Carnival in Rio: murder in the Sambadrome of Lewis Carroll
Normally I do not like get anywhere by plane. Airports seem slaughterhouses which desguazamos the bowels of minutes and hours that do not return, airplanes a kind of aseptic limbo in which time and space seem to have stopped. If travel is motion, I Car, culebreen bikes, Give me overcrowded buses, the stony rattle of a train or the swaying of the sea and dizziness. Arriving by plane to anywhere but sometimes unavoidable, is the very negation of the act of traveling. We went into a capsule and left her shortly after thousands of miles away without the landscapes, people or experiences flown thousands of miles below us we have left a trace. A murderous ellipsis that negates much of the essence of the trip.
And despite this ill-tempered introduction, I can't help but smash my nose against the window as the plane tilts to the left and shows me, in just a wink, a string of emerald islets that are lost in the blinding blue ocean.. Rio de Janeiro looks splendid and welcomes me on its first day of Carnival.
For eight days before and two stops Rio and Salvador de Bahia; four buddies, gulfs selected and chosen from Lima, Bogota and Sao Paulo
After five months living in Bolivia, Rio's Carnival was announced as the main course of a year-long feast in which I plan to eat all of South America in bites. For eight days before and two stops Rio and Salvador de Bahia; four buddies, gulfs selected and chosen from Lima, Bogota and Sao Paulo, courtesy of the Icex Scholarship that has disseminated us to the best of each house as vagabonds through Latin America. We have chosen a myth as a meeting point, Everest of the party. It is Carnival in Rio and we have front row entry. Tonight we parade at the Sambadrome with the Grande Río group.
In one hour I am now in full Copacabana Beach, trying to locate these, and sniffing like a bloodhound the breeze of the beach that announces full of promises. Late afternoon and the Cariocas heat engines for the night. The burst Blocos or musical group from time to time on the waterfront, people keep, armed with drums, pans, trumpets, or any object capable of thundering the staff and they get lost among the palm trees before the complicit choirs of the bathers. Anyone would immediately realize that something big is brewing here..
Finally the encounter and the Lost Boys in Latin America Icex sealed the match to beat caipirinha, watching as an incandescent sun is launched on Copacabana beach , to disappear leaving only the evidence of an arrogant youth may not return. But enough nostalgia, We twentysomethings, We are Spartans and we have a mission! The Sambadrome awaits us!
For only 200 euros you get a mammoth costume, the letter that you should memorize, a successful choreography and the right to a leading role in the greatest show in the world
Hurriedly we double the Rua do Copacabana toward the tiny apartment that we rented. When you open the apartment we found that this has been occupied by a fluorescent green mountain. Here we have kept the uniform of a whole troupe of 15 Spanish and Italian ready to parade in Great River. For those who wonder about the possibilities of the Carnival parade in Brazil, must know that it is much easier than it looks, all the groups leave a limited number of places for foreigners to help them pay for their activities. For only 200 euros you get a mammoth costume, the letter that you should memorize, a successful choreography and the right to a leading role in the greatest show in the world.
Two hours after the fifteen touristy redados remain in the thousand pieces of that devil costume. ¡Me falta a brazalete!, Where these columns are embedded? I have no helmet!, Time is running out on us and half-dressed most of us dive into the Rio subway leaving a trail of phosphorescent pieces on the way. The metro is free for groups who parade in the Canaval. In the cars we expect the delirium. Makeup Transvestites impossible, drums, dancers, outlandish costumes and confetti make a world of cardboard fuxia, lime and garnet. A garish universe in which we are…
Makeup Transvestites impossible, drums, dancers, outlandish costumes and confetti make a world of cardboard fuxia, lime and garnet
We are Heroes ....!. Everyone knows our group. Great River, was the champion last year, all congratulate us and wish us luck, Cariocas smile at this gringo Rehala excited and elated, advise us that we prepare for the party.
-Who do desfiláis?, we hear wagon after wagon. -big river!. And those two words only if we have learned, heard, internalized the previous day as part of our imagination am, like home, as our football team or blood group, have become our golden pass the mother of all festivals.
– 'Rio Grande!, They are the best group!. This year we are going to win!. The echoes of admiration still resound when the subway vomits us at the foot of the Sambódromo.
I don't know what Alice would feel when she found that stressed rabbit in the wonderful world she imagined by Lewis Carroll, but compared to the outskirts of the Sambadrome be sure that the rabbit meat from resort. Everyone has forgotten something. Fit the last pieces of the costumes, behemoths that move multicolored rehearsing the last steps. Transvestites mocking dance perched on floats. The cult of the body has become here in religion, both sexes exhibit themselves almost completely naked, defiant and proud in a carnal exhibition that unleashes any fantasy. There is tension and nerves in the expected.
Both sexes exhibit themselves almost completely naked, defiant and proud in a carnal exhibition that unleashes any fantasy
Incredulous and almost crushed by the phosphorescence pantheon we carry on our backs, looked at from time to time., almost silent. It is, since we got here and the scene reaches beyond what we dreamed, while almost causes vertigo to the unreality of the spectacle. . In our little section we are about 600 people and form a multicolored army, We are just one of the 14 sections that parade in the Grande Rio group. Four other groups parade today. We are only one ten-millionth of the Rio Carnival, and yet we feel like a ten-millionth part of something great.
On the other side of the fence surrounding the Sambadrome the chavalería encanallada has come down from the favelas to watch the show and win some real climbs the fence lining the room and drops us buckets of beer full of coins up. Test shameful in a country that despite its runaway flight forgets to progress some of their children. But we can only drink here, prohibited drunk at the Sambadrome, not take pictures. They do not need, Brazilians seem more interested in rhythm suggestive of the hips and the clatter of the djembes in the caipirinhas.
We remain concerned by just half an hour before the steps that our partner resident in Sao Paulo Roberto had sent us two weeks ago via Youtube, Solo Conoce one phrase Nuestra song You are my love is Minhou flag Minhou soul is tropical! , Suddenly the multicolored forest of feathers and laughter begins to walk and euphoric we let ourselves go following the beat as we can, no matter the guise does the rest.
The Sambadrome awaits us, open, splendid and full of promise , a few meters away we can barely make out its crowded stands with the standing crowd that dances and waves at us, howl and the drums with his frantic pace, and suddenly her lights dazzle, y …. And I can assure you that I will never forget that 2009, when I wanted both a continent that still hurts me to remember, and I will never forget that moment when I crossed the gates of the Sambódromo with my beloved three rascals on the back of our exultant youth while five thousand throats thundered in the Rio Night! My love is my little bandeira my soul is tropical!.
Comments (3)
Ann
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Great, Enrique.
I love your stories. Congratulations
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enrique Vaquerizo
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Glad you like Thank you Ana
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Carmen Avila
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Me too excited me your stories.
I went to Rio by boat and is the most spectacular I've seen in my life. Greetings.
Grain
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