Brazilian Carnaval
What a welcome on our arrival at Recife airport: Instead of waiting for the luggage, dancers cheered us with their traditional carnival marching tune called Frevo swaying their typical little coloured umbrellas. That rhythmical tune shall follow us for the coming 5 days in the overcrowded streets of Recife and Olinda. Both city centers were exempt of traffic in order to let the people invade its streets with the folia of the different Blocos (marching carnival gang) that meet each other to form a chaos of different rhythms in a sweaty climate and mix with cheap bacon smell off the many improvised barbeque stands. In fact you can only stand this fool if you fill your stomach in an appropriate way: At least 2 to 3 Capeta drinks (a sip of each of the strong alcoholics available on the stand mixed with a few spoonful of Guarana, cinnamon and chocolate powder) and regularly enough Macaxeira com Charque (Manioc with cheap greasy meat to keep fit for the many capetas…).
Olinda with its colonial architecture took a special place in our heart. We had the feeling to fall a few centuries back in time. The old part of the town is concentrated around a little hill. Imagine the crowds trying to move from all sides up through the thin streets and up there finding no other escape than to fight against the flow in another street…We found a place to stay 4 nights. A private home with one toilet (fortunately constantly held clean by the kind landladies Carmilha and Rebecca) shared with 12 young guys from Chile, England, Brazil and Suiça - of course always ready transcend the fever of the next folia party.
We warmed up the evening before carnival with an inexpected free of charge buffet inside the Palaço do Governador and nearly drowned in Ballantines whisky and beer (hardly anybody knew about so we strangers were lucky to get loads). That was the opportunity for us to experience our “fluent” Portuguese with new friends who had dropped all their shyness but by now probably won’t remember us…
The following day we decided to wear some masks (not only as sun protection…) that would give us a funny subject to celebrate and play about. This was a remarkable way to meet people and dance together in the middle of the crowd. For quite a while we supported a Danish Bloco that turned up in the corner of a street and played their rhythms so well that at each time they had to cross another bloco, that other one stopped playing and gave way. It was just at midnight to Saturday that the bloco of the “Homens da meia noite” (The men of midnight) brought the key to officially open the carnival, that the streets were so stuffed nobody could make one step forward! You can’t imagine how hot it was at daytime, without any breeze and the omnipresent warnings along the beaches to keep out from shark attacks. So you can easily understand that after four days of unhealthy diet, not one minute of privacity, the constant wish to take a cold shower and unevacuated adrenaline from crossing some dangerous Flavelas at night by foot after a crowdy party in Recife, we were looking out for a better life.
The city of Joao Pessoa was the perfect solution to spend Mardi Gras. Of course the Pousadas in Joao Pessoa were all full on our arrival. So we greatly thanked Junior with his Ferrari-like buggy to give us his hospitality and let us sleep in his safe veranda. He had picked us just when we started to give up our search, tired and hungry after a long trip. Joao Pessoa turned out to be a perfect place for good seafood directly on the beach, our heads in the shade of palmtrees and the feet in the sand. You just have to make a sign to the guys passing with fresh oyster or delicious shrimps finding their way to the mouths of thousands of happy Brazilian families (who had rented their flat in Bahia or Recife to Carnival fans for good money in order to spend a tranquil weekend at a cheaper place). We think that the take-away Point da Amazônia was an important medicine for us, with its crazy energizing drinks and cheap Açai (see predecessent post). We believe that the concept of a functional-food take-away with healthy natural drinks could also revitalize the majority of depressed European workers in dark winter days ;-)
We did not just get back to Pipa to recover our left luggage. In fact, we had planned to join an extra day of crazy carnival with all men dressed as ladies. So we could continue to enjoy the special celebration with unknown people and have a good reason to start again with Cachaça in the middle of the afternoon – until the heavy tropical rainfall emptied the streets shortly before midnight. Now we’re enjoying a week of recovery with busy but healthy schedule of sport sessions (jogging and yoga, surf, kayak, kitesurf) and physiotherapeutic massage for Anh-dao and we hope to empty our minds before continuing our adventure in Bahia state.
What a welcome on our arrival at Recife airport: Instead of waiting for the luggage, dancers cheered us with their traditional carnival marching tune called Frevo swaying their typical little coloured umbrellas. That rhythmical tune shall follow us for the coming 5 days in the overcrowded streets of Recife and Olinda. Both city centers were exempt of traffic in order to let the people invade its streets with the folia of the different Blocos (marching carnival gang) that meet each other to form a chaos of different rhythms in a sweaty climate and mix with cheap bacon smell off the many improvised barbeque stands. In fact you can only stand this fool if you fill your stomach in an appropriate way: At least 2 to 3 Capeta drinks (a sip of each of the strong alcoholics available on the stand mixed with a few spoonful of Guarana, cinnamon and chocolate powder) and regularly enough Macaxeira com Charque (Manioc with cheap greasy meat to keep fit for the many capetas…).
Olinda with its colonial architecture took a special place in our heart. We had the feeling to fall a few centuries back in time. The old part of the town is concentrated around a little hill. Imagine the crowds trying to move from all sides up through the thin streets and up there finding no other escape than to fight against the flow in another street…We found a place to stay 4 nights. A private home with one toilet (fortunately constantly held clean by the kind landladies Carmilha and Rebecca) shared with 12 young guys from Chile, England, Brazil and Suiça - of course always ready transcend the fever of the next folia party.
We warmed up the evening before carnival with an inexpected free of charge buffet inside the Palaço do Governador and nearly drowned in Ballantines whisky and beer (hardly anybody knew about so we strangers were lucky to get loads). That was the opportunity for us to experience our “fluent” Portuguese with new friends who had dropped all their shyness but by now probably won’t remember us…
The following day we decided to wear some masks (not only as sun protection…) that would give us a funny subject to celebrate and play about. This was a remarkable way to meet people and dance together in the middle of the crowd. For quite a while we supported a Danish Bloco that turned up in the corner of a street and played their rhythms so well that at each time they had to cross another bloco, that other one stopped playing and gave way. It was just at midnight to Saturday that the bloco of the “Homens da meia noite” (The men of midnight) brought the key to officially open the carnival, that the streets were so stuffed nobody could make one step forward! You can’t imagine how hot it was at daytime, without any breeze and the omnipresent warnings along the beaches to keep out from shark attacks. So you can easily understand that after four days of unhealthy diet, not one minute of privacity, the constant wish to take a cold shower and unevacuated adrenaline from crossing some dangerous Flavelas at night by foot after a crowdy party in Recife, we were looking out for a better life.
The city of Joao Pessoa was the perfect solution to spend Mardi Gras. Of course the Pousadas in Joao Pessoa were all full on our arrival. So we greatly thanked Junior with his Ferrari-like buggy to give us his hospitality and let us sleep in his safe veranda. He had picked us just when we started to give up our search, tired and hungry after a long trip. Joao Pessoa turned out to be a perfect place for good seafood directly on the beach, our heads in the shade of palmtrees and the feet in the sand. You just have to make a sign to the guys passing with fresh oyster or delicious shrimps finding their way to the mouths of thousands of happy Brazilian families (who had rented their flat in Bahia or Recife to Carnival fans for good money in order to spend a tranquil weekend at a cheaper place). We think that the take-away Point da Amazônia was an important medicine for us, with its crazy energizing drinks and cheap Açai (see predecessent post). We believe that the concept of a functional-food take-away with healthy natural drinks could also revitalize the majority of depressed European workers in dark winter days ;-)
We did not just get back to Pipa to recover our left luggage. In fact, we had planned to join an extra day of crazy carnival with all men dressed as ladies. So we could continue to enjoy the special celebration with unknown people and have a good reason to start again with Cachaça in the middle of the afternoon – until the heavy tropical rainfall emptied the streets shortly before midnight. Now we’re enjoying a week of recovery with busy but healthy schedule of sport sessions (jogging and yoga, surf, kayak, kitesurf) and physiotherapeutic massage for Anh-dao and we hope to empty our minds before continuing our adventure in Bahia state.
posted by anh-dao at 2/28/2007 03:34:00 AM
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