CARNAVAL x 3 etc

yes, carnaval really does deserve being written in capital letters, it should really be on everybody´s must do in life-list!although everybody we´d met spent carnaval in rio, we had made arrangements to spend it in salvador a while ago (had reserved rio first, but were talked out of that). so, after two days of exploring the city, we went up to praia do forte for a couple of days of relaxation before the big party would start. of course we got burnt and within days, my whole back started to peel (people in the pantanal thought i was 19, but after the peeling, i apparently looked like 24 already).praia do forte was a really cute beach town filled with brazilian tourists and we didn´t do much there except sleep, eat, drink and go to tamar, which is a turtle reserve. so, when we came back so salvador, the city had already changed quite a bit, fountains etc were protected by wood panels and everybody was getting ready for carnaval. we still had to pick up our bloco ticket (which is actually a t-shirt, see pic) for cerveija e cia and bought another ticket for a camarote for sunday (gave us a day in between to recover). in a bloco, you´re basically part of a group of people following a trailer with a famous singer on it, in our case it was ivete salgado, who´s very famous in brazil.so, although we didn´t know any of her songs in the beginning, we sang and danced with the crowd and soon got into her rythm. keeping men away is not always easy, but doable. btw, the best place to keep money, we found, is inside the bra where the push up cushions usually go. apart from money, a disposable camera and a passport copy, we didn´t take anything with us. it was a great evening, but very tyring and on the ferry ride over, i was of course one of the first to fall asleep - we didn´t stay in the city but on an island called itaparica about an hour away from salvador (a wonderful pousada called zimbo tropical with great vegetation, monkeys and a parrot - see pic). the shower afterwards felt like heaven, i was itchy all over and had the impression of having everybody´s sweat on my body.
so, the next carnaval experience was a camarote, a closed off area with all drinks and food included where you´re watching the blocos going by and dancing to the music they´re playing. strangely enough, we knew almost all the songs - they are all singing the same thing (& people are still getting exited after the 5th time hearing the same song), so we almost felt like locals when we could sing along. also, we were quite surprised to meet other foreigners there.
i really can´t say whether i prefered the bloco or camarote and think it was a great thing to do both. we stayed in the camarote much longer though, as the bloco just ended and people were starting small fights and we decided to leave. in general, however, we felt really safe, but there´s also loads of police around.
in comparison to europe, where carnaval ends ash wednesday, carnaval in brazil never seems to end...
after a 30 hour bus trip (with a breakdown in the middle of the night and nowhere), we finally arrived in rio, where we were expecting to finally get robbed (but didn´t).although our hostel (rio hostel) didn´t make the most inviting impression upon arrival, it turned out to be a great place with very helpful staff, a wonderful terrace and great breakfast. they were also the ones who organized tickets for the parade of the champions for us, the parade where the samba schools who had the highest scores are performing again. so at least we still saw a bit of rio carnaval as well. the effort the samba schools are putting in their performance is just incredible, i have never seen anything like that. sorry, but our carnaval parades are just sooo ridiculous. thousands of people are taking part in every school and every school´s run is 1 h 18 mins long! my favorite one was focusing on environmental topcis and had all kinds of animals, flowers etc in it.

rio in general is a great city, the setting is just unbeatable (maybe sydney or san diego are close to that). unfortunately, there is a lot of crime and we were told many times not to go here or there and to take our cameras away (we were walking around with plastic bags all the time), so i left mine in the locker most of the time. there were a couple more street blocos, we went to a football game in the maracaná stadium, went to a great nightclub called rio scenarium, of course wento to cristo, copacabana and ipanema. the ocean in rio is a)freezing (there was lots of rain before) and b)it´s got very stron currents and high waves - watch you bikini tops+bottoms.
speaking of bikinis i wonder who ever came up with the rumor that all brazilian women are beautiful, in great shape and shaved...we saw too many who prove just the opposite.
i´ll definitely have to come back to rio, as i was sick the last day we were there and didn´t get to go to the pao de azucar/hangglide down from it.
our final stop was sao paulo where we met up with mathias who we´d met in bsas, had a nice dinner with him and then did a bit of sightseeing the next day and ended our time in brazil with some asian food in the japanese part of sao paulo. the flight back home was as bad as the flight to south america (wonder what happened to lufthansa´s quality approach), but at least i only put my shoes on and my havaianas in my backpack once we left the airport in vienna.

i am now back at home writing this an am already looking forward to the next trip, still have to decide where in the world i´m going to go next, gotta work a bit first...