Enter the Sambadrome!

Hey all,

We went to Copacabana Beach yesterday for some relaxing times before hitting the Sambadrome.  The place was PACKED compared to Impenema, but it also seemed like there were more locals there having a good time.  It was a pretty nice day (still humid as all get out…sweat balls for everyone!).  The water is a tad chilly, but feels good on a hot, humid day.  Once I got above the “Mendoza line” while wading in, getting the rest of me wet was no big deal.  I played in the surf for a while and had a good time.

A sea of umbrellas at the Copa

We left for the Sambadrome at 7.  It starts at 9, but the seats are GA…they were also on the other side of the Sambadrome so it took a good 30-45 minute walk to get over there.  The stands were already pretty packed, but we found some seats and settled in.  The stands are basically giant cement steps so you sit on the edge of one, your feet on another with people sitting in front of your feet and so on.  The sitting is more for resting in between samba schools because when they are coming down, everyone stands and dances.

We were far enough down the route that it took about 30 minutes (they actually have a timer going…we guessed each school has a time limit…they get judged and places are awarded each year) before we got to see the front of the parade. 

The parade starts way down that way and comes towards us....yeah, there are a lot of people...I think it holds 200000

I am not even sure how to convey what we experienced.  It was mind blowing.  Each school had their own song that I think they wrote for the occasion.  When we entered the ‘drome (sorry, couldn’t resist) we were given a booklet with the lyrics to the songs and people were actively singing along in the stands.  The schools had drum sections and live singers coming over the PA.  The floats they built were huge and amazing with dancers at various levels sambaing to the music.  Macy’s ain’t got nothing on these guys.  Each school had literally thousands of dancers in various costumes.  Each school chose a theme and all the floats and costumes went with the theme.  They had a time limit of an hour and a half to get completely through and most of the schools took around 1:20.  We watched 4 out of 6 schools do their parades and were still there until a little after 3 in the morning.  These things last until around 6:30 in the morning, but we were pretty wiped out.  We got to see the school ranked (yes, they actually rank the schools…it’s that big a deal here) #1 and they blew away the other 3…but the other 3 were still incredible.

Screw it.  No more writing (other than captions)…here is a boatload of pictures.

The first school had a TV theme...and yes, that is a giant video box leading the way

Shake those tail feathers, baby!

Crazy floats

Arms and mouth moved...

I have no idea what TV show this is, but if its got naked chicks and women riding flying goats, I am in!  Those are real women riding the goats and one of them was VERY into riding hers....if you know what I mean.

Dude on top was at our level.  These are some tall floats

Alice in wonderland (I guess you could see that for yourself)

Arabian nights action

Riding vacuum cleaners in between schools

Represent the school!

Neon lights of the barrio

This is one school...extending the entire distance with more still to enter!!

Wow

Cool

This one actually had a working waterfall in the front!

Ending float for this school with the flying bug that is neato, except.....

There is a camera ledge over the middle of the parade route and they didn't get it down before running into it...oops

What's that hiding in there?

Dragon!  Hell yeah

The dudes on the front were animatronic.  

Details...and dancing babes

Waterfalls are for sissies....we have a working fountain!

A horse is a horse of course of course

A little undersea exploring action

The theme was about drilling offshore here.  Pretty elaborate float.  There are people suspended under the front part.

Oil helps 

Jobs can be added! (and the side circles rotated...who dreams up this stuff?)

It gives money for education.  Oil rules.  Let's drill!

Even the sea creatures are down with it...

Pretty suspended sea creatures...

Oh...maybe oil isn't that great after all.  To be fair, this was probably the most consistent thematically,  but they came after the dragon AND a working fountain so its hard to beat that.

There you go...6 hours distilled down to however many pictures I just made you suffer through.  Up until last night, we were basically in a large city with a bunch of people partying and dressing up in crazy costumes.  Last night was really a "holy crap" moment that helped me understand why people should come to Carnival.  I can't imagine anywhere else in the world having something like this.

The next World Cup and Summer Olympics are going to be in Brazil.  Marci said (and I agree), the opening ceremonies are going to be crazy!

We have a couple more days here.  The plan is to go catch some neighborhood parades today and a little night life and then see what happens tomorrow.  There will be at least one more blog coming but I don't know if we can top this one on this trip.

Our time, people's time!

Jim