Carnaval is not for the weak of heart and this year my Carnaval warrior was ready to take it on!
Where it all began:
2/8 Friday
- Bloco in Plaza São Salvador
- First day people. You have to ease into it like a good proctologist would.
2/9 Saturday
- Ceu da Terra in Santa Teresa. Left my place at 630am! – walked all the way up because no taxis would stop for us
- Drank Sacole… that had “vodka” aka really Cachaça
- Every single person up there was sweating like a whore in church.
- Escaped to Copacabana for lunch. A feijoada to be more exact.
- Consumed an extreme amount food. Considered consuming even more
- Napped – obvious. Really it was more like passing out in my friend’s bed. She totally saw it coming.
- Banda da Ipanema – Too too too too full.
- Drinks with friends.
2/10 Sunday
- Boitata – centro. I was en route by 8am people. Beer in hand by 830am. Here is where I started becoming a professional.
- Some other bloco in centro…or maybe it was 2… It is a little fuzzy.
- Home by 6pm. Shower. Crash
- At 1am I woke up and ate 2 plates of rice and beans.
- Went back to bed.
2/11 Monday
- Volta, Alice – Laranjeiras. Left home at 9am. Best bloco ever! Squirt gun fights. Home owners sprayed us down with hoses. It was significantly better to rub up against slick water wet people than slick sweat wet people.
- Sargento Pimenta – Aterro do Flamengo
- Catete for a costume change. There was nothing left of it after my Volta Alice shower.
- Bloco Cru – Centro. Awesome bloco!
- I fell like 3,000 times. Yeah, I got a bit sloppy there.
- Random bloco – Centro. I dropped my corn. I fell off a parked car (I was sitting on the hood and slid off). It wasn’t one of my prouder moments.
- Finally home… at 2am
2/12 Tuesday
- I passed out. It was classic. Walked out from my bathroom, then I realized that I was going to pass out. I proceeded to stumble towards my sliding door, smack my forehead on a clock and bash my chin into the wall before finally sliding down to the floor. Only then did I realize that I hadn’t had a real meal in over 24hrs. Oops
- bagunça Meu Coreto – São Salvador. Cute and very family friendly bloco
- Beers – Flamengo. I needed some venom from the snake that bit me repeatedly the night before.
- Costume change – Catete. After a few beers I felt that it was time to go searching for a bloco. Can’t do that in street clothes people!
- Santa Teresa by Mototaxi. Fucking awesome. I had never gone on one before. And I was lucky because my driver had man boob handles for me to squeeze if I got scared. I even spilled my beer on one. Yes, I went up Santa Teresa on a mototaxi holding a beer and dressed like little red riding-hood. Is that weird?
- Escadaria Selaron – something else I had never seen! I’m starting to wonder if I have really lived here for 7 years. I highly recommend seeing this. It is breathtaking.
- Orquesta Voadora – Aterro do Flamengo – Very full but Aterro can handle it. Good time.
- Random bloco – centro – This came about by roaming, basically following the crowd.
- Eat/get vodka – Catete – Like the girl scouts say, you must always be prepared.
- Other Random bloco – centro. This bloco is supposed to be one of the oldest and I have no idea what it was called. Honestly, I had stopped trying to remember bloco names by that point.
2/13 Wednesday
Rachel Dies of unnatural causes. I spent the day in air conditioning on my big ass couch. Hey, I’m 32 years old. I can’t hang like the 20 somethings anymore.
How was your Carnaval?
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12 comments
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Vladimir
February 16, 2013 at 7:56 pm (UTC 3) Link to this comment
Geez! I didnt know carnival was that intense! I cant wait to move. What does feijoada taste like? I have tried some brazilian restaurants in the US and cant find any that will serve fejoada…their all churrascarias.
Guy From England
February 16, 2013 at 8:08 pm (UTC 3) Link to this comment
Nice sign… Did it work?
Daniel Sansão
February 16, 2013 at 8:39 pm (UTC 3) Link to this comment
The last bloco was probably Cacique de Ramos.
Ray
February 16, 2013 at 10:29 pm (UTC 3) Link to this comment
Wow Rachel, you got Brazilian Carnaval down girl!! Jeezzz!!! And you beat most 20 year olds I know by 10 fold and some!!
Ray
February 16, 2013 at 10:35 pm (UTC 3) Link to this comment
Vladimir,
If you are near or in New York city, try 46th street in Manhattan, there are several options, Emporium Brazil serves a good feijoada! If you are in Los Angeles, Cafe Brazil on Venice Blvd, almost in Marina Del Rey is a great option for Feijoada as well!
Abracos
Ray
Alex
February 17, 2013 at 12:29 am (UTC 3) Link to this comment
Your Carnaval sounds pretty eventful! Sorry I didn’t get to hang out this time, but I’ll be in Rio again super soon (especially after I get tired of Sao Paulo rain) and then we’ll go to Bar Urca or something!
Nice costumes!
Bjs
Vladimir
February 17, 2013 at 1:14 am (UTC 3) Link to this comment
Ray, I live in California and I will definitely check out that spot.
Obrigado
MM
February 18, 2013 at 5:59 pm (UTC 3) Link to this comment
Sounds like you had an Awesome time!
PTRio
February 18, 2013 at 9:41 pm (UTC 3) Link to this comment
Quite the ambitious Carnaval schedule! I tell visiting friends, “it is a marathon, not a sprint!!!”. I was at the Ceu na Terra in Santa Theresa, but I thought the 7:30 am start time was some sort of cruel joke. I mean, that would have meant no sleep at all from the night before! We arrived around 1pm and there was no sign of any slowdown. The bloco’s in Santa Teresa are among the best, but getting there without the bondinho can be a problem. I asked a cab driver to take us in the back way, but half way there he turned the cab around and mumbled, “that is too close to the favela”, then drove around and up the usual front side approach. Ipanema was basically a war zone through much of Carnaval, the Metro at Osorio was insanely overcrowded and without any real effort to organize lines or enforce against line cutters. Best of all, I only saw about a half dozen street pissers this year. Given the lack of rain this was a very good thing.
The one bloco I REALLY wanted to see was the new Michael Jackson bloco. Even had a white glove. But, O Globo had the time wrong by about 5 hours the day we went. Hopefully next year……
I figure I am now three to five years younger after this Carnaval, if not I would be dead too. RIP
Tiffany
February 20, 2013 at 3:47 am (UTC 3) Link to this comment
Holy freaking cow. I am not a party-er and never have been, so this sounds like suicide to me… despite the fact that I am SUPER sanguine. I think I would have lasted two days tops, and then I would have been over it. My husband too. He might be the only Brazilian who doesn’t care for Carnival. Oh wait, he actually loves it. But that’s because he doesn’t have to work and can surf a week straight
vanessa
February 21, 2013 at 4:13 am (UTC 3) Link to this comment
sorry you have lived here for 7 years and never seen the steps!
Rachel
February 21, 2013 at 3:09 pm (UTC 3) Link to this comment
But I finally did!