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February 5, 2008!
Oi, tudo bem? …Tudo bom! (hey, how are you? I'm good!)The local language in Brazil is Pourtagese.
Yep, Welcome to Brazil!We arrived in Brazil on Tuesday, February 5 bright and early.The captain was able to make great time from our trip from San Juan.We pulled into port at 5AM, 3 hours ahead of schedule, which was great because 6 other cruise ships were coming in as well.Customs and immigration did not arrive until 8 AM and we did not get cleared from the ship until about 10 AM, which then lead to the mad rush of the students to hit the gangway to exit the ship for the first time in 7 days.
Well, after waiting about an hour to get 700 eager students off the ship, the staff finally had a chance to step foot onto land.We usually let the students get first dibs on getting off at each port, unless we are leading a trip that leaves bright and early on the first day.As soon as I walked out of the port and hit the streets of downtown Salvador, I knew right away we were not in the USA anymore.It was amazing, scary and kind of intimidating.Nothing was written in English, no one spoke English and the area just had aroma of urine and dirtiness.It makes New York City look clean and safe!But that was just my first impression.
During our afternoon, a few of us just decided to walk around the downtown area, just to see the surroundings so we know how to get around for the next 6 days being here.As we left the port, we headed into more of the touristy area with markets, street vendors, etc.The street vendors are very good at making eye contact with you and touching you to ensure you look at their items they are selling.I could not tell you how many times a street vendor grabbed my shirt to get my attention to buy their items, but no sale was made.
As we continued to walk around, we found the elevator that leads to the upper city of Salvador.Yep, that is right, there is an upper and lower city and the only way to walk to the upper city is to take the elevator.After exciting the elevator, we made it more into a somewhat safer area and one of the many CARNIVAL areas.In the early afternoon, they were still cleaning up from the night before celebrations and at the same time getting ready for the late afternoon and evening partying to happen.As we walked around, we stopped in to visit some shops, tried some of the local soda, which was really good and had a nice lunch at a local restaurant on the street.It was kind of difficult to place an order for a meal when you cannot read one item on the dam menu.But luckily, I did it and I ordered some filet mignon sandwich, which was actually good.
After lunch, carnival was getting ready to begin and some local bands and stages were already getting things started.As we saw the time, some of us had to get back to the ship and leave for the evening carnival trips we had planned….And here it goes from here.
CARNIVAL was the rest of the night and can I tell you all, and for my own memories, it was SICK, CRAZY FUN!! No lie at all.I cannot even try to describe to you what I experienced for the rest of the night.The pictures might help you get a better image of what I saw and experiences, but to be honest to you, you have to come down here and experience Carnival yourself!!
So let me try to explain a bit.Tonight I was trip leader for the Semester at Sea Carnival trip to a Camorte.A camorte is a private viewing, staging area, that people buy tickets for to view the carnival festivities off the street, but very close to the street.Really, it is like a balcony of a some restaurant, etc where you can feel free to party harder for Carnival.Really, there is no reason to be in the street and I will explain more of that soon.Our Camorte was awesome!!It was not just for semester at sea, but for anyone who bought tickets to this area.We had our very own bar, snack bar, body guards, security and a nice group of Brazilians and students attend.
So, we took our bus ride from the port and headed to our camorte.When we got there, 20 Brazilian police officers escorted us up the hill for our five minute walk to our camorte!It was pretty amazing to be escorted like this in this country, having all of the locals look at us like we were privileged white folks.
Once we arrived to our camorte, my mouthed dropped and it was CARNIVAL.As I looked over the balcony there were THOUSANDS and thousands of people on the street partying, dancing and going crazy.
See what happens with Carnival, if you are not already familiar, is basically every 30 minutes a new performer arrives and puts on a concert for the immediate area.These performances travel from one side of the city to the other side, taking almost 10 hours to get from point a to point b in the city.Think of this… a tractor trailer stage set up with lights and a band, with loud, I mean very loud music from their speakers engulfing the entire area to go nuts singing and dancing the night away.
To add on to the moving stage, locals and tourist buy space around the stage, that is where the enormous amounts of people come from.About 50 yards in front of the stage is a roped off area where the people who bought tickets to be in this location travel all night long with the performance.Then about 100 yards behind the stage are more people in the roped off area, singing and dancing together.Now the only thing to remember is that only the people wearing these shirts (as there are different shirts for every act) are allowed in the roped off area, otherwise if the security of the area sees you, you will be kicked out.So, as the each new venue keeps moving on in, crowds grow and shrink.You know when a new venue is arrived as the street gets extremely crowded and everyone else NOT in a roped off area gets pushed back more and more into the crowd.
I hope that helps with the explanation.
But overall the music, the dancing, the singing, the atmosphere was truly amazing and something I will never forget in my life.I did not know the words to any of the songs, I did not understand the language at all, but the beat, the loud music just made everyone come together to dance, jump up and down and have fun!!I stayed at carnival for about 5 hours and by then I was exhausted.It was so much fun.And to think, they do this for 5 days straight and we were there on the last night of Carnival.Through the five hours, I believe I saw about 9 different concerts (or performances) throughout the night.The singers were great and had so much energy to get the huge crowds so active in there show.
Overall, my first day at Brazil was amazing.The colors of carnival, the excitement and pure joy of the experience, something I will most likely not see again. It did not matter that we were not in the best part of the city, the excitement of the area made it fun.
Throughout the day and for our entire stay here, we are on alert for ourselves.We have learned to carry our money in our socks and through out our bodies so if we are pick pocketed, they don't take everything we own.We have learned to travel in large groups and to ensure that males are within each group.We have learned to walk fast, not to carry back packs, cameras and to live a very subdue life walking around.Overall, nothing has happened to us today, but for other students they were not too lucky.We had a bunch of students robbed, pick pocketed and hurt, but nothing major.
The students are doing really well listening to our advice and watching out for everyone, but you just never know to be honest with you.
Well stay tuned for more…. As more will arrive, but I thought I get my carnival experience to you.
Pictures will be up during the week or so.. so stay on the look out for them.
Still more days in Brazil and more to write about.
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