We arrived at the apartment and were greeted by a guard who ran the door after normal hours. Dropped our stuff at the adequate apartment, and we rushed off to find some food and drink at AdaÃ's urging. As we walked to the restaurant, we were given a quick orientation of our surroundings, and some local advice on bartering with cabs, safety type stuff, etc. We stopped for a drink and a big bucket of chicken. Good stuff.
With that, we parted ways with Adaà and headed down the street till a party on the beach caught our eyes. There was a band playing, with a crowd of about 75 hanging around dancing, singing, and just having a good time. We strolled up and started talking to a small group of three girls. They were cute and interesting, and they pulled us over to the opposite side of the large group to find some seats at the now visible outdoor beach café of sorts.
The crowd was mostly locals, so I suppose that we had "tourist" written all over us, but that was cool. Basic Spanish and broken English revealed names, occupations, and so on; after the intro, it was on to the business of providing us with Brazilian rhythm and teaching us the Samba. The Texas 2-Step was my gift exchange, with spins and dips probably more dramatic than necessary, but… you know. They apparently got a kick out of it, and each in turn demanded their dip and spin. Through the events of the evening, we departed the beach with our new friends and encountered a small street vendor that sold wooden objects.
Paulo, as we would later learn, took a liking to our tenacity, and introduced us to his entire family. They were travelling throughout Brazil from event to event, making a living, spreading smiles and hospitality. The hospitality, we found out, was due to Paulo himself. He explained that the world was his home, and as an afterthought I felt a bit ashamed to label Dallas, and Dallas alone as mine – what a wonderful lesson to be learned. We partied with all our new friends till dawn or so.
Day 2
After only a couple hours of sleep it was obvious that being south of the equator was great for two reasons: (1) It's summer here, though it is winter in the northern hemisphere, and (2) We were about 300 yards from the ocean. To the beach we went.
Sitting on the beach, relaxing in the sun having the breakers crack right up to the shoreline, we drank and relaxed there till sundown. Along the way we discovered our camera, and made some interesting friends who gave us the lowdown on what was going on, who to route for at Sambadromo (the main Carnaval event) and what the night's events would bring. Chris met a nice little lady named Izabel (Izzy) and we decided that we should invite her to our meeting for dinner with AdaÃ. He was going to set us up with info on tickets to Sambadromo, and apparently just wanted to see what kind of trouble we were up to.
We ate dinner at a place near our apartment where they were having live music with a small arrangement of instruments, and Samba was on the menu for it. We ate some wonderful seafood, and Adaà served as translator on the more difficult aspects of the conversation with Izzy. After figuring out what was up with her and Chris, they decided that they needed to walk on the beach for a bit.
Adaà filled me in on the history of it all, the mystic draw for all of the world's peoples. The Portuguese brought the party to Brazil to punctuate their faith, and besides, I think that this is the warmest place that Carneval, Fasching, Mardi Gras or whatever you want to call the days prior to Lent, is played out. The crime, the intricacies of America, and our travels washed down with Caipirinhas and laughs.
Along the way, a young lady getting her "Samba On" caught my eye, I went over and was invited back over with her and some friends of hers, to the same spot on the beach where I was the night before. Linia and I, with the newfound formula of mixed languages, filled me in on her travels, daily life near the beach, and her family's prospering business in the restaurant next door to the one I was eating at the day before.
Carnaval, she explained, was one of the best times in everyone's year. Along with New Year, it is the party of the country.
Linia's friends ditched us, and left with nearly eight hours till dawn, I wanted to go to a club and see how that was around here. We parted ways for a brief moment to change back at our own places. As I was walking out the door, I ran into Chris, got the story, asked if he was up for the club, and off we went. We met Linia, hopped into a cab, and away we went to the beachfront downtown of Copacabana. The cab stopped in front of large neon lights, and we exited to the HELP Disco. People were in a long line that moved rather quickly, so in we went.
The place was huge, and it was basically a huge dance floor with three or four bars, a pretty cool setup. We had to buy tickets for what we were drinking, and we had three choices: Beer, Booze, or Cola. Seemed logical. By that time the sugar content of the Caipirinhas and all the commotion of dancing had us on the dance floor working out each of our Sambas. Linia definitely had her stuff together. We took some more photos of the more interesting characters that crossed our path, mostly the rear ends of most of those people, and laughed and drank till I could barely keep my eyes open and Chris had completely lost his voice. Walking out, the sun was just about to pop over Sugar Loaf Mountain, and we were placing bets as to where it would exactly rise. The sun finally came up, and the night ended.
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