So the major re-route and detour and after taking the
Death-train and a 32 hours bus ride from Corumba I finally reach Rio and was
kinda excited for Carnival. I never got to see the ‘Paid’ carnival for it was
really expensive but during the Carnival week in Rio, me and L were hunting
down all the street parties that they call Bloco. Bloco was on the streets all
over Rio where the performers do dry runs and rehearsals and the public party
all around them. Some of the Bloco were pure ridicules and some were good but
one thing for sure weather good or no good the locals still party like crazy to
bad music or even no music at all.
Street Bloco in Rio |
L pretended to be a Japanese photographer tourista and snapped way too many shots of Girls on the streets and I would be yelled at to pay them money for getting a photo taken while he walks away pretending not to understand a word. Just don’t go snapping pictures of guys or girls with bf that will beat us up I told L.
Sit down Musician Bloco |
No two bloco was the same as far as I saw. The first was
like a karaoke with just one person with a mike on top a huge big truck and
lots of people dressed up in front and behind the truck but no performance.
Just singing (all Portuguese so I can’t understand shit) and everyone around
either standing and looking or trying to groove a little. The second was better
with percussion drums and dancers in formation practicing their routine. Third
was a sit down bloco where amazing musician set up a tent and booth and was
playing incredible classical Brazilian style music.
Percussion Drums & Dance Bloco |
Then there was the numerous bloco that got cancelled or we
were late and it was finish and left a crowd waiting and wondering what we were
even doing there. Then there is the samba and Froco. I did not manage to catch
a samba but a Froco was like traditional music, slow and people danced in
pair’s boy and girl grooving with hips attached with the occasional twirl.
I went all around Rio looking for Bloco finding it
interesting never knowing what you gonna see. Sightseeing was along the way but
always with an eye lookout for a great bloco. The actual Carnival event thou
was super-duper expensive going up to nearly few hundred USD dollars and I was
not about to spend that much money, Carnival or no Carnival. Bloco thou was
free so I keep hunting. The good part about Carnival was that you could go almost everywhere safely due to the high amount of police deployed to safeguard the humongous volume of tourist that comes just to party. Favela areas (Dangerous Drug Lord Slums) were also opened for Bloco event and mass groups of people flood the are including the police.
For a week it was safe from the normal crazy people but then
again drunk crazy people was everywhere.