And without further ado, here are photos from the highlight of Carnaval.... the samba competitions at the Sambadrome!!The samba competition is serious business, taking place over 2 nights with 8 schools performing each night. Each school performs for approximately 1.5 hours to go from 1 end of the Sambadrome to the other, with anywhere from 3000 - 5000 dancers involved.
(Also, a little gossip - I remember hearing that either last year or the year before, there was such a rivalry between 2 of the samba schools that one of the "samba kings" was shot and killed.) The gangs in LA cruise around South Central in their souped up caddies, the gangs in Rio samba their hearts out...
We´re dressed for a party!
Every school elects 2 of their most important dancers as the King & Queen for their school.
And the best dancers were what I liked to call "fascinators".... They wore amazing feather head dresses (or wings), and lots of sparkly bits with little else. And AMAZING dancers.
(Sorry boys, I missed the photo of the fascinator that was completely naked with exception of her head dress and shoes. The reporters didn´t though... she was on the front page of the newspaper the next day. Censorship is a little different in Brasil...)
A couple shots of the crowds... The parades started at the Sambadrome at 9pm and (we heard) finish around 7am or so! When we left at 4am, the place was still packed with 2 schools left to go. These crowd pics were both from 2 or 3 am. Those brasilians are nuts!
The costumes and the floats that they have are beyong impressive. We heard that each year they begin making the floats for the next year 2 weeks or so after Carnaval ends. So they are always in preparation for a big party.
This gorilla was just like King Kong, fully movable and roaring.
The elephant was one of my favorites as well, with the fascinator dancing away on top. Good thing he was sturdy, and she has good balance! Wouldn´t want a trauma call.
And some highlights from two of our favorite schools... Portela & Saguiero. (Kyle even learned the songs and sang along with all the locals & fans.)
What a fun & once in a lifetime experience to be part of it. It was absolutely amazing!!!
Now, shifting a gears a bit....
We went an asado or churrasceria restaurant (basically a grill) called Por Çao with a few of our new friends to eat as much meat as we could fit in. And believe me, we ate some meat! DIdn´t feel like eating much the next day either.
And the Food of the Week is... (drumroll please).... chicken hearts!
And what was Kyle´s feedback? Tastes like chicken. Enough said.
