Rio, Day 4*

March 3

"The Greatest Show on Earth"

When Ida and I were making plans for my trip to Rio, I mentioned a few different places I hoped to visit druing my stay. One of the things that most interested me about being there in the city during Carnaval, was the world-reknown parade that occurs each year. The "parade" as I call it, is something else altogether. It is an explosion of music, dance, color, creative costumes, and elaborate floats. The 12 Samba Schools of the Special Group in Rio, perform in a stadium-like environment on a strip of avenue (Avenida Marquês de Sapucaí) called the Sambódromo. I recommend watching this National Geographic documentary on the 2007 Carnaval in order to gain a better understanding of just what a massive event and production it is!  

[National Geographic - Inside Rio Carnaval (2007)]

Monday

I accompanied José Carlos, Ida's husband, to the padaria (bakery) this morning to buy some bread. Each day someone would go retrieve fresh french bread from the local bakery. It was ideal for breakfast and making small sandwiches. He works for PetroBras, a huge petroleum/oil/gas company here in Brazil. I think José enjoyed having me stay the week with his family because he constantly practiced his English with me. It made for an interesting conversation, because I would reply to him in Portuguese.

In the afternoon, Carina, Ida, and I played cards. They tought me a new game called mush-mush (I think it was). The point of the game was to be the first player to get rid of the cards in your hand. Each player began with seven or so cards and each player got rid of their cards by pairing them up in threes, with consecutive cards of the same suite, or by having the same card spread across three different suites. For example, I could play a 2, 3, and 4 of spades. I could also put down a 3 of hearts, a 3 of diamonds, and a 3 of spades. Once the sets of three cards are laid down on the table, other players can then begin playing off of your sets and making different combinations- but their first move each turn must be to form a new set of three cards. This is where the strategic part comes in. It was a fun game. Later, I showed Carina how to play "speed." I'm glad I had a game to teach them [good thing I played shortly before leaving home, thank you B. Mixon].

Later that evening we dressed and gathered our bags for the trip downtown to see the samba parades. Earlier in the day, I made some sandwiches (with that french bread) for us to take with us and Ida had already bought water bottles and soda. Thus, we had two koolers packed with sustanance for our night out. José Carlos dropped us off near the ticketing office where Ida had purchased our tickets. There we had a short wait before boarding the vans that carried us to the Sambódromo. While stopped at a red light during our transit, we watched this guy dressed in a tu-tu standing in front of the vehicles in the lane to our right. I guess he thought that he should provide some entertainment during their wait, because he put on a little show in front of the cars. Haha. I'd say he was probably a little under the influence too. Traffic was pretty thick, but we arrived in decent time- about an hour and a-half before show time! Upon entering the venue, we were handed several different magazines and pamphlets with information about the competing samba schools: their histories, show themes, all-time ranking since they began judging the event in 1984, and lyrics to their samba music. This year's parade marked the 30th anniversary of Samba in the Sambódromo!

"The Temple of Samba"

We climbed the stairs, passed the concessions, and met up with Ida's sister in the stands. She arrived before us, and saved us some good seats close to the front. The highly anticipated event began with Brazil's national anthem, followed by the offical song of Rio de Janeiro, "Cidade Maravilhosa." <--[a nice rendition of Rio's anthem.] After a few more announcements, things kicked-off with fireworks down at the other end of the Sambódromo, where the parade began.

See, we were seated in section 10 which was closer to the end of the avenue. I liked our seats because we could see more of the action below, and because we were situated across from the area where the bateria (the drum core from each school) would march in and continue playing as the remainder of their school's participants passed by. <--If that sounds confusing, the video should better explain.

As Escolas de Samba do Grupo Especial
(The Samba Schools of the Special Group)

The parade occurs over a period of two days (three, if you count the champions parade the following weekend where the top six schools have an encore). Six schools perform Sunday and the remaining six on Monday. What made this event extra special for me, was that another one of Ida's sisters was actually taking part in the parade. She performed for the Samba School named Portela. Their mascot is an eagle... which means it was meant to be. Haha. The eagle is my favorite animals and it holds significant meaning for me [Eagle Scout, mascot of Georgia Southern, symbol of freedom, ...]. Ida, Igor, and I received Portela t-shirts from her to wear and represent. So we arrived to the Sambódromo dressed the part.

Here is a list of the six schools I saw Monday night, in the order they performed, with their theme, and a video clip:

1. Mocidade, Outer-space

2. União da Ilha, Childhood Toys & Games

3.Villa Isabel, Portrait of Brazil.  

4. Imperatriz, Soccer.

5. Portela, History of Rio de Janeiro.

6. Unidos da Tijuca, Hommage to Ayrton Senna.

And the winner was..................Unidos da Tijuca! The final school to perform turned out to be this year's champion. Salgueiro (Ida's favorite school) finished runner-up and Portela came in 3rd. It was a spectacular event and I am very fortunate to have been able to attend. Here is a link to view some great photos: Rio De Janeiro Carnival's Samba Finale Provides Spectacular Close To 2014 Fiesta

EAGLES! Portela Samba <-- Cool Video Link!