Topic: Brazil
Carnival starts in 2 days and we are trying to workout what happens exactly. Everyone has seen pictures of carnival dancing girls dressed in nothing but glitter, but I have no idea whether that happens only in Rio or whether Bahia gets the same performances. When we ask locals, they are overwhelmed by the task of explaining it and just make noises and wave their arms around and tell us that we`ll have to see it for ourselves to understand.
We saw some pictures yesterday of parades of people in t-shirts. Not very festive, surely that can`t be it!?
Our guidebook is next to useless. It does tell us that Salvador`s carnival is the biggest in the world with over a million and a half people dancing in the streets at one time. It also says that it is less regimented and more spontaneous than Rio. I guess we will see for ourselves soon enough. As far as we can gather, we don`t dress up and the festivities do not stop for 6 days.
In the meantime, stands have been popping up all over the malls selling tickets to camarotes. These are a kind of viewing platform lining the street the procession goes down. We thought this sounded a good idea so had a look at some of them. Some include a DJ, food and drink, some are just platforms in key locations. Some are really expensive and some dead cheap. We have bought tickets to one opposite the famous lighthouse near the start of the parade. For about 11 dollars a day each, we get a fabulous view plus all our food and drink!
Posted by jo mynard
at 10:15 PM
