Carnaval!

I've never been to an event where they handed attendees a condom when they arrived. These smiley girls put one in everyone's hand right after you came through the gates. With that good giggle and a sense of protection, we entered Sao Paulo's Carnaval celebration last night.

The four of us went with our friends Prateek and Nandita and their two boys. We probably got there too early (9:30) because things really didn't get rolling until 11:00. We were in the table section so we were able to order beers and food which was really nice. The kids were very into the "beef on a stick" which was delicious.

Everyone warned us to not wear jewelry and to not carry purses because the crowd can be rough. I'm sure there is some of that but I found everyone really nice and helpful. We were a bit stressed out when we found out that our seats were on the opposite side of the dome and that the crowd had to walk counterclockwise around the place to get in since there was no way to cross the parade grounds. So instead of walking 100 yards to the right, we had to walk about 3/4 mile to the left around the outside to get to our seats. The kids loved that! Especially when we had to do it again at the end of the night.

I always thought of Carnaval like Mardi Gras with street parades and things. Not so much. In Brazil, it is a serious competion between the area's samba dance schools. The Sambodromo is a huge parade ground and each school enters with thousands of dancers, floats, drums, singers and the most amazing costumes. It takes 45-60 minutes for each school to go from beginning to end. We learned that the costumes and floats are only used once and that the schools spend the entire next year getting ready for each Carnaval.

What a riot. Some of the best dressed women in the schools are guys. One group had the men dressed in the tiniest of purple loincloths and lots of glitter. The schools of course highlight their most beautiful people, but they also let seniors, children, handicapped and others join in the fun as they march through. Even the clean up crew is part of the show. The crowd is dancing and singing along with the music the entire night. It was cool to see people cheer on the schools like they were sports teams. My ears are still ringing.

We left the area about 3:15 and we only saw four or five schools. I bet it went on until at least 5 or 6:00. We were all exhausted but I am really glad we went.

I loaded a couple dozen photos on Facebook. If you want to see them, click here (even if you don't belong to Facebook).

I even took a shot at posting this video from my camera so you can get a sense of the music. Check out the guy in the white shirt on the lower left. He's not the youngest of dudes but he danced and sang all night!!