups with their helmets shoved down over their heads and the truncheons ready for usage, and if you got in their way they would shove you quite hard out of the way. The main danger is that if a fight starts the police will jump in a just start hitting anyone. We saw a few people get arrested and it's sad because they are quite violent with them and you can tell that they are probably going to go and be beaten up. Even though they have probably done wrong, it still doesn't justify beating them to a pulp, but what can be done?
Aside from all that though carnival really was great. I think it was nice to be able to be in Salvador where it was possible to be part of the celebrations and be in the street and have fun with a crowd, and get to watch all the artists go by. We were incredibly lucky to be able to make it out as pipoca every night and not have had any trouble, and in the end we found that going out as pipoca was pretty good as you get to see a lot of artists go by and you can even follow a few if you trust the crowd that is following them. It was also exciting to get to see a few artists that I had heard a lot about and whose music I had listened to and see them perform live. So all in all, carnival was a good experience and definitely to be done again. I would like to do Rio carnival and Olinda carnival too, then I guess I will truly be able to decide which is my favourite.
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