Carnaval Approaches, Part II

When I think of Carnaval in Rio, I think of Roger Moore as James Bond in Moonraker making his way through a wild parade trying to outrun Jaws, the guy with the metal teeth. The crowd is huge. People are in outlandish costumes. Moore gets jostled pushing his way past a sea of revelers in order to get down the street. Drums are beating. People are dancing. It looks like absolute bedlam.... and a heck of a lot of fun.

I understand that watching the actual Carnaval parade is only slightly more civilized than that. In 1983, Rio built a permanent home for the parade called the Sambadrome. For five nights at the end of February thousands of Carnaval partiers march through the Sambadrome as part of 14 samba schools competing against each other. There are anywhere from 200 to 400 marchers per school ranging from drummers, dancers, performers and many others (including tourists) who purchase costumes and march with the schools to round out their numbers.

The party does also spread out into the streets (a la Moonraker) as neighborhood Bandas break into their own local celebrations much like we saw last week. I understand Ipanema will be mobbed for most of the week.

Now we’ve already purchased our tickets for the Sambadrome to watch the parade. It’s going to be a noisy, raucous night. The kind of once in a lifetime thing you need to experience. I’m also being told I need to also experience the other once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of actually marching in the parade with a Samba School.

My Brazilian friends from DC, Alan and Christiane, have purchased their costumes to participate. Chris did it a few years ago when he first came to visit from DC. Tanya, a friend from Oregon who has adopted Rio as her second home and Samba as her second language tells wonderful tales of marching. So, what the heck… I’m in! Alan’s checking to see if there are any costumes left for me to join them.

The costumes are over the top. Costumes like these are on display in the local Samba/Tourist agency in Ipanema and, depending on the school, sell for roughly BR400 – BR600 (about US$200 - US$300). Though not the specific costumes Alan, Christiane and (possibly) I will be wearing, they give you a good idea of what to expect.

Chris had similar expectations when he marched. Apparently the theme of the Samba School that year was Ecological Awareness… you know, Al Gore, Greenpeace, Save-the-Whales kind of stuff. Chris arrived to find that he would be playing the role of “Trash” as a foil to the “green” costumes and core message of the Samba School. So he marched through the Sambadrome covered in plastic bottles. Not quite the picture I remember from Moonraker.

So, keep your fingers crossed that 1) there is still a costume available for me; and, 2) it doesn’t involve recyclable materials. Rest assured, that either way I’ll have plenty of pictures to share.