salvador carnival day three - camarote

saturday night's camarote has a very different flavour.

before I head out I have one very important thing to do, customise my abada.  apart from the fact that they only had extra large men's sizes left, I realised on friday night that customisation is key.

you'd be amazed at the effort women had gone to.  walking around town on saturday I now notice all of the tailors offering this service.  women have turned their t-shirts into dresses, halterneck tops, boob tubes and crop tops.

I have not allowed myself the time for a tailor so with scissors in hand I get busy.  I decide to go with a deep backed vee, being careful all the while not to cut off my all important logo, as this is the passport I need for entry into the world of carnival exclusivity.

I'm pleased with my handiwork, although perhaps I should not quit the day job (oops too late...) to become a designer or pattern cutter.

we meet as any western group would... at mcdonalds and head out.  it's still early so the parade route is quite quiet.  we find our camarote and head in to explore.

amongst the sea of yellow we find the bar (slightly overpriced) and a viewing balcony already full of people so we can't really see the street below.

we end up standing down on street level, still within the safety of our camarote.  but the view and atmosphere here on ground level is much more exciting than the somewhat sterile environment upstairs.

the crowd is electric and I just can't quite take in the enormity of this carnival, however much I look around and absorb it there's still more to see.

the floats start moving passed us at a snail's pace.  but that's the point, so everyone along the way gets to see and hear the music from the artists on the floats.

these singers and bands perform for the whole length of the carnival, with no breaks and not just for the ten hours tonight, but for the next seven nights. 

the crowd goes wild for yvette sangalo, a Brazilian favourite.  mine is parangole, who performs the song that Jailson taught me on my first day in Salvador.  I like to think that I am a bit of an expert now, although truth be told I only learnt the proper words two weeks later from two nine year old girls.

as we wait for the next blocco to make its way up the street, we wander back in to explore.  in the grounds of the camarote we find a stage with a band playing, so we are constantly entertained.

we wander backwards and forwards like this all night.  buying our piriguetas on  the street, four for five, rather than one for seven inside.

it's an amazing night.  so far I have experienced every aspect of carnival; pipoca, free gay blocco, axe samba blocco, camarote...  what will tomorrow night bring..?