Brazil was fascinating! I did not know what to expect when it came to celebrating Carnival. Basically I don’t think I could ever have imagined the amount of festivity that occurred! It was an experience I will never forget!
Brazil constitutes about one-half of the South American continent, both in land and population. The population is over 180 million, making it the 5th most populous nation in the world. Brazil is also one of the richest countries in terms of its natural resources and is the leading producer of precious gems. The official language of Brazil is Portuguese, and Brazil is a Federal Republic, with Luiz Lula de Silva as the President. About 80% of the population is Roman Catholic. The staples of the Brazilian diet are white rice, beans, and manioc flour (also called farinha). Feijoada is the national dish of Brazil, made of meat stew with rice and beans. One of the main things Brazil is known for is their celebration of Carnival. Carnival is often described as “the biggest open-air party in the world”! Carnival is believed to come from the Latin word for “goodbye to meat.” Part of the celebration has to do with the reversal of roles, meaning the poor dress up as royalty and the rich come to the parades dressed down. Carnival is full of color and produces a frenzied street environment. It is the most important time in the lives of both the rich and poor of Brazil!
A few nights before we arrived in Brazil we had 2 different pre-port meetings. The first was a cultural pre-port where we learned a lot about the city of Salvador, where we would dock, the history of Carnival, some language, as well as cultural dos and don’ts. The next night we had a logistical pre-port where we discussed how to convert the Brazilian currency of the Real into US Dollars. We also went over safety precautions because Brazil is known to be dangerous in certain areas.
We arrived to Salvador, also called Bahia, early Saturday morning and every single person had to meet with a customs officer from Brazil. To enter into Brazil I had to get a Visa and a Yellow Fever vaccination. After everyone on the ship was clear, we had a diplomatic briefing in the student union. A lady spoke to us from the US Embassy and told us more about the country of Brazil. She cautioned us to be careful, as well as informed us more about Carnival and what the atmosphere in the city was like during this time. Because Carnival started the day before we arrived in Brazil, there were already a lot of things that were different in the city. Basically, the whole country shuts down for about 6 days. Schools, offices, banks, stores, and streets are closed, and just the minimum is kept open to continue running the city. I love how they are able to take a break from everything for several days and just concentrate on celebrating the holiday!
Finally we were allowed off the ship around mid morning. One of the interesting things was that the gangway where we enter and exit the ship moved from the 2nd deck to the 5th deck depending on the tide. It was funny to see how quickly the tide could affect the ship’s placement in the water. When getting off the boat there was a traditional band of four men playing and singing for us. You could tell they were having a good time and enjoyed getting a picture taken with everyone getting off the ship! There were also about five women tying ribbons on our wrist. These ribbons are tied on your wrist with three knots. The legend is that you are supposed to make 3 wishes, and when the ribbons fall off your wrist your wishes will come true. I am excited to see if my wishes become real! I walked into town with a group of friends, which was only about a 15-minute walk. Brazil is a country where everyone needed to walk around with a buddy or a group of people because of safety issues. We always had to be conscious of what we were bringing off the ship, and even whether or not to take out a camera. I usually wore all my money under my shirt in a travel pouch and kept my camera hidden most of the time. I was thankfully very lucky while in Brazil and did not get robbed by anyone on the street.
The town of Salvador is separated into a lower city and an upper city. To get to the upper city you take an elevator up the side of a mountain. The upper city is the nicer part of Salvador and built about 75 feet above sea level. It is where the city was built originally for protection. My friends and I walked into the lower part of the city and explored a little and walked around a market close into town. The town looked very strange because everything was closed! We walked through a market and I took a few pictures of Salvador. Later on I walked back to the ship so I could be back in time for a tour, Panoramic City Tour of Salvador. We got in a bus with about 50 people and a tour guide. The guide spoke great English and I learned a lot from her. We drove around the lower city first, and we had to detour from the original routes because many of the roads were closed. Our tour guide told us that about 29 km of roads had to be closed for the celebration! We saw many of the back streets, which I enjoyed because I was able to get a better idea about the lifestyle in Salvador. There were hundreds and hundreds of favellas, or suburban slums, all over the city. Each favella is like a neighborhood of slums where the poorer people live. In Salvador 60% of the population live in these slums. On the side streets you could always find children outside playing soccer because that is the country’s favorite sport!
Then we stopped at one of the famous churches, called the church of Bonfin. It was beautiful! One of its characteristics was that it had wax bones hanging from one of the side chapels. There was a tradition that if people in the church had to have an operation on a part of their body, and if they survived the operation, then they would make a wax mold of the body part and hang it from the ceiling in the church. I thought it was an interesting tradition. The church was built in 1745 on top of a big hill, and was said to be built so everyone could see it. Our tour guide said there were enough churches in Salvador that someone could attend a different one every other day of the year.
Later in the tour we drove to the upper part of the city and got off the bus to walk around. The tour guide led us through the side streets and into the old part of the city. All the buildings were colorfully painted and the town square was preserved with four or five old buildings. There were hundreds of people in the streets getting ready for Carnival, which starts up everyday after lunchtime. They say that about 3 million people celebrate Carnival in Salvador. Some of the children and adults were dressed up and there were groups of people all with the same t-shirt on. There were bands playing and marching in many of the streets, and there was a stage in the square where they had more music playing. Some of the children were running around the city and had spray bottles of soap that they enjoyed spraying at the Americans. They thought this was hilarious! I thought it was funny - the first 5 times! We continued through the city, or the area called Pelourinho, and then took the elevator down to the lower city and wandered back to the ship. I loved the tour and felt like I got to see parts of the city that would not have been safe for me to explore on my own.
When I got back to the ship I got changed and ready to go to a dinner called, “Bahia by Night.” This was a restaurant buffet of local dishes, and then we were able to watch some of the traditional singing and dancing of Brazil. It was a lot of fun! The atmosphere of the restaurant was perfect. It was in a big manor house right on the water that had been turned into a restaurant. We ate lots of local cuisine and then watched performances from several people. They danced Capoeira, which is a type of dance native to Brazil. When slaves were brought to Brazil they started a type of fight-game, and disguised it as a form of dance. It was amazing to watch. I enjoyed the dinner and of course took lots of pictures!
The next day I got up early and walked into town again. I did some great “people watching” at the market and tried to make a phone call home from the pay phones but did not have any success. All I heard was Portuguese directions on the phone, which was not really getting me very far! After a few hours I went back to the ship and got lunch onboard. After lunch I had plans to watch some of the Carnival celebrations. Each city in Brazil celebrates Carnival in very different ways. In Salvador there were parties in the street in the upper city, and small parades of bands and people. In the afternoon I was going to a Camarote, which is a big viewing booth. I did not really know what to expect, but I had an amazing time. A group of Semester at Sea students and some of our professors went to the Camarote. It was a huge tent with bleachers and then an open section where you could stand. There were hundreds of these areas lined along the street. Each Camarote had a different type of shirt to signify that you had a ticket in that Camarote.
We watched the parade go by for about 6 hours. It was crazy! The music was so loud that you might think that you would not be able to hear again for a week! Then you are surrounded by people singing and dancing, jumping up and down, and screaming in a foreign language at the top of their lungs! It was an odd experience. Famous Brazilian singers would come by in the parade and pictures were being snapped and hands were reaching out to wave at them. I finally made my way to the front of the booth and stood with a few other girls for hours. There was a man standing close by who spoke a little English and tried to help us understand what was going on. It was helpful because he told us about the different groups and the singers that went by. We watched what is called the “Trio Electricos.” This is a big decorated truck, driven very slowly, loaded with tons of sound equipment and a band on top. Surrounding the truck there is a big rope carried by hundreds of security guards, and inside this area is called a “Bloco.”
Each Bloco sells a t-shirt, which is your ticket to gain access inside the rope. Sometimes there can be up to 4,000 people in one Bloco! In the beginning the Trio Electricos started with a pick-up truck and three people playing from the top of the truck and then as the evening progressed they grew larger and larger. All the people in the Bloco were dancing, singing, and acting crazy along with the singer. The Blocos usually have anywhere from 100 to 1,000 people dancing in them. I started watching these pass by around 1 pm and it lasts until 2 or 3 in the morning. After all of the Trio Electricos have passed by, there are judges that announce the best ones for the year. Throughout the city there are different circuits, or parade routes. It is really hard to imagine how many people are celebrating this way! After hours of celebrating like a local we survived the mass of people and made it back to the ship. Then I had to pack for a trip to Rio de Janeiro.
I woke up at 4 am because we had to be dressed and ready to go the airport at 5 am. There were definitely many people who barely woke up in time! There were 39 students and one adult who were traveling to Rio. We are not allowed to check bags when we are flying and our carry-on bag could only weigh 11 pounds…that was hard! We got to the airport and they ended up not weighing our bags or even checking our passports before we got on the plane. We were really surprised – not much security! We had a three hour flight to Rio because we lost an hour flying and we arrived mid morning. There was a tour guide waiting to meet our group and we all got on a bus. I learned that the name Rio de Janeiro means river of January, because when the Portuguese landed in Rio in January they thought the bay was a river, so they called it the river of January.
First we went to see Sugarloaf Mountain. This was a mountain that you could get to only by cable car, and actually it was 2-stage cable car. It was a gorgeous view and I took tons of pictures! Our group rode the cable cars up and walked around on the top of the mountain. The legend is that the name Sugarloaf comes from the Portuguese because they used to make bread in a mold that looked similar to the shape of the mountain. When they saw the mountain the first thing they thought was that it looked like their bread.
After seeing the mountain we drove to a restaurant for lunch. It had amazing food!!! This was a traditional type of Portuguese restaurant. There was a huge buffet and the waiters would bring around meat on skewers that you could choose to get a slice from. We probably ate for two hours and the guys kept eating more and more meat! The atmosphere of the restaurant was decorated very authentically and all the waiters were wearing masks for Carnival. After a great lunch we checked into our hotel. It was a fantastic hotel because it was right across from Copacabana Beach. We had some free time before the evening so everyone went outside to explore. There were hundreds of people on the beach since everything was closed because of Carnival. In Rio de Janeiro there are about 7 million people watching and celebrating Carnival each year!
In the evening we went to watch the most famous part of Carnival in the Sambadrome, where the major parades of Carnival in Rio take place. In Rio de Janeiro Carnival is taken much more seriously than in Salvador. They are focused on the competition aspect of the celebration. These people may be the poorest of the poor, but still work 365 days a year on Carnival. To get to the Sambadrome our group took a city bus, which was hilarious because it was so packed! We had to get about 30 people on a city bus and we all had to squeeze in with the locals. Then we took the metro to get closer to the Sambadrome. The fun thing was that there were many people in costume on the buses and metro. They would come on with a huge purple octopus costume or a giant giraffe costume. It was so funny! Family members would be with them carrying the rest of the costume in big trash bags. Feathers and sequins would be everywhere on the streets as we got closer to the stadium.
Earlier in the day we saw the big warehouses where the floats and costumes are kept. It was crazy to imagine they do this every year! The Sambadrome is an enormous stadium where samba schools compete each year. The Samadrome competition lasts two nights, with 6 schools competing one night and 7 schools competing the next. There were 13 samba schools that compete and 1 winner is announced in the end. Each samba school picks a different theme for the parade. We saw themes like African culture, Brazil’s lifestyle, technology through the ages, Greek gods attending Carnival, Viking history, and a parade where everything was upside down! They have an hour and a half to perform and to make their way down the stadium with all of their floats. There are huge clocks that line the parade ground so everyone knows how much time they have.
Each samba school has about 12 huge floats along with elaborate costumes, singers, dancers, and bands. In each samba school there is a minimum of 2500 people and a max of 4500 people performing. You can imagine how many people are involved in this each year! There are many rules for the competition and there is a specific order each school must follow. The judges are watching the whole time and have different categories for judging. The schools are judged on their theme song, floats, costumes, and enthusiasm. Every detail of the parade must relate directly to the theme. Some schools spend close to $300,000 dollars each year on the competition.
The competition goes from 9 pm at night until 7 am the next morning. My group saw 5 out of the 7 schools compete and stayed until close to 5 am in the morning. In the stadium there are about 9 different sections of seats where people can watch the schools pass by. The most expensive tickets are in the middle, where the schools stop to perform for the judges. There are over 75,000 people watching the competition each night! It was definitely one of the most interesting nights of my life!
My roommate and I got a few hours of sleep and woke up to a gorgeous view of Copacabana beach out our window. Next we went to the Statute of Christ the Redeemer on top of a mountain overlooking the city. We took a bus up the mountain as far as it could go and then we climbed the rest of the way up. It felt so amazing to finally reach the statue. I was so close it was really hard to get a picture of the entire thing. You could walk around the statue at different levels and you felt so small underneath it all. The view from the top of the mountain was also breathtaking and you could really get a view of the entire city. I will always remember that scene! It was so sunny and in the pictures we took everyone was squinting! Since we were so close to the equator the sun is a lot more powerful! I was so glad I was able to see the statue. It is one of the most famous sights in Rio. It was definitely worth it!
After visiting the statue we went back to our hotel where we changed into a t-shirt to participate in a Carnival parade. There were hundreds of people in front of our hotel where they had closed the roads. Everyone had on the same shirts and we paraded down the street, dancing and singing along with a truck blasting music. Once again I just had to laugh! I was in the middle of a mass of people, most of whom were singing at the top of their lungs this (I assume) silly song as we danced down the street. It was fun to see people of all ages participating and also fun to watch people having a genuinely good time. Sometimes in America it would be embarrassing to just let go and act silly, but somehow in this situation nobody cared. It is just about celebrating and having a fantastic time! This bloco, or parade, lasted for several hours, and I had a great time.
I finally picked up a few of the lyrics and pretended like I was singing the whole time! Some of the locals showed us how to samba and we tried the best we could! Maybe some day I will be able to do it half as good as they could! When the parade was over a group of us changed into swimsuits and went for a quick swim at our hotel. We also walked down to Copacabana Beach and stood in the ocean. It was freezing but I loved it! We walked around Rio for several hours that night, shopping at one of the markets, and just exploring the city. It was the last night of Carnival so some people were acting very crazy!
We found a place for dinner that was a big buffet of local food. It was interesting because you filled up your plate and then they weighed it in kilos. You paid for your food by the amount of kilos it weighed. It really made you think about what you wanted to eat! It was a great place for our last meal in Rio. I stayed up way too late that night and socialized with some of the other Semester at Sea students. We got a midnight snack at one of the local places and then decided we had better get some rest because we had gone to bed at 5 am the night before!
My roommate and set an alarm and also got a wake-up call- both of which we slept through. Luckily someone in our group called to make sure everyone was up. My roommate and I had 10 minutes to get dressed and eat breakfast! Fortunately we had already packed our small bag the night before! We made our way to the airport and it was a lot more crowded because many people were going home since Carnival had ended the previous day. I think our whole group tried to sleep on the plane because many of us only got about 2 hours of sleep each night! We gained an hour flying back to Salvador and made it back on the ship around lunchtime. Everyone dropped their stuff at the ship and headed back out in Salvador to make the most of our last few hours in Brazil!
We walked around the town, and did some more souvenir shopping in a market close by. A group of us decided to have dinner in Salvador because we would not see land again for about 8 days! It was one of the slowest dinners I have ever eaten! Brazil does not really have a sense of time. Dinner took 3 hours so I am glad the scenery was beautiful and that we got to see the sun set. We tried a few of the local dishes and they were delicious. It was a great place to people watch and enjoy the last hours in Brazil!
Travel has a way of stretching the mind. The stretch comes not from travel's immediate rewards, the inevitable myriad new sights, smells and sounds, but with experiencing firsthand how others do differently what we believed to be the right and only way. -- Ralph Crawshaw
