2nd half... still more to come

i have quite a bit to reflect upon but i want to first give the shortened run down version of our 2nd half of carnival.

we arrived on sunday feb 22nd. carnival is one week long. our flight was a little shaky at first cause erin and i were a smidgey bit hung over from the night before. i now remember why i dont like lagers or shitty beer not only is the taste not appealing but its a headache for sure the next day. ick. i may be a beer snob but thr truth is the truth.

our hotel in salvador was in the pelurhino the upper city. the main carnival party that can be seen from outerspace is in the lower city of barra. its not very far from one another. the pelurhino has colonial architecture and is very centered around the afro brazillian culture that inhabits bahia. there are 3 parts of carnival and the pelurhino has their own. our hotel was smack in the middle of it all. groups of individuals doing capueda which is a form of brazillian dance. it originated among the slaves as a way to learn how to fight. during this improvization however there is no fighting nobody gets hurt, it is not about competition as much as it is about movement. it really is a beautiful thing to watch. there were street vendors everywhere every corner was filled with someone selling beer, water, snacks you name it. there were people playing all kinds of instruments and every kind of drum marching through every inch of the pelurhino it was fueling the city with this vibrant energy.

the girls and i were exhausted and we knew if we were going to make it the next two days we had to make it an early night. it started pouring everyone cleared out of the streets under the onnings and in the small stores that lined the streets. candi was the first to run out in the rain i followed and erin hesitated. it was pouring and she was sick. but like a trooper she trudged in it! we ended up at this reggae club. i guess i am not sure if you would call it a club more like a stage set up with white sheeting over in case of rain. none of the area for dancing was covered so everyone was huddled under the covered spots! after that we all kinda roamed around for a bit tried to check out as much as we could then had to head back and crash. we were drained and exhausted.

the next two days were insane. barra was packed with more people then you can imagine. there are these huge 18wheeler trucks that blare music so loud you can hear it from blocks away. each bloco has a different artist that sings on it and surrounding these trucks are local people holding this rope around the the truck which moves very very slowly. i cant even estimate how many people are in the roped area. the ticket to get under these ropes and follow these blocos are shirts so all of you have the same shirt on and go dancing through the streets to the ending point! i was lucky enough to have a friend who managed to room it up with all these israleis and get an apt right on the main stretch where all the blocos pass so when we wanted to rest and get out of the madness but still watch it we rolled up to the apt and hung out the windows.

for fat tuesday which is the last night of carnival we decided to buy a shirt and follow a bloco. one of the isralies was obsessed so every night he followed a new bloco he reccomended which one to go to. we had so much fun dancing and sweating thru the madness. we were all so tired and headed back but then during our rest the electronic bloco came. we heard it and watched it from above and were so moved by the music we decided to follow on the sides of the float. its possible but isnt very easy.

i have to pee. i will finish up tomorrow sorry i have slacked on my writing skills and have just brushed over the details.

i will get back into the swqing of it soon!!

xoxo