I'll let the pictures (and captions) do most of the talking, but all in all, I have to admit I was actually a bit underwhelmed. I do wish I could do it again knowing what I know now, having been through it, because I just kinda didn't know how it all worked beforehand or what to expect. I was expecting more of a Santa-Barbara-on-Halloween, San-Francisco-on-St.-Patrick's-Day, Las-Vegas-anytime type unavoidable street-party, but it turned out you really had to go hunting for the party. Then again, the fact that I live in a quieter neighborhood certainly had an effect on this... what I saw of Ipanema was much more of what I expected! (see pictures)
Sadly, a few minutes after the last picture (of Galen and Nicole) was taken, I had another first experience: getting robbed.
Galen, Nicole and I were in an area of Rio called Lapa which used to be (and still kind of is) a fairly shady area, but has in the past 10-or-so years become gentrified and kind of club/party-central for Rio. It’s basically just a big street party, with the option of going to clubs - however during Carnaval, the city had put on a series of big free outdoor concert there as well (which we thoroughly enjoyed).
After having been on our feet watching the concert for a while; Nicole, Galen and I were sitting on a curb resting and taking pictures.
I was (stupidly) holding Galen’s camera out to take a picture of us (also stupidly without having the lanyard around my wrist), and a kid came up, grabbed it out of my hand and ran.
We took off after him, and it got handed off a couple other times to other kids (which was supposed to lose us), but I saw that the kid who actually wound up with it had stuck it in his back pocket and was trying to casually disappear into the crowd at the concert.
I should have grabbed him in a headlock, since I knew Galen was coming up behind me, but for some stupid reason I instead just tried to grab it out of his pocket by the lanyard, which was hanging out.
Naturally I missed, so he started running and passed it off to another kid, whose tail I was hot on until I slipped (note: sandals are bad footwear for chasing thieves) and slammed my hip into something (I don't remember what, I just know I wound up with some nice bruises and scrapes on my right side). I kept after him, but while sprinting across the street, I almost got hit by a motorcycle (well, he slammed on his brakes and I just kind of bounced off and kept running), which distracted me long enough to lose him in a crowd.
It sucked.
Naturally, Matt’s awesome enough to give me a camera with the explicit instructions of letting it get stolen if it happens, and I have to go and get someone else’s stolen.
I’m sorry, Galen.
Despite it all, however, I had a great time during Carnaval! It’s all just part of the adventure…
Update:
Nicole was sweet enough to give me her pictrues from Carnaval, so I put the few me-relevant ones (sing it! "Yooooouuuu're sooooo vaaaaaaiiiin") in a new album:
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| Carnaval from Nicole's point of view |
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