So we arrive to our wonderful little apartment with AIR CON Ben, Dan and vokda whoop whoop! The first night we just chilled out preparing ourselves for the first day of carnival...
So after another money freak out - as the pin for my card STILL hadnt arrived - the 4 of us spent the day trying to change travellers cheques and getting emergency cash from HSBC - always a delight. This time we managed to get some but only because someone thought the paperwork katie had filled out had been returned from Sao Paulo - which it hadnt - but we certainly werent going to say anything.
After a reasonably successful money run we had to hit the supermarket as apparently everything was going to shut for the whole week. Everyone in the whole of our area had the same idea so we ended up queueing for about 6hrs to purcahse our weekly grub - which ended up consisting of a ridiculous amount of ham and cheese toasties (I never want to eat another one in my life por favor).
After paying someone to trolly our huge amount of food up the hill to our apt we had a visit from a lady who worked with Dan - the guy we rented the apt off. She was telling us that we could get a really cheap t-shirt (you dont get tickets, you get t-shirts for whichever event your doing at the carnival) for the camarote (balcony) where Fat Boy Slim would be DJing. HELLO! She told us she would take us to the black market (scary) where we could buy them for 250R ($100) for girls and 300R ($125) for boys when usually they were 800R (cant convert anymore). BOOM (as Ben would say). So off we trotted to this supposed black market... never having been to a black market before I wasnt sure what to expect but really I thought the whole thing was rather laid back. Well - this is Brazil after all.
The girl who was meant to be helping us turned out to be as useful as a dead rat. We got scammed by her friend - leaving us with two girls t-shirts at 300R each and nada for the boys. After plodding around for like half an our, the girl turns to us and says either we sell the shirts we have bought or go without the boys. So... we try and sell the shirts. Noone would pay more than 250R for them and we didnt want to loose out on any money. What to do? Useful girl buggers off and leaves K and I having to explain the situation to Ben (who by this point has run to and from the apt 200 times to get more money) and Dan that basically we cant sell our shirts for even the same money we bought them. Very sweetly they tell us to go without them and that they´d do something else. NOT A CHANCE. Katie and I were on a mission, there was no way we were going without them, not after everything they had done for us. So in a whirlwind it seemed like we were on the final task of the apprentice or something, running around bargaining in Spanish with random brazilian men for rank blue t-shirts (you couldnt really make this stuff up) and finally managed to locate two male t-shirts 200R or something cheaper than were told we would get them. GET IN! We were all going to party on down with fat boy and we were excited...
Back to the apt to get ready and put on our terrible blue t-shirts!
Our prior minimal knowledge of a camarote was that they were balconies that looked over the carnival. Basically they have Blocos which are huge trucks that have people playing on them and huge ropes surrounding them which people dance in. So the idea behind the balcony is that you are in one place and get to watch all the Blocos drive past. But we were mistaken. This camarote was the COOLEST thing you have ever seen. FREE everything. I hate to try and describe it as it just wont give it justice but il give it a bash...
At the front you have the balcony over looking the carnival where you can get your hair and make up done for FREE... to the left were the (always clean?!) toilets (amazing) next to them you could have your t-shirt pimped (for FREE) next to that was the biggest FREE food hall you have ever seen, apparently all the best restaurants have a stand there... the food was amazing! Behind that was a huge chill out area where you could get a massage for.... FREE which overlooked the sea and then in the corner was the BIGGEST tent/building thing you have ever seen where fat boy would be playing. For the first few hours we just wandered around looking at everything. All the while there are FREE drinks being handed out left right and centre. And all this for a hundred pounds... bit of a bargain really. The best venue ive ever been too (not particularly hard but shusssssh).
We spent most of the night in the "club" (which you could def call it that as it was enormous) dancing! Every now and then we would pop to the balcony to watch the Blocos go by but to be honest we were having too much fun doing everything else. Fat Boy was amazing and ive not danced that hard since... Christmas Eve! AMAZING!!!! Not quite sure how we were going to top that night...
Get back to the apt at about 7am I reckon, after walking the whole carnival circuit home watching everyone clean up for the next days antics. The next night some aussies that the boys had met before we had arrived
and an English couple that were renting an apt in the same block joined us in the apt and we all drank together, and then made our way out. We spent the night watching the Blocos go by, which was more of an authentic experience than the night before, I wouldnt say equally good fun, but good fun all the same. Its all a bit of a blur now but im pretty sure we did the same thing the next night...
We then went to another camarote which was an experience getting hold of tshirts for. We went back to the black market but nothing to be found, then went to the front of the camarote to see if they were selling them there, no joy. So a girl that Dan had met helped us buy tshirts of people that were leaving the camarote so we bagged ourselves a bargain. The camarote was as we had imagined them to be at the beginning, basically a balcony playing music that overlooked the carnival. It was great fun but not quite the same experience. Katie was watching the Blocos go by when she spotted a few of the boys that we had met in Pipa, thats it.... you have never seen us run so fast out the camarote right into the mix pushing and shoving our way through trying to get their attention. Lucikly we managed to dance with them for a bit in their bloco despite not having a tshirt and managed to say hi to pretty much most of them. Made our way back to the camarote and carried on dancing. Then I decided to watch the Blocos go by and you´ll never guess... I saw some of the boys id met in Bariloche (argentina) dancing behind a bloco. Crowd barge numero dos. We had the most amazing night catching up, drinking, dancing. I thought I would never seen any of them again but I managed to see all 8 of them! AMAZING! And I cant believe that we had managed to spot both groups that night. Perfect.
On our last night we went in a Bloco that had Will i am djying in which was bloody good fun. The only way to descibe a bloco is mental. Hundreds and hundreds of people dancing and jumping around. Totally insanse but amazing. At times there is a serious crush which can be a little daunting but you just have to go with it. Couldnt really think of a much better place to be crushed to death!
Again not particularly authentic but a bloody good night. I loved it! We were dancing the whole carnival strip for like 5 hours to English music not samba... I dont think samba much. We bumped into the boys from Pipa again who were in the same bloco which was a hoot and basically the night could not have gone any better.
Its quite difficult to explain without you being there but all I can say is that week was one of the best ever. Thanks to katie obviously, Dan,Ben, the Israeli boys from Pipa and the Israeli boys from Bariloche, fat boy and will i am oh and the aussies. BLOODY BRILLIANT!
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