Despite being completely shattered, we all forced ourselves out on a rather wet Friday night, with various Rio costume leftovers to jazz us up! Ana joined us which was ace as it really helped having someone to answer all our questions about samba and the parades! I was also thrilled to have a lovely girlfriend for company! Ana had actually never been before, it's funny, unless you are really part of a samba school, many Brazilians don't really bother. Ana took the pic on the right unbeknown to me hahaha you can't see my ears, they are under my hood, but Gracie's tail is obvious! Lovely poncho clad men in the background!
It was quite a walk to get into the stands, and we wandered past lots of dancers all in various states of costume.
Pile of costumes accessories
Re-fueling before their performance
Traditional Bahian dresses. They must be part of each samba school parade.
Rusty went for an umbrella hat instead of a poncho!
Eight of the winning schools paraded. The samba drome was loads smaller than Rio's, and it was empty. I'd read that the winner's parade in Rio is also badly attended and that the best atmosphere is during carnival so it wasn't such a surprise, but I did feel a bit sorry for all the paraders as the contrast in just a few days must have been massive. I don't think the rain helped, but lots of people wore ponchos and it did finally stop!
A bit of rain could not stop these ladies booty shaking!
Thriller!
My favourite parade was one about the nostalgia of the 80's. It began with Michael Jackson dancers in a Thriller tribute, and went on to childhood games, rubix cubes, massive computers, rollerskates, hoovers with bags etc etc.....
The name of the school was the Royal Dragons.
Remember this game?!
I didn't understand the zebra connection, but I love zebras!
As the parades progressed, dancers would donate parts of the their costumes to the spectators. The costumes were so expensive so this surprised us rather, though the boys thoroughly enjoyed it and our taxi was full on the way home! I was so surprised to see the giant ant head I had tried on in Rio was part of the parade. The guy, who was from SP, must have taken part on Friday night and then flown up to Rio where we met on Sunday. Random!
Happy spectators wearing various donated goodies including an ant head!
A thrilled Rusty and Luke
Cute bin!
The clean up operation was so smooth and well organised after each samba school, it looked part of the parade!
And now Carnival is officially over......the blues remain a little, but the tiredness is immense! Looking forward to the end of nocturnal living and dare I say it, getting back into a routine!
Above is a compacted video of the Sao Paulo winners, 2014. Their theme was world religions.
Despite being completely shattered, we all forced ourselves out on a rather wet Friday night, with various Rio costume leftovers to jazz us up! Ana joined us which was ace as it really helped having someone to answer all our questions about samba and the parades! I was also thrilled to have a lovely girlfriend for company! Ana had actually never been before, it's funny, unless you are really part of a samba school, many Brazilians don't really bother. Ana took the pic on the right unbeknown to me hahaha you can't see my ears, they are under my hood, but Gracie's tail is obvious! Lovely poncho clad men in the background!
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