Carnival Starts

Carnival, for me, has officially started! I know I’m a bit behind on this (pre-carnival blocos have been running for a few weeks now), but this weekend I made up for lost time by visiting two!

On Saturday I ventured over to the lovely Praia Vermelha, just next to the cable car that takes you to the top of Pão de Açúcar. It was a nice little bloco – nothing too crazy and the scenery was gorgeous.

Just back from the beach itself, there is a large open area – perfect for carnival parading.

On Sunday I decided to go a little further afield for a much larger bloco – Timoneiros da Viola in the the North Zone neighbourhood of Madureira. I went to the same pre-carnival bloco last year and it was great!

Apparently the organisers had made a slight miscalculation when hiring the carnival truck – it was too high for some of the cables that stretched across the route that the bloco was meant to take (do they really deserve to be called “organisers” if they make a mistake like that?). Anyway, that didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s spirits (the ‘dampening’ came later…)

When I arrived it was really hot. As the afternoon wore on, it got hotter and hotter and I noticed some dark, foreboding clouds gathering. At around 5pm I was hit in the face by a massive drop of rain. A few seconds later the heavens opened.

I know you guys love a bit of video, but before you start you may want to lower the volume on your computer/device – the sound is a bit full-on: