saltwatersteve.com/travel

Carnaval Update

19 02 2007

Try to imagine the most vivid cultural experience you’ve ever had. Make sure it contains lots of loud, orchestrated drumming with African beats coming from 40 or 50 drummers. Add a dash of singing to that. Also don’t forget another 50 or so people dancing around, dressed in native warrior costumes (with huge peacock-feathered headdresses that almost double the height of the dancer), African slave traditional wear, or brightly sequined dresses of every color under the sun held up with underwires so they flare out in a 4 feet radius from the dancer. Don’t forget the young children, aged as young as 5 years old or so.

That was one “team”. Their march down the three block stretch of the viewing area takes about 25 to 30 minutes.

There are 20 teams. You do the math. There are 20 more teams tonight. 20 more on Tuesday.

We showed up downtown last night at about midnight to check out a concert for a while and were distracted by the above scene. We knew something happened here starting at 4 PM but we assumed it was over (we had to check out a recommended beach yesterday). We stayed to watch until it ended - and we checked the time and it was 2:30 AM! This is so incredible that the people have so much energy that if you couldn’t see the black of night you could be convinced it was the first 30 minutes of the Macy’s thanksgiving day parade.

Unbelievable.

The previous day we went down to the streets to see some of the street party (Galo da Madrugada). This is complete insanity. Big trucks (semis basically - lorries for you British readers) decorated promoting banks, liquor brands, etc., were hosting VIPs riding atop them and sometimes throwing swag down to the crowd or in some cases hosing them down with water cannons. These trucks (floats would be a bit too delicate I’m afraid) are crawling through the crowd of tens of thousands of people crushed together in the street. Oops, just checked and the local news is saying over 1.5 million were at this event - that’s more people than the entire Oklahoma City metropolitan area crammed into a 5 block radius.

We got down there in the afternoon but this had been going on since 9 AM and people had been drinking the entire time so perhaps you can imagine the scene. Street vendors are packed in there selling water, beer, coke, guarana (local soda), food, sunglasses, you name it. Some are brave enough to actually weave their way through the crowd. People also brought thermoses of pre-made cocktails. All manner of beverages get literally thrown on you so you don’t wear your nice clothes. Sometimes when the cocktails splash on your face you can identify them - hey that is Rum with passionfruit juice, etc.

If you have problems with people invading your personal space, avoid getting into the middle of Galo da Madrugada. The crowd alone is so packed that it is just a sea of people from one building to another. You don’t know where the sidewalks/curbs/gutters/streets are unless you look down and can identify what you are standing on. Wherever you stand, you are touching people on all sides of you. Then the trucks come. With this many people on the streets you can imagine there is no room for a semi truck. But they make room! The crowd just crushes aside so the truck can come through. I had my right hand clutched firmly on to the side of Meghan’s shorts the entire time.

I found an aerial shot of a previous year’s Galo - we would be in the upper right corner of this picture:
Galo