Salvador's carnival is less about watching and more about joining in. Floats/trucks carry the artists slowly and noisily along the the route and most have a human cordon around them.
A float
This cordon is made up of people holding a rope with those at the front forcing their way through the crowd, followed by security, then followed by people who have paid to be part of that float and crowd; "bloco". That crowd are identified by their bloco t-shirt, most of which have been customised by street tailors and walk/dance along in the bloco. The alternative is to stay outside the ropes with the rest of the hordes and be 'popcorn', which all the dancing, jostling bodies are said to resemble.
Havng some cheese on a stick for dinner in the old town
Lisa, Tony and Geoff dancing along with the bloco
Mikkel in his 'Lucky Dude' bloco T-Shirt (does chest thump with fist) and Anthony with more hair than he normally sports
Our apartment in our Bob Sinclair bloco shirts
Here's what it looked like later!
A more traditional bloco in the new town
Most of us paid to join two bloco's, one being Bob Sinclair (he did Love Generation, amongst other tracks, which you will know if you google them) and the Olodum Drums, probably the most famous drumming band in the world, even starring in a Michael Jackson track/video. (Again, go google the song with the lyrics "they forgot about us", it's the only bit of the song that I remember due to the irony of such a rich chap bemoaning the wealthy 'forgetting' about the poor....and him!?!. Hmmm.)
Duncan exploring alternative ways to wear his Olodum drums bloco shirt
Okay, a quick summary of time here:
- we broke off into 3 apartments, as locals move out in order to rent their places out and wipe a bit off their mortgage.
- the old town was gorgeous, lively and we sank a few caipirinha's and devoured a few melted cheese on a stick's here.
- inevitably, with such tight crowds and poverty, there were a few attempted pickpockets, but with money mostly in bra's, hidden pockets and socks, these were unsuccessful. Unfortunately, before carnival crowd security measures had been fully implemented, I did fall victim on the first night and lost my St Christopher, which was a gift from a friend for this trip. It'd done its job well so far and as I didn't lose anything else that night, maybe it did it well that night too.
- some of us started to fall ill with either a cold, flu or dodgy tums. Little did we know this would carry on for at least another 2 weeks.
- with access to our own washing machine, we all did a LOT of washing!
- the bloco's were NUTS! Being popcorn was NUTS! Brilliant.
Pete taking his life into his hands to get the group bloco shot (the wig was so we could easily find him.....allegedly ;-' )
view from inside the Olodum drums bloco
The float behind, loo's and bar on board and dancers on top.
Oh, using the loo on a moving float was exciting, especially as it had the look of a milking shed (cos of the metal swing doors). Only enough room to stand really......hmmmm.....maybe lean a little.
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