Carnaval, Restinga-Style

I took a taxi to Pão dos Pobres at 1:15 in the morning. Considering it's a non-profit that works with children and adolescents (and that some actually board there), the taxi driver had a hard time believing anything could be happening at that late hour and insisted on driving me inside the compound. (Sidenote: I'm appreciative that taxi drivers here are always quite nice about me being a single female - when they'd drop me off at the hostel, for example, they'd always wait until I'd been buzzed inside before leaving.). I was relieved (and a little proud that I knew what was up) to see people milling about outside.

Inside there was dancing and drinking (beer, energy drinks, Pepsi, water) and lots of sweating. I even broke down and had a Pepsi (getting a bit wild and crazy, huh?) even though I don't normally drink soda. Most of these folks were going to be marching in a carnaval parade. I'd had the pleasure of getting to practice the routine with them a couple days ago.

At about 3:30 or so we started crowding on the bus that would take us to the parade grounds. We got on early enough to get seats, which was a good thing since it was a 30 minute ride. At each bump and twist or turn a sea of people would make exclamations such as a wave of "Ohs!" Energy was high. People chanting, shouting, singing and banging with their fists on the ceiling of the bus all the way there. Outside, the city was dark and empty and quiet. Inside the atmosphere was raucous and bursting from the seams with enthusiastic people.

And the chorus -- of course with a samba beat -- goes:

Eu sou tricolor, sou da zona sul
Meu povo é de fé e comanda o show
Seguindo o balanço da minha bateria
Por um caminho que me leva até a China

I am tricolor, I am from the southern zone
My people are of faith and command the show
Following the swinging/balance/beat(?) of my drums
On a path that brings me to China

Now, repeat this about 10,000 times at the top of your lungs, swinging your arms in the air, at least for the duration of reading this post (you can always go back to the top of the post and begin again if you haven't made it to 10,000 by the time you finish) and you will start to get the feel of the experience.

 

Restinga, by the way, is technically a neighborhood in Porto Alegre. However, it just happens to be a neighborhood with over 50,000 inhabitants. When we were arrived preparations for the parade were occurring all over the place. I think the whole neighborhood may have shown up for the festivities.

Eventually some of us separated from the marchers and set off on a quest over gravel walkways (I can't imagine what it felt like for the women in heels to walk through this!) towards our seats. Only problem was that I didn't have a ticket allowing me into the box seats. My friend E., who was marching, had been concerned about this and making phone calls. She'd gotten a text message "ok" from someone, but we still had to get me in. Time to commence operation Get-Alison-From-Texas-Into-the-Show. Luckily I had two women prepared to help me.

Amazingly they got me through round 1 of ticket presentation/bag searches by confusing the ticket collectors and saying I'd already showed my ticket. I proceeded, surprised but trying to hide it, to get my bag searched.

However, round 2 was going to be more difficult since my name had to be checked off a list. Hmmm...They kept saying, "But she's from Texas" and dropping a name of someone. A man near the list-checker-offers said, "Ok, well you have to talk to the German down by the gate." The German looked more Asian than German and said to me (in English), "You speak English."

"Yes," I said, "And Portuguese."

"Right now," he said, taking my hand, "You just speak English, ok? It has to look like you can ONLY communicate with me."

"Ok!" I said allowing myself to be led back to the list-checker-folks where a funny circular conversation with several them, including the fact that I was from Texas, occurred, ending with one of them, eventually, dispiritedly placing a yellow "Invited" band around my wrist and mumbling something about not having the authority.

Woo hoo! I made it thanks to some awesome people helping me through all that! Later telling this to E. and her boyfriend they told me it was the "Brazilian way." Yup, check out that yellow band. 'Cuz people are great here about making sure I get included. And 'cuz I'm from Texas. ;-) (and Massachusetts. That was initially mentioned as well when introducing me to folks but dropped later on because pronouncing that state's name in Portuguese is about as challenging/impossible as me actually getting the nasal intonation in "pão" correct).

Once inside we had to stand on plastic chairs to see over the heads of people in front of us.

China-themed floats and costumes and blaring music, oh my!

Whirling colors and dancing and fireworks too!

Remember to keep singing that chorus:

Eu sou tricolor, sou da zona sul
Meu povo é de fé e comanda o show
Seguindo o balanço da minha bateria
Por um caminho que me leva até a China

 

Eu sou tricolor, sou da zona sul
Meu povo é de fé e comanda o show
Seguindo o balanço da minha bateria
Por um caminho que me leva até a China.

I believe it necessary to give some props to the men responsible for actually pushing these floats. Who cares if they're on wheels. Those things are huge!

And the cute kids dressed up like pandas. Awwww.

And lots and lots of scantily-clad women...

And yay for the pretty-much naked men too (except for an artfully placed version of a fig leaf).

And here was our group! I almost didn't recognize them.

But the pants gave it away. I had no idea about the light-blue and yellow parts of their costumes. It seems that neither did they until it was time to put them on.

Eu sou tricolor, sou da zona sul
Meu povo é de fé e comanda o show
Seguindo o balanço da minha bateria
Por um caminho que me leva até a China.

And a woman clad in feathers in between a fire-breathing dragon and a media crew. Shaking it, shaking it, shaking it with a huge smile on her face. 

And an acrobatic dragon.

Of course, the royal court.

 Even the people in orange sweeping up behind seemed to be marching.

The parade over, we began the task of leaving the grounds and looking for our bus.

And nope, we're not done singing yet (though if you need, you don't have to use quite as much energy or sing quite as loud at this point). 

Eu sou tricolor, sou da zona sul
Meu povo é de fé e comanda o show
Seguindo o balanço da minha bateria
Por um caminho que me leva até a China.

The sunrise was beautiful.