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.
Saturday 28 February 2009
Carnaval 2009
WARNING!! LONG POST!!
After heading to Olinda by mistake, I finally made my way back down to Salvador for carnival. In Salvador I was met by Veronica and was lucky enough to be able to go and stay in the house she was staying in. She was staying with an extended friend of the family who lived really near the centre of town (Pelourinho/Lapa/Campo Grande), in a lovely huge house. We had a bedroom and a bathroom and wardrobe space all to ourselves! Such a nice change for me after quite a long time of backpacking and hostelling. Before carnival started we had a few days in which to sort stuff out: go and collect the souvenirs I had left with her as well as the 11 berimbaus, buy extra suitcases, and even more souvenirs for all you lucky people that got left back home!
I suppose I should explain the terms first before I start telling you all about our carnival adventure. There are basically three ways of doing carnival: with a bloco, in a camarote, or as pipoca. The bloco is basically the float that carries the artist, and you have to pay money to be able to walk within the ropes of the float. Camarote is a sort of balcony set up in buildings and houses all along the circuit, from which you get to safely watch the carnival parade go by. You also have to pay for these and the price varies depending on what is included: food, drink, massages etc. Pipoca is the last option and is free. Pipoca means popcorn and basically entails going out and following the crowd and the blocos but on the side, outside of the safety of the ropes. It is supposedly the most dangerous form of going out in carnival too, since it is free it is more available to all the people who cannot afford blocos or camarote (and these are quite expensive!). Also, there are three main carnival circuits: Dodo, Osmar, and Batatinho. Dodo is the circuit from Barra to Ondina which is on the seafront ; Osmar is the circuit in Campo Grande which is the in the centre of the city , and Batatinha remains in the Pelourinho. I hoep this helps to clarify a few things.
Carnival started on the Thursday the 19th, and so out we went to our first night. We had been told that on the first night there was a Mascarade bloco which was for free if you came in disguise, and that a friend of Veronica's would be joining this bloco and we should go and meet her there. So we pulled our costumes together and set off around midnight to go to Barra. We set off on foot from where we were staying, hoping to walk in the general direction of Barra and catch a taxi from the city centre. We had forgotten that there was also a whole parade going on in Campo Grande though and hit it on full swing. It was a bit scary as we were totally unprepared for this and found ourselves going AGAINST the crowd, with people pushing and shoving us all over, and it was genuinely quite hard to make any progress. Veronica lost her wig within seconds and we had to keep a tight grip on each other so as not to lose each other. We also had to keep on dodging the groping hands from the horrible men, who seem to think that carnival is an excuse to behave despicably and treat all women like objects. Eventually we made it to Barra in one piece, and tried to find the bloco we were meant to follow. It was lead by Magareth Menezes, and we did find it eventually and joined in. Inside the bloco was absolutely insane, it was full to the brim of people who were pushing, shoving and jumping around. The atmosphere was definitely better than that on the street in Campo Grande, but it was still quite an effort to try and walk with the bloco and so in the end we left it and went and sat on the edge and watched the other artists go by. (More details in another post I have decided).
Day 2: We headed out a bit earlier and a bit wiser this time and decided not to go back and try and walk through Campo Grande as that was as stupid idea. We headed back out to Barra and this time decided to stay safe and sit on the side of the road in order to watch the circuit go by as we had done the night before. It demands less energy and means you can still enjoy yourself and see bits of the artists as they go by. Our main attraction that night was seeing Marianne de Castro go by. She stopped in front of Daniela Mercury's camarote which is where we were sitting, and it was great because Daniela came out and sang a few songs with her. We got to join in and dance in the crowd and generally had a much better night that the one before, partly due to being more prepared. It rained on day 2 and we got a bit wet, but it was actually fun being out there and dancing in the rain and getting wet. The rain didn't last for long and it was just enough to be refreshing, as carnival was extremely hot! Not only the temperature, but mainly the crowds and crowds of people.
Day 3: On day 3 we went out dancing with the local Afro group Male Debale. Veronica had been doing a dance course in Salvador, and her dance teacher who worked closely with this group, had suggested that she go out dancing with them for carnival. Since she was up for it she put my name down too, and that is how we ended up going to dance in Afro bloco in the Salvador carnival 2009! In the morning we went to pick up our costumes from the costume factory which sat on the roof of someone's house in the middle of the favela, where 5 people had single handedly made all the costumes for the show. In the evening we went to our meeting point in Campo Grande and waited for ages. Now as mentioned above, the Campo Grande circuit is a little bit tougher than the one down in Barra. In fact it has a reputation as being a bit more dangerous. This is because for a start it is situated in the city centre, and therefore the streets are much narrower which makes the whole situation much more crowded. It is also just a bit more rough in general. Anyway, we started out with the bloco and made our grand departure, though the dancing fell through pretty early on as it was hard to keep everyone in organised lines in order for us to dance. Unfortunately the cordeiros (the people who hold the ropes around the blocos) were not very fussed about their jobs either and so they let lots of random people into the bloco who weren't supposed to be there. Gringos, spectators, people walking through the bloco all the time...We made slow progress. Also on this night it rained, and not just a brief shower. It rained pretty full on for at least half an hour if not longer, and we just had to continue marching on. At first it was fun, but then we got truly soaked and I started worrying about my camera which I hadn't thought to protect. On this circuit we also had to avoid a lot of fights. This is the main danger during carnival: running away from a fight. It is very easy to end up in the middle of one and one also has to be careful to avoid the police as they are a bit like the CRS in France and are bloody violent no matter who you are!! So on our circuit with Campo Grande we had to make a quick escape from several fights and in fact at one point the whole thing just went pear shaped. I saw a scuffle on the side and the police trying to arrest someone, and then I just saw cans flying everywhere and a huge jumble of people right within the bloco. It was a bit sad that the circuit had to be tainted by fights, but that is the reality of the carnival I suppose...Anyway we made it safely to the end of the circuit and did the WHOLE thing! Then we stayed on a little longer in order to watch Ile Aye come out. To be honest by this time I was so tired and aggravated by the crowd I didn't really care who was coming out, but I stayed on the none the less, and eventually we went home.
Day 4: we ended up having a quiet day after being so exhausted from our previous day in Campo Grande. We decided to go and check out what was going on in the pelourinho but unfortunately it rained for most of the time we were there and we just stayed sheltered under a roof. Eventually we saw an internet cafe was still open and migrated in there as we had been having problems with the computer at home and both needed to get some stuff done on the internet. We danced around a bit on the square outside the internet cafe where the was some live samba music going on but ended up going home quite early to collapse into bed!
Day 5: was the day of our bloco. We had decided to go out with Daniela Mercury as she was much cheaper than some of the more famous artists and was still someone we knew and whose music we trusted. We did really well on that day, as we stayed out on the streets for more than 12 hours. We had to sell a shirt for the bloco that we had extra as a friend of Veronica's was meant to come and couldn't in the end. So we left the house early, arrived at 2pm in Barra and attempted to sell the shirt. Lukcily we were successful and got to have a bit of a sit down before we went running off to see Ivete Sangalo start at 16h30. I am a massive fan of Ivete's partly due to Veronica and so was well excited about seeing her. We got there early or rather, they were running late and so we got to see Claudia Leitte first sing a bit of her repertoire. Finally, Ivete came out and sang her songs, and it was so much fun! She is so famous that the whole crowd knew the words to all her songs, and so everyone was sining along and jumping up and down and it was such a great atmosphere. Also, it was daylight which meant that we got to see her a bit better than normal and take some good pictures. We did really well as we even followed Ivete as pipoca for a bit in order to get a bit more of her show. I was so proud of us for doing that! After her we just biding our time until our own bloco went out, which ended up being quite a long time. Finally we joined our bloco and got to experience the madness of going out in the crowd within the ropes. It was good fun though exhausting as we did the whole of the Barra Ondina circuit and had been out since 2pm until 2am, so we were exhausted by the end of it and I could hardly walk anymore!! Daniela put on a good show though, and at one point along the way we saw Gilberto Gil in his camarote and so she sang with him, which was nice. Anyway we made it to the end of the circuit and of the day all in one and decided we were real warriors of the carnival!
Day 6: Last day of the carnival and we ended up in it by mistake. We had set out during the afternoon to go for a quiet wander around in the pelourinho. On our way there we realised the carnival was still going on but somehow this didn't register in our brains and so we continued to make our way into the pelourinho. By the time we were done with whatever we were doing though, we hit the carnival full blast! The filhos de Ghandi were going out on a procession (which actually looked really cool) and Ivete was following really close behind. The crowds were massive and there we were in flip flops, skirts and with handbags. There was no way we were going to get through so instead we just stayed there and watched Ivete go by a second time, and finally managed to find a less crowded shortcut way home. Once we had made it through our unexpected carnival we got ready and went out again down to Barra. This was our last and the last day of carnival, and we stayed out there until we got to see Chiclete com Banana, another massively famous group in the region. We were a bit worried as we had heard that their pipoca was the roughest that came, particularly when we saw them coming along rather unexpectedly and had no idea where to go and sit. Preferably out of the crowd, except that it was moving quite fast, and it was full of dodgy looking people all over the place!! We did manage to find a place to sit though, and in fact they were moving so fast that we even managed to follow them as pipoca (far behind the main crowd) all the way until our exit to go home. And that is how the carnival ended for us! I will write more facts about carnival in a seperate post as this one is already very long!
After heading to Olinda by mistake, I finally made my way back down to Salvador for carnival. In Salvador I was met by Veronica and was lucky enough to be able to go and stay in the house she was staying in. She was staying with an extended friend of the family who lived really near the centre of town (Pelourinho/Lapa/Campo Grande), in a lovely huge house. We had a bedroom and a bathroom and wardrobe space all to ourselves! Such a nice change for me after quite a long time of backpacking and hostelling. Before carnival started we had a few days in which to sort stuff out: go and collect the souvenirs I had left with her as well as the 11 berimbaus, buy extra suitcases, and even more souvenirs for all you lucky people that got left back home!
I suppose I should explain the terms first before I start telling you all about our carnival adventure. There are basically three ways of doing carnival: with a bloco, in a camarote, or as pipoca. The bloco is basically the float that carries the artist, and you have to pay money to be able to walk within the ropes of the float. Camarote is a sort of balcony set up in buildings and houses all along the circuit, from which you get to safely watch the carnival parade go by. You also have to pay for these and the price varies depending on what is included: food, drink, massages etc. Pipoca is the last option and is free. Pipoca means popcorn and basically entails going out and following the crowd and the blocos but on the side, outside of the safety of the ropes. It is supposedly the most dangerous form of going out in carnival too, since it is free it is more available to all the people who cannot afford blocos or camarote (and these are quite expensive!). Also, there are three main carnival circuits: Dodo, Osmar, and Batatinho. Dodo is the circuit from Barra to Ondina which is on the seafront ; Osmar is the circuit in Campo Grande which is the in the centre of the city , and Batatinha remains in the Pelourinho. I hoep this helps to clarify a few things.
Carnival started on the Thursday the 19th, and so out we went to our first night. We had been told that on the first night there was a Mascarade bloco which was for free if you came in disguise, and that a friend of Veronica's would be joining this bloco and we should go and meet her there. So we pulled our costumes together and set off around midnight to go to Barra. We set off on foot from where we were staying, hoping to walk in the general direction of Barra and catch a taxi from the city centre. We had forgotten that there was also a whole parade going on in Campo Grande though and hit it on full swing. It was a bit scary as we were totally unprepared for this and found ourselves going AGAINST the crowd, with people pushing and shoving us all over, and it was genuinely quite hard to make any progress. Veronica lost her wig within seconds and we had to keep a tight grip on each other so as not to lose each other. We also had to keep on dodging the groping hands from the horrible men, who seem to think that carnival is an excuse to behave despicably and treat all women like objects. Eventually we made it to Barra in one piece, and tried to find the bloco we were meant to follow. It was lead by Magareth Menezes, and we did find it eventually and joined in. Inside the bloco was absolutely insane, it was full to the brim of people who were pushing, shoving and jumping around. The atmosphere was definitely better than that on the street in Campo Grande, but it was still quite an effort to try and walk with the bloco and so in the end we left it and went and sat on the edge and watched the other artists go by. (More details in another post I have decided).
Day 2: We headed out a bit earlier and a bit wiser this time and decided not to go back and try and walk through Campo Grande as that was as stupid idea. We headed back out to Barra and this time decided to stay safe and sit on the side of the road in order to watch the circuit go by as we had done the night before. It demands less energy and means you can still enjoy yourself and see bits of the artists as they go by. Our main attraction that night was seeing Marianne de Castro go by. She stopped in front of Daniela Mercury's camarote which is where we were sitting, and it was great because Daniela came out and sang a few songs with her. We got to join in and dance in the crowd and generally had a much better night that the one before, partly due to being more prepared. It rained on day 2 and we got a bit wet, but it was actually fun being out there and dancing in the rain and getting wet. The rain didn't last for long and it was just enough to be refreshing, as carnival was extremely hot! Not only the temperature, but mainly the crowds and crowds of people.
Day 3: On day 3 we went out dancing with the local Afro group Male Debale. Veronica had been doing a dance course in Salvador, and her dance teacher who worked closely with this group, had suggested that she go out dancing with them for carnival. Since she was up for it she put my name down too, and that is how we ended up going to dance in Afro bloco in the Salvador carnival 2009! In the morning we went to pick up our costumes from the costume factory which sat on the roof of someone's house in the middle of the favela, where 5 people had single handedly made all the costumes for the show. In the evening we went to our meeting point in Campo Grande and waited for ages. Now as mentioned above, the Campo Grande circuit is a little bit tougher than the one down in Barra. In fact it has a reputation as being a bit more dangerous. This is because for a start it is situated in the city centre, and therefore the streets are much narrower which makes the whole situation much more crowded. It is also just a bit more rough in general. Anyway, we started out with the bloco and made our grand departure, though the dancing fell through pretty early on as it was hard to keep everyone in organised lines in order for us to dance. Unfortunately the cordeiros (the people who hold the ropes around the blocos) were not very fussed about their jobs either and so they let lots of random people into the bloco who weren't supposed to be there. Gringos, spectators, people walking through the bloco all the time...We made slow progress. Also on this night it rained, and not just a brief shower. It rained pretty full on for at least half an hour if not longer, and we just had to continue marching on. At first it was fun, but then we got truly soaked and I started worrying about my camera which I hadn't thought to protect. On this circuit we also had to avoid a lot of fights. This is the main danger during carnival: running away from a fight. It is very easy to end up in the middle of one and one also has to be careful to avoid the police as they are a bit like the CRS in France and are bloody violent no matter who you are!! So on our circuit with Campo Grande we had to make a quick escape from several fights and in fact at one point the whole thing just went pear shaped. I saw a scuffle on the side and the police trying to arrest someone, and then I just saw cans flying everywhere and a huge jumble of people right within the bloco. It was a bit sad that the circuit had to be tainted by fights, but that is the reality of the carnival I suppose...Anyway we made it safely to the end of the circuit and did the WHOLE thing! Then we stayed on a little longer in order to watch Ile Aye come out. To be honest by this time I was so tired and aggravated by the crowd I didn't really care who was coming out, but I stayed on the none the less, and eventually we went home.
Day 4: we ended up having a quiet day after being so exhausted from our previous day in Campo Grande. We decided to go and check out what was going on in the pelourinho but unfortunately it rained for most of the time we were there and we just stayed sheltered under a roof. Eventually we saw an internet cafe was still open and migrated in there as we had been having problems with the computer at home and both needed to get some stuff done on the internet. We danced around a bit on the square outside the internet cafe where the was some live samba music going on but ended up going home quite early to collapse into bed!
Day 5: was the day of our bloco. We had decided to go out with Daniela Mercury as she was much cheaper than some of the more famous artists and was still someone we knew and whose music we trusted. We did really well on that day, as we stayed out on the streets for more than 12 hours. We had to sell a shirt for the bloco that we had extra as a friend of Veronica's was meant to come and couldn't in the end. So we left the house early, arrived at 2pm in Barra and attempted to sell the shirt. Lukcily we were successful and got to have a bit of a sit down before we went running off to see Ivete Sangalo start at 16h30. I am a massive fan of Ivete's partly due to Veronica and so was well excited about seeing her. We got there early or rather, they were running late and so we got to see Claudia Leitte first sing a bit of her repertoire. Finally, Ivete came out and sang her songs, and it was so much fun! She is so famous that the whole crowd knew the words to all her songs, and so everyone was sining along and jumping up and down and it was such a great atmosphere. Also, it was daylight which meant that we got to see her a bit better than normal and take some good pictures. We did really well as we even followed Ivete as pipoca for a bit in order to get a bit more of her show. I was so proud of us for doing that! After her we just biding our time until our own bloco went out, which ended up being quite a long time. Finally we joined our bloco and got to experience the madness of going out in the crowd within the ropes. It was good fun though exhausting as we did the whole of the Barra Ondina circuit and had been out since 2pm until 2am, so we were exhausted by the end of it and I could hardly walk anymore!! Daniela put on a good show though, and at one point along the way we saw Gilberto Gil in his camarote and so she sang with him, which was nice. Anyway we made it to the end of the circuit and of the day all in one and decided we were real warriors of the carnival!
Day 6: Last day of the carnival and we ended up in it by mistake. We had set out during the afternoon to go for a quiet wander around in the pelourinho. On our way there we realised the carnival was still going on but somehow this didn't register in our brains and so we continued to make our way into the pelourinho. By the time we were done with whatever we were doing though, we hit the carnival full blast! The filhos de Ghandi were going out on a procession (which actually looked really cool) and Ivete was following really close behind. The crowds were massive and there we were in flip flops, skirts and with handbags. There was no way we were going to get through so instead we just stayed there and watched Ivete go by a second time, and finally managed to find a less crowded shortcut way home. Once we had made it through our unexpected carnival we got ready and went out again down to Barra. This was our last and the last day of carnival, and we stayed out there until we got to see Chiclete com Banana, another massively famous group in the region. We were a bit worried as we had heard that their pipoca was the roughest that came, particularly when we saw them coming along rather unexpectedly and had no idea where to go and sit. Preferably out of the crowd, except that it was moving quite fast, and it was full of dodgy looking people all over the place!! We did manage to find a place to sit though, and in fact they were moving so fast that we even managed to follow them as pipoca (far behind the main crowd) all the way until our exit to go home. And that is how the carnival ended for us! I will write more facts about carnival in a seperate post as this one is already very long!
Friday 20 February 2009
Pipa
Last post before the madness of carnival!
I forgot to mention another funny thing about Natal which totally fits in to the madness of life in Brazil. On one day we were giving a lift to Mestre Shotokan in order for him to catch his bus home after the event. The only problem was that he was running late, his bus was meant to leave at 6pm and it was 6pm already. So we drove like mad in order to catch up with the bus, driving through red lights and all. Finally we saw the bus, and we started flashing it and honking at it. Then, when we reached a red light he got out of the car to go and ask if it would let him in, and it did! It drove a bit further on and then pulled over on the side of the road and let him in. How crazy!! One would never witness this in Europe, but I thought it was hilarious, and also so representative of what life is like in Brazil.
After Natal I went to Pipa, a beach resort south of Natal. I decided not to go all the way to Fortaleza as I just could not face another long bus ride from Fortaleza to Salvador and decided to go and chill at a beach instead. M. Ataulfo kindly offered to drive me to Pipa and so we made a day excursion of it: me, Horrivel, Capacete and M. Ataulfo all drove down to Pipa and spent the day there just enjoying the sun and the nice view. M. Ataulfo is really sweet and is really interested in learning english so he was asking me all sorts of questions on the language and how it worked. At the end of the day they dropped me off at my pousada and headed home. The pousada in Pipa was lovely as it was brand new, and all the rooms had great balconies with hammocks on them, a fantastic idea! It also had a nice pool and two brand new computers. I met lots of people there, mainly english people, and interestingly enough bumped in to the SAME english guy I had first met in Rio and then in Olinda. How random!!! Anyway it was nice as I met an english girl from London called Abby, a Brazilian girl from Porto Allegre called Vania and a whole group of English guys travelling together as well as loads more people. Pipa was nice as it is surrounded by cliffs and has an impressive setting. Also, the water, as always in the North East is an amazing turquoise which makes it all the more impressive, and Pipa has a reputation for having lots of dolphins in its waters.
On the first day we all went for a surf lesson and walked accross several beaches to get to the surf beach, including a very looooong crossing of rocks and stones to reach the final destination, which was painful and tiring. Finally we made it, and went into the waters to try and surf. It was very frustrating as the hardest bit really, was getting out to sea as every time you made some progress a big wave came and carried you back out towards the shore. I found this very frustrating as really the moment you ride the wave does not last very long and then you have to start battling again to get out to sea. It is so exhausting!! Also, I was not very good at getting up on the board which frustrated me too. Still, it was good fun and at least now I can say I tried. The next day, my pecs were killing me like crazy from all the pushing up with your arms on the board. The next day I went to the praia dos golfinhos in order to try and get some pictures of the dolphins but it was rather unsuccessful, and I almost regretted having the camera as I couldn't go out and swim with them. On my last day in Pipa we went back to the surf beach, and that was when I saw the most dolphins. Some of them were really close to the shore, and I even saw one jump out of the sea several times, just like in the documentaries! It was very exciting and I was glad to be able to have seen them, even if I didn't get to swim with them.
In the evenings we went out a few times but I was actually not much impressed by Pipa nightlife. It existed, but it was way to European for my taste. The bars there just blasted out European hip hop and commercial techno tunes which I just hate! It was obvious that all the customers were Europeans and so that's what they were catering to, but it's just not my taste. I love Brazilian culture and did not come to Brazil to experience Europe so was not too happy with that. Still, it was good to be able to go out at night and have some company to have fun. My plan of chilling out and resting before carnival obviously failed...
I managed to get a lift back from Pipa with a Brazilian guy from Porto Allegre. He was driving to Recife and originally I had asked him if he could drop me off in Joao Pessoa. However he pointed out to me that Recife was closer to Salvador and that there would be more frequent buses, so I figured why not save myself a few more kilometres and go down to Recife. It was me and Vania, the other Brazilian girl,as well as him in the car, and he felt perfectly safe, and so he was! We stopped off quite a bit on the way looking at the views and taking pictures, and he drove Brazilian style. Eventually we made it to Recife but as it was a Sunday decided to stop off in Olinda first to see the last mini carnival before the real carnival. That was really cool and in the end I decided to stay in Olinda again as I had liked it there so much. It was really nice as by then the city was fully decorated for carnival and the atmosphere was getting much crazier due to the start of carnival being so close. I happened upon the frenchies again and actually got to see those that were still there playing in their band in the parade which was nice. It was also really lovely to have been able to see the progession in the decoration of the city of Olinda, with it being fully decorated that sunday with all the colourful bits of paper hanging in the streets, and lots of new graffiti and drawings having appeared on the walls of the houses. Near the hostel they had set up a huge outdoor stage with free concerts, and so on Sunday night we got to go and see the Velha Guarda of Mangueira samba school playing. Mangueira is a really famous samba school from Rio and the velha guarda were so sweet: little old ladies and men living it up to the samba! The next day Marcelo D2 was due to be playing, and I was absolutely gutted that I had to get the bus to Salvador that same evening. I love Marcelo D2 and the chance of seeing him play for free in Brazil was next to none, and I can't believe I passed it up! Still, during the day I heard him rehearsing and so I ran over to the scene to see if it was him, then ran back to the hostel to get my camera, and then ran back to the stage. Unfortunately, shortly after he stopped rehearsing as the sound was bad, but at least I got to see him up close and see a bit of the rehearsal. How exciting!! And, one last coincidence for Olinda: as I woke up and went down for breakfast on the Monday morning, who did I run into but Mariana from the London School Samba!! Mariana is a Brazilian lady who teaches with the LSS and I had met her several times before in London. How incredible to happen upon her in Olinda. It was really nice though as we got to have a chat and she filled me in on what she was doing in Brazil and her travels.
I think that is enough for now about Pipa and Olinda as my last post will be about my return to Salvador and the carnival which is currently going on outside the window. I can't believe my trip is so close to its end. More soon, as a last post and synopsis come along. Happy Carnival everyone!
I forgot to mention another funny thing about Natal which totally fits in to the madness of life in Brazil. On one day we were giving a lift to Mestre Shotokan in order for him to catch his bus home after the event. The only problem was that he was running late, his bus was meant to leave at 6pm and it was 6pm already. So we drove like mad in order to catch up with the bus, driving through red lights and all. Finally we saw the bus, and we started flashing it and honking at it. Then, when we reached a red light he got out of the car to go and ask if it would let him in, and it did! It drove a bit further on and then pulled over on the side of the road and let him in. How crazy!! One would never witness this in Europe, but I thought it was hilarious, and also so representative of what life is like in Brazil.
After Natal I went to Pipa, a beach resort south of Natal. I decided not to go all the way to Fortaleza as I just could not face another long bus ride from Fortaleza to Salvador and decided to go and chill at a beach instead. M. Ataulfo kindly offered to drive me to Pipa and so we made a day excursion of it: me, Horrivel, Capacete and M. Ataulfo all drove down to Pipa and spent the day there just enjoying the sun and the nice view. M. Ataulfo is really sweet and is really interested in learning english so he was asking me all sorts of questions on the language and how it worked. At the end of the day they dropped me off at my pousada and headed home. The pousada in Pipa was lovely as it was brand new, and all the rooms had great balconies with hammocks on them, a fantastic idea! It also had a nice pool and two brand new computers. I met lots of people there, mainly english people, and interestingly enough bumped in to the SAME english guy I had first met in Rio and then in Olinda. How random!!! Anyway it was nice as I met an english girl from London called Abby, a Brazilian girl from Porto Allegre called Vania and a whole group of English guys travelling together as well as loads more people. Pipa was nice as it is surrounded by cliffs and has an impressive setting. Also, the water, as always in the North East is an amazing turquoise which makes it all the more impressive, and Pipa has a reputation for having lots of dolphins in its waters.
On the first day we all went for a surf lesson and walked accross several beaches to get to the surf beach, including a very looooong crossing of rocks and stones to reach the final destination, which was painful and tiring. Finally we made it, and went into the waters to try and surf. It was very frustrating as the hardest bit really, was getting out to sea as every time you made some progress a big wave came and carried you back out towards the shore. I found this very frustrating as really the moment you ride the wave does not last very long and then you have to start battling again to get out to sea. It is so exhausting!! Also, I was not very good at getting up on the board which frustrated me too. Still, it was good fun and at least now I can say I tried. The next day, my pecs were killing me like crazy from all the pushing up with your arms on the board. The next day I went to the praia dos golfinhos in order to try and get some pictures of the dolphins but it was rather unsuccessful, and I almost regretted having the camera as I couldn't go out and swim with them. On my last day in Pipa we went back to the surf beach, and that was when I saw the most dolphins. Some of them were really close to the shore, and I even saw one jump out of the sea several times, just like in the documentaries! It was very exciting and I was glad to be able to have seen them, even if I didn't get to swim with them.
In the evenings we went out a few times but I was actually not much impressed by Pipa nightlife. It existed, but it was way to European for my taste. The bars there just blasted out European hip hop and commercial techno tunes which I just hate! It was obvious that all the customers were Europeans and so that's what they were catering to, but it's just not my taste. I love Brazilian culture and did not come to Brazil to experience Europe so was not too happy with that. Still, it was good to be able to go out at night and have some company to have fun. My plan of chilling out and resting before carnival obviously failed...
I managed to get a lift back from Pipa with a Brazilian guy from Porto Allegre. He was driving to Recife and originally I had asked him if he could drop me off in Joao Pessoa. However he pointed out to me that Recife was closer to Salvador and that there would be more frequent buses, so I figured why not save myself a few more kilometres and go down to Recife. It was me and Vania, the other Brazilian girl,as well as him in the car, and he felt perfectly safe, and so he was! We stopped off quite a bit on the way looking at the views and taking pictures, and he drove Brazilian style. Eventually we made it to Recife but as it was a Sunday decided to stop off in Olinda first to see the last mini carnival before the real carnival. That was really cool and in the end I decided to stay in Olinda again as I had liked it there so much. It was really nice as by then the city was fully decorated for carnival and the atmosphere was getting much crazier due to the start of carnival being so close. I happened upon the frenchies again and actually got to see those that were still there playing in their band in the parade which was nice. It was also really lovely to have been able to see the progession in the decoration of the city of Olinda, with it being fully decorated that sunday with all the colourful bits of paper hanging in the streets, and lots of new graffiti and drawings having appeared on the walls of the houses. Near the hostel they had set up a huge outdoor stage with free concerts, and so on Sunday night we got to go and see the Velha Guarda of Mangueira samba school playing. Mangueira is a really famous samba school from Rio and the velha guarda were so sweet: little old ladies and men living it up to the samba! The next day Marcelo D2 was due to be playing, and I was absolutely gutted that I had to get the bus to Salvador that same evening. I love Marcelo D2 and the chance of seeing him play for free in Brazil was next to none, and I can't believe I passed it up! Still, during the day I heard him rehearsing and so I ran over to the scene to see if it was him, then ran back to the hostel to get my camera, and then ran back to the stage. Unfortunately, shortly after he stopped rehearsing as the sound was bad, but at least I got to see him up close and see a bit of the rehearsal. How exciting!! And, one last coincidence for Olinda: as I woke up and went down for breakfast on the Monday morning, who did I run into but Mariana from the London School Samba!! Mariana is a Brazilian lady who teaches with the LSS and I had met her several times before in London. How incredible to happen upon her in Olinda. It was really nice though as we got to have a chat and she filled me in on what she was doing in Brazil and her travels.
I think that is enough for now about Pipa and Olinda as my last post will be about my return to Salvador and the carnival which is currently going on outside the window. I can't believe my trip is so close to its end. More soon, as a last post and synopsis come along. Happy Carnival everyone!
Saturday 14 February 2009
Natal
I left Joao Pessoa to head over to Natal for a capoeira event. I arrived at the bus station and called my friend Capacete, who told me to take a taxi to a given address. Capacete is a guy from Natal that I met in London, and is probably the one who helped me to get speaking portuguese. He came to Europe last year to visit and couldn't speak a word of english, so I had to force myself to speak portuguese! Anyway, knowing he lived in Natal I decided to go over there to meet him and see him again in Natal. It turns out that at the same time there was a capoeira event going on too so it was a bargain! Horrivel was there too, and so we met up again for the last time. I got to stay in Capacete's girlfriend's house. It was quite a large house with 6 women living in it, and people constantly coming in and out. They were really lovely and looked after me really well, constantly trying to feed me more and more stuff and not understanding that I wasn't actually very hungry.
The capoeira event started on the Friday and was a bargain: R$40 for all three days, including lunch and dinner every day as well as a tshirt of the event. Nothing to do with our European events! It was also much more hardcore, with classes starting at 9 am and going on til about 10pm. Lots of intensive training in the heat. It was good as I got to meet a lot of new capoeiristas all from Natal, as well as meet more Contra-Mestres: Moleque, Vitor, Pula Pula, and Mestres too, the most important one being Mestre Irani of course. He is the "leader" as it were, of the Natal group. The event was good and I enjoyed taking part in another capoeira event in Brazil. Because of that though, I didn't really get to see much of Natal. It mainly consisted of the capoeira event, various capoeira classes in the evening with Capacete, and chilling in Kelly's house. On one day she did take me into the centre of the city for me to get to see it, and show me around. On another day one of her sisters also took me to the beach with her, and so I got to see the famous beach of Ponta Negra. It was nice for a city beach, the water being crystal clear again, but we were unlucky because we got there when the tide was coming in and so we didn't actually successfully get to sit on the beach and chill out as we had to keep moving spots in order to not get wet, and eventually at one point the sea did get our stuff! Also, another disappointing thing was the litter. This is a major problem all over Brazil, but when the tide comes in it is really unpleasant as it just drags all the trash into the sea, and gets washed in and out and it's reall dirty. This is the main problem in Brazil:there are loads of really beautiful places but they are spoilt by trash. People here really don't care and will just throw their litter anywhere. They also leave the bins out in the street, even though they should be put in the special holders that are made for them to keep them off the street, but they don't and so the bags just get ripped open and the stuff spilt everywhere. It's quite sad really.
On one day we were looking to do a buggy ride, as in Natal they are meant to be really good due to the sand dunes. The only problem was the price: R$80 per person, way too expensive!!! So sadly we decided against it, but we rented a car instead and went for a drive around the southern coast of Natal. It was actually really nice as we reached some more removed beaches that were really calm and absolutely beautiful. We also found a natural lake, which was just a bit more inland than the sea. That was amazing as it was clear, natural water as opposed to salty water, and it was really nice and refreshing. It wasn't too busy either as we went out on a week day and therefore there were fewer people around. All in all, it was quite a successful day. Kelly drove all the way and I'm glad she did as driving in Brazil is absolutely mad. In the evening we made the most of still having the car and went to the shopping mall. I drove us there and was completely freaking out at the idea of having to drive in Brazil in a city, but it was ok. The boys were really annoying though as they were sat at the back giving orders and shouting "watch out" and "be careful" and "go into second gear" and stuff like that. This drives me insane, particularly since Capacete doesn't even know how to drive, and I have no idea how Kelly managed to put up with it at all! After that we went to Mestre Irani's house for a chat which just ended up going on for EVER and I thought we would never leave! No offense intended, it was great to be able to just turn up at his house and have a chat about capoeira, execept that then these things just tend to drag on, and we were exhausted from the day we had just had. After that, the boys insisted we go to Ponta Negra and the salsa street in order to have a drink, so we drove ourselves over even though we were too tired to enjoy it. It was alright, though nothing too exciting going on as once again it was mid week.
The day after that the boys came and picked me up in order for us to go to lunch with M. Ataulfo. I had also met him in London as he had come travelling with his wife last year and so we had met there. I had found them both to be really love people so it was nice to see them again. We went for lunch in a really posh Churrascaria, and I was mortified as I had turned up in shorts and flip flops. The boys being boys, had only notified me of the price, but not that the place would be fancy, so when I turned up I felt awful for not looking nicer. And to make matters worse, his wife turned up looking really fancy! Eeek! Still, the food was good, and it was most definitely worth the rather more expensive price. The day after that, M. Ataulfo offered to give me a lift down to Pipa, which is where I am now. Horrivel had thought of renting a car again, but instead M. Ataulfo offered to drive us all down so that I could get a lift and they could spend the day there. That was nice as it saved me the hassle of the bus ride, and then we all spent the day together on the beach. I think that is all that there is to be said about Natal as I am now in Pipa and will write more about that later. It was great to see Capacete again and train with his group, and get to know the people from Natal. It was also great to get to know Kelly, who was so nice to me and took great care of me. I will really miss the people from Natal. Other than that, carnival is coming up and I am well excited!! I will definitely write posts about that, if I am not too exhausted to do so.
The capoeira event started on the Friday and was a bargain: R$40 for all three days, including lunch and dinner every day as well as a tshirt of the event. Nothing to do with our European events! It was also much more hardcore, with classes starting at 9 am and going on til about 10pm. Lots of intensive training in the heat. It was good as I got to meet a lot of new capoeiristas all from Natal, as well as meet more Contra-Mestres: Moleque, Vitor, Pula Pula, and Mestres too, the most important one being Mestre Irani of course. He is the "leader" as it were, of the Natal group. The event was good and I enjoyed taking part in another capoeira event in Brazil. Because of that though, I didn't really get to see much of Natal. It mainly consisted of the capoeira event, various capoeira classes in the evening with Capacete, and chilling in Kelly's house. On one day she did take me into the centre of the city for me to get to see it, and show me around. On another day one of her sisters also took me to the beach with her, and so I got to see the famous beach of Ponta Negra. It was nice for a city beach, the water being crystal clear again, but we were unlucky because we got there when the tide was coming in and so we didn't actually successfully get to sit on the beach and chill out as we had to keep moving spots in order to not get wet, and eventually at one point the sea did get our stuff! Also, another disappointing thing was the litter. This is a major problem all over Brazil, but when the tide comes in it is really unpleasant as it just drags all the trash into the sea, and gets washed in and out and it's reall dirty. This is the main problem in Brazil:there are loads of really beautiful places but they are spoilt by trash. People here really don't care and will just throw their litter anywhere. They also leave the bins out in the street, even though they should be put in the special holders that are made for them to keep them off the street, but they don't and so the bags just get ripped open and the stuff spilt everywhere. It's quite sad really.
On one day we were looking to do a buggy ride, as in Natal they are meant to be really good due to the sand dunes. The only problem was the price: R$80 per person, way too expensive!!! So sadly we decided against it, but we rented a car instead and went for a drive around the southern coast of Natal. It was actually really nice as we reached some more removed beaches that were really calm and absolutely beautiful. We also found a natural lake, which was just a bit more inland than the sea. That was amazing as it was clear, natural water as opposed to salty water, and it was really nice and refreshing. It wasn't too busy either as we went out on a week day and therefore there were fewer people around. All in all, it was quite a successful day. Kelly drove all the way and I'm glad she did as driving in Brazil is absolutely mad. In the evening we made the most of still having the car and went to the shopping mall. I drove us there and was completely freaking out at the idea of having to drive in Brazil in a city, but it was ok. The boys were really annoying though as they were sat at the back giving orders and shouting "watch out" and "be careful" and "go into second gear" and stuff like that. This drives me insane, particularly since Capacete doesn't even know how to drive, and I have no idea how Kelly managed to put up with it at all! After that we went to Mestre Irani's house for a chat which just ended up going on for EVER and I thought we would never leave! No offense intended, it was great to be able to just turn up at his house and have a chat about capoeira, execept that then these things just tend to drag on, and we were exhausted from the day we had just had. After that, the boys insisted we go to Ponta Negra and the salsa street in order to have a drink, so we drove ourselves over even though we were too tired to enjoy it. It was alright, though nothing too exciting going on as once again it was mid week.
The day after that the boys came and picked me up in order for us to go to lunch with M. Ataulfo. I had also met him in London as he had come travelling with his wife last year and so we had met there. I had found them both to be really love people so it was nice to see them again. We went for lunch in a really posh Churrascaria, and I was mortified as I had turned up in shorts and flip flops. The boys being boys, had only notified me of the price, but not that the place would be fancy, so when I turned up I felt awful for not looking nicer. And to make matters worse, his wife turned up looking really fancy! Eeek! Still, the food was good, and it was most definitely worth the rather more expensive price. The day after that, M. Ataulfo offered to give me a lift down to Pipa, which is where I am now. Horrivel had thought of renting a car again, but instead M. Ataulfo offered to drive us all down so that I could get a lift and they could spend the day there. That was nice as it saved me the hassle of the bus ride, and then we all spent the day together on the beach. I think that is all that there is to be said about Natal as I am now in Pipa and will write more about that later. It was great to see Capacete again and train with his group, and get to know the people from Natal. It was also great to get to know Kelly, who was so nice to me and took great care of me. I will really miss the people from Natal. Other than that, carnival is coming up and I am well excited!! I will definitely write posts about that, if I am not too exhausted to do so.
Wednesday 11 February 2009
Joao Pessoa
After spending some time with the Frenchies in Olinda, I then headed off further north in order to do the final part as it were, of my trip. I headed towards Joao Pessoa which is supposed to be a beautiful city on the North Eastern coast, with a historical centre, beaches, and has a reputation for being the greenest city in Brazil. I got there fine and got a cab to my hostel which turned out to be in a really fancy looking neighbourhood and was a really decent hostel. On the first night I didn't do anything except go for dinner in a fairly expensive restaurant that served local foods and had been recommended to me by the receptionist. Back at the hostel I immediately met a very inquisitive Swiss guy who I was at first a bit reluctant to talk to as he kept asking me so many questions. But then came along an english guy and so we all started chatting together. They were both quite interesting people. The Swiss guy had lived in Joao Pessoa for 3 years and spoke perfect portuguese, but had decided overnight to move back to Switzerland due to a job offer and was now back in Joao Pessoa on holiday. He seeemed to be very bright and keen on moving back to Brazil. The english guy had been travelling through latin america and in particular Venezuela, filming a documentary there about politics and the elections, and getting people's opinions. His work seemed to be interesting there, and if I can find a link I will put it up. He was looking to buy some property in Joao Pessoa and was thinking of spending half the year there and half the year in england. He was a definite adventurer.
The next day, I spent the day on the beach just chilling out. The beaches here in the Northeast are fabulous: turquoise waters, white sand and the water is always warm. The hostel was right near the beach so I decided to make the most of it and spend the day in the sun. The only thing was, there weren't many people on the beach at all: practically deserted. Still, at least it was nice and peaceful. In the evening I met yet another english guy in the hostel who didn't speak a word of portuguese so we got chatting and he got me playing scrabble. He had a small scrabble board he travelled with and was absolutely obsessed with playing. The next day, I decided to get the bus to the bus station and into the old part of town. The english adventurer had told me the bus got you there nice and easily and that there was a small train nearby that one could ride. I asked the receptionist where to get the bus but for some reason decided not to listen to her and to get the bus that I had seen on the beachfront that said "bus station". So I got on the bus and it started driving off further and further away. After a while I decided that I was possibly going in the wrong direction but decided to trust the bus driver and that we would get there eventually. After an even longer while though, we were really getting out into the sticks, and it was getting more and more rural, with horses in the street and all. So I asked the bus driver if he went to the bus station and he said "What, in Joao Pessoa?" so it turned out we had already left Joao Pessoa...When I asked him whether I should get off he said yes and to pick the bus going in the other direction. When I pointed out that there were no bus stops I said, "What should I do, I can't see a bus stop?" and he shrugged so I said "do I have to just get off and make my own bus stop?" and he said yes. Typical Brazilian style, you just have to stand by the side of the road and be your own bus stop. How funny!! Luckily for me, Joao Pessoa is a safe city so I was in no real danger and got the bus right back into the centre, and then back out again to the hostel. So my discovery of Joao Pessoa was mainly riding around it on a bus. The weird thing about Joao Pesso was that it seemed to be a very calm and respectable city. But at night, the prostitutes would all come out and line up along the beachfront, just standing there by the palm trees. It was strange because the atmosphere of the city was not like that all, except that at night it became seedy. At one point, I saw the police on the other side of the road just standing there, chilling out, and the prostitutes too on the other side of the road, chilling out. I didn't understand but when I asked some Brazilians they explained to me that prostitution in Brazil is not illegal. It is illegal to be the pimp, but it is not illegal to prostitute yourself, nor is it illegal to pick up a prostitute, as far as I understood. Strange isn't it?
I had no luck with the weather as the rain was indeed following me and whilst I was in Joao Pessoa it rained quite a bit. On my last day I went on another adventure bus ride with the english guy that spoke no portuguese. He convinced me to jump on the first bus that was coming along and so off we went to we didn't know where, on a mini adventure. We didn't go as far as I had done the last time though, and came back in order to go and watch the sun set at the Praia de Jacuma. Apparently it is THE thing to do there in Joao Pessoa is to go and watch the sunset whilst listening to the saxophonist play. It was cheesy but actually really cool as the sun sets over a river of calm water, orangey colours all whilst listening to the bolero on the saxophone. Whilst we were sitting there on the waterfront I saw a group of kids playing a percussion game and I asked them if I could join in. They deemed cool enough and so we sat there playing the percussion game and rock scissor paper for ages. They were loads of fun! When we got back from the sunset we met up with a few other people from the hostel as the english adventurer guy had seen some forro in a bar down the road and managed to motivate us all to go out. It was fun and I was well surprised to see that one of the english guys could dance pretty well. WE even managed to get in for much cheaper than they originally tried to make us pay! All in all I would say Joao Pessoa was a bit of a boring city, but it was fun due to the people that I met there who were interesting and kept me good company. After that I headed off to Natal where I am now, and I will write more about that in my next post! That's all for now I think...
The next day, I spent the day on the beach just chilling out. The beaches here in the Northeast are fabulous: turquoise waters, white sand and the water is always warm. The hostel was right near the beach so I decided to make the most of it and spend the day in the sun. The only thing was, there weren't many people on the beach at all: practically deserted. Still, at least it was nice and peaceful. In the evening I met yet another english guy in the hostel who didn't speak a word of portuguese so we got chatting and he got me playing scrabble. He had a small scrabble board he travelled with and was absolutely obsessed with playing. The next day, I decided to get the bus to the bus station and into the old part of town. The english adventurer had told me the bus got you there nice and easily and that there was a small train nearby that one could ride. I asked the receptionist where to get the bus but for some reason decided not to listen to her and to get the bus that I had seen on the beachfront that said "bus station". So I got on the bus and it started driving off further and further away. After a while I decided that I was possibly going in the wrong direction but decided to trust the bus driver and that we would get there eventually. After an even longer while though, we were really getting out into the sticks, and it was getting more and more rural, with horses in the street and all. So I asked the bus driver if he went to the bus station and he said "What, in Joao Pessoa?" so it turned out we had already left Joao Pessoa...When I asked him whether I should get off he said yes and to pick the bus going in the other direction. When I pointed out that there were no bus stops I said, "What should I do, I can't see a bus stop?" and he shrugged so I said "do I have to just get off and make my own bus stop?" and he said yes. Typical Brazilian style, you just have to stand by the side of the road and be your own bus stop. How funny!! Luckily for me, Joao Pessoa is a safe city so I was in no real danger and got the bus right back into the centre, and then back out again to the hostel. So my discovery of Joao Pessoa was mainly riding around it on a bus. The weird thing about Joao Pesso was that it seemed to be a very calm and respectable city. But at night, the prostitutes would all come out and line up along the beachfront, just standing there by the palm trees. It was strange because the atmosphere of the city was not like that all, except that at night it became seedy. At one point, I saw the police on the other side of the road just standing there, chilling out, and the prostitutes too on the other side of the road, chilling out. I didn't understand but when I asked some Brazilians they explained to me that prostitution in Brazil is not illegal. It is illegal to be the pimp, but it is not illegal to prostitute yourself, nor is it illegal to pick up a prostitute, as far as I understood. Strange isn't it?
I had no luck with the weather as the rain was indeed following me and whilst I was in Joao Pessoa it rained quite a bit. On my last day I went on another adventure bus ride with the english guy that spoke no portuguese. He convinced me to jump on the first bus that was coming along and so off we went to we didn't know where, on a mini adventure. We didn't go as far as I had done the last time though, and came back in order to go and watch the sun set at the Praia de Jacuma. Apparently it is THE thing to do there in Joao Pessoa is to go and watch the sunset whilst listening to the saxophonist play. It was cheesy but actually really cool as the sun sets over a river of calm water, orangey colours all whilst listening to the bolero on the saxophone. Whilst we were sitting there on the waterfront I saw a group of kids playing a percussion game and I asked them if I could join in. They deemed cool enough and so we sat there playing the percussion game and rock scissor paper for ages. They were loads of fun! When we got back from the sunset we met up with a few other people from the hostel as the english adventurer guy had seen some forro in a bar down the road and managed to motivate us all to go out. It was fun and I was well surprised to see that one of the english guys could dance pretty well. WE even managed to get in for much cheaper than they originally tried to make us pay! All in all I would say Joao Pessoa was a bit of a boring city, but it was fun due to the people that I met there who were interesting and kept me good company. After that I headed off to Natal where I am now, and I will write more about that in my next post! That's all for now I think...
Tuesday 3 February 2009
Recife/Olinda
I seem to have no luck with the weather. When I arrived in Olinda it rained tropical downpour for two days solid, and now I am in Joao Pessoa, and it is raining again! It seems that the rain is following me...
Olinda the second time round was great. I left Porto de Galinhas hoping that I would meet more people in Olinda and I did. The hostel there was lovely, with a great outdoor area: terrace called the terrace of laziness, with hammocks all around it and a swimming pool, and nice bedrooms. The only problem with my room was that it had a bit of a bad smell, probably a problem due to the drains, as well as a slight bed bug problem. Other than that all was fine, and I met loads of people. On the first day there I met a bunch of Brazilian boys whom I had actually seen walking in the street in Porto de Galinhas hours before I myself left. There were 5 of them, all from Sao Paulo and all travelling together. We had a nice chat around the Terraço da preguisa and we also met two Danish girls there who were travelling together and so we all had dinner together and then sat around drinking. The Danish girls were very young: 19 and 20 and were at the start of their trip. They were all really nice. On the same evening I met a french guy who was also staying at the hostel. He was with a bunch of other french people there and it turned out the hostel was full of frenchies! The guy I met on the first night was travelling with a group of french people who were all here on an exchange. They were part of a band/group of Maracatu in France which is associated with a band there in Olinda, and every year a bunch of them go over on an exchange to study the music and dance, and rehearse with the locals. It was really cool meeting them, because a lot of them were making their own instruments in order to play them later in the band. They were making instruments they called abé, though I have no idea how it is spelt. It is basically a type of maracas, built from a cabassa/dried out fruit, the same that is used for building the berimbau actually. Then they put a sort of net around it on which they tie beads, and the beads are what make the noise of the instrument when shaken. It was really good because essentially I got to watch quite a few of them make these instruments from beginning to end: sanding down the fruit, emptying out the inside, washing it, cutting off the bottom, and then varnishing it whilst all the time constructing the bead netting for it. It was almost like a small workshop going on as every day they would get out their instruments and sit around the terrace making them.
On my first day I had decided to go to Recife in order to visit the older part of the city which is supposed to be nice, but it was chucking it down with rain so much that I gave up. I saw the central part of Recife, a main shopping road, and saw Recife from afar and that was about it. Instead of walking around Recife centre I got the tube to the bus station in order to sort out my bus ticket to Joao Pessoa. It was so freezing cold in the tube though, due to the aircon which noone had thought to turn down in the rain, and so everyone, Brazilians included, was shivering in the tube! Then I just managed to get some "admin" stuff sorted out as it were, and headed back to the hostel. I wasn't too disappointed about not seeing Recife as I had been told that it was horrible anyway, and it is also a dangerous city, being the city in Brazil with the highest murder rate. Well, of course this doesn't really concern tourists, but it also doesn't particularly make you want to hang around. That being said, I survived Nottingham called Shottingham, so why not Recife? Instead, I hung out in the hostel in Olinda with the Frenchies. It was nice because through them and their passion for music, I felt like I got to discover a lot more about Maracatu and the local musical traditions. For a start I got a small insight into how to play the instrument they were making, but also it was just nice to hear them talk about maracatu and see their passion for it. I still prefer the rythms of the south of Brazil, but it remained interesting nonetheless. On one of the nights, a few of us went out to a forro night down the road which was fun. It was a small bar and was packed full of people and had a live band playing forro. One of the guys who was with us, whom incredibly enough I had actually met once before on my first night in Rio, said the music reminded him of Irish music, and I suppose he was right to some extent, as it does have a rather celtic resonance to it. The night after that we just wandered around the historical part of the city in search for music, and there was loads of it everywhere. We found a club that was playing a sort of mixture of funk music with latin music and maracatu beats which was great. Not only was the music good, but the club opened up at the back and had a terrace overlooking the whole of the bay of Olinda and Recife which was quite impressive!
Most of my time during the day was spent hanging out with the Frenchies, as on my second day I had planned to go and look around Olinda, but then I found out they were all taking part in a dance class and so I asked if I could crash the class. I was really interested in taking a dance class in Maracatu as all these rythms of the Northeast are completely new to me and so I thought it would be a good idea to go and see what it was like. The class was given by a guy called Anderson who was lovely and definitely knew what he was doing, warmup starting with some extremely difficult leg stretches similar to the splits which he did with a lot of ease. Actually the first part of the dance class consisted of us doing moves which were more related to Afro dance, all of us in lines of three going up and down the hall. This page may explain a bit about afro dance...Towards the end of that we started doing moves that were more related to the dance of the Orixas, and in particular the dance of Oshun. I found that fascinating as I had seen the dance in Salvador at the show of the Bale Folklorico, and was really intersted to do some of it myself. I think that the culture of the Orixas here is a really interesting and integral part of Brazilian culture and that it is important to learn more about it. In the evening we were going to watch the rehearsal of the dancers who dance during the parade in carnival but because we were torn between going to a concert in Recife and staying in Olinda, we actually missed the rehearsal. Still, staying in Olinda was still nice and worth it as there was a lot of music going on that night and we ended up in the club I mentioned before.
On the last day which was a Sunday I went out early in the morning to finally take some pictures of Olinda. It is a truly charming old colonial town, and is very calm and safe. The town was getting ready for it's small carnival that it holds every Sunday in anticipation of the real thing, and that I was at last week. I was a bit disappointed to go as the frenchies were playing with their band that day, and it would have been nice to watch them, but at the same time I had already witnessed the carnival the week before and it was time for me to move on to Joao Pessoa. All in all the stay in Olinda was great though, and I really enjoyed meeting all the people I did! Now I am in Joao Pessoa under the rain once again, and will write more about that next. Here is a link to a map which shows more or less where I have been so far, though it is not all that accurate, it's mainly just to give an idea. More soon!
Olinda the second time round was great. I left Porto de Galinhas hoping that I would meet more people in Olinda and I did. The hostel there was lovely, with a great outdoor area: terrace called the terrace of laziness, with hammocks all around it and a swimming pool, and nice bedrooms. The only problem with my room was that it had a bit of a bad smell, probably a problem due to the drains, as well as a slight bed bug problem. Other than that all was fine, and I met loads of people. On the first day there I met a bunch of Brazilian boys whom I had actually seen walking in the street in Porto de Galinhas hours before I myself left. There were 5 of them, all from Sao Paulo and all travelling together. We had a nice chat around the Terraço da preguisa and we also met two Danish girls there who were travelling together and so we all had dinner together and then sat around drinking. The Danish girls were very young: 19 and 20 and were at the start of their trip. They were all really nice. On the same evening I met a french guy who was also staying at the hostel. He was with a bunch of other french people there and it turned out the hostel was full of frenchies! The guy I met on the first night was travelling with a group of french people who were all here on an exchange. They were part of a band/group of Maracatu in France which is associated with a band there in Olinda, and every year a bunch of them go over on an exchange to study the music and dance, and rehearse with the locals. It was really cool meeting them, because a lot of them were making their own instruments in order to play them later in the band. They were making instruments they called abé, though I have no idea how it is spelt. It is basically a type of maracas, built from a cabassa/dried out fruit, the same that is used for building the berimbau actually. Then they put a sort of net around it on which they tie beads, and the beads are what make the noise of the instrument when shaken. It was really good because essentially I got to watch quite a few of them make these instruments from beginning to end: sanding down the fruit, emptying out the inside, washing it, cutting off the bottom, and then varnishing it whilst all the time constructing the bead netting for it. It was almost like a small workshop going on as every day they would get out their instruments and sit around the terrace making them.
On my first day I had decided to go to Recife in order to visit the older part of the city which is supposed to be nice, but it was chucking it down with rain so much that I gave up. I saw the central part of Recife, a main shopping road, and saw Recife from afar and that was about it. Instead of walking around Recife centre I got the tube to the bus station in order to sort out my bus ticket to Joao Pessoa. It was so freezing cold in the tube though, due to the aircon which noone had thought to turn down in the rain, and so everyone, Brazilians included, was shivering in the tube! Then I just managed to get some "admin" stuff sorted out as it were, and headed back to the hostel. I wasn't too disappointed about not seeing Recife as I had been told that it was horrible anyway, and it is also a dangerous city, being the city in Brazil with the highest murder rate. Well, of course this doesn't really concern tourists, but it also doesn't particularly make you want to hang around. That being said, I survived Nottingham called Shottingham, so why not Recife? Instead, I hung out in the hostel in Olinda with the Frenchies. It was nice because through them and their passion for music, I felt like I got to discover a lot more about Maracatu and the local musical traditions. For a start I got a small insight into how to play the instrument they were making, but also it was just nice to hear them talk about maracatu and see their passion for it. I still prefer the rythms of the south of Brazil, but it remained interesting nonetheless. On one of the nights, a few of us went out to a forro night down the road which was fun. It was a small bar and was packed full of people and had a live band playing forro. One of the guys who was with us, whom incredibly enough I had actually met once before on my first night in Rio, said the music reminded him of Irish music, and I suppose he was right to some extent, as it does have a rather celtic resonance to it. The night after that we just wandered around the historical part of the city in search for music, and there was loads of it everywhere. We found a club that was playing a sort of mixture of funk music with latin music and maracatu beats which was great. Not only was the music good, but the club opened up at the back and had a terrace overlooking the whole of the bay of Olinda and Recife which was quite impressive!
Most of my time during the day was spent hanging out with the Frenchies, as on my second day I had planned to go and look around Olinda, but then I found out they were all taking part in a dance class and so I asked if I could crash the class. I was really interested in taking a dance class in Maracatu as all these rythms of the Northeast are completely new to me and so I thought it would be a good idea to go and see what it was like. The class was given by a guy called Anderson who was lovely and definitely knew what he was doing, warmup starting with some extremely difficult leg stretches similar to the splits which he did with a lot of ease. Actually the first part of the dance class consisted of us doing moves which were more related to Afro dance, all of us in lines of three going up and down the hall. This page may explain a bit about afro dance...Towards the end of that we started doing moves that were more related to the dance of the Orixas, and in particular the dance of Oshun. I found that fascinating as I had seen the dance in Salvador at the show of the Bale Folklorico, and was really intersted to do some of it myself. I think that the culture of the Orixas here is a really interesting and integral part of Brazilian culture and that it is important to learn more about it. In the evening we were going to watch the rehearsal of the dancers who dance during the parade in carnival but because we were torn between going to a concert in Recife and staying in Olinda, we actually missed the rehearsal. Still, staying in Olinda was still nice and worth it as there was a lot of music going on that night and we ended up in the club I mentioned before.
On the last day which was a Sunday I went out early in the morning to finally take some pictures of Olinda. It is a truly charming old colonial town, and is very calm and safe. The town was getting ready for it's small carnival that it holds every Sunday in anticipation of the real thing, and that I was at last week. I was a bit disappointed to go as the frenchies were playing with their band that day, and it would have been nice to watch them, but at the same time I had already witnessed the carnival the week before and it was time for me to move on to Joao Pessoa. All in all the stay in Olinda was great though, and I really enjoyed meeting all the people I did! Now I am in Joao Pessoa under the rain once again, and will write more about that next. Here is a link to a map which shows more or less where I have been so far, though it is not all that accurate, it's mainly just to give an idea. More soon!
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