Cool Pic Quarta

A cool angle from my balcony.

Rise & Shine

Apparently up until about eight or ten years ago, Carnaval in Recife also included non-stop music & madness up and down my street for a solid week. The complaints of the residents, who preferred their sleep over the frenzy, put an end to it. Of course, this doesn't mean that we didn't get this 6am wake-up call one morning the week before Carnaval!

More Carnaval Madness

GLIMPSES OF THE PARTY


F-R-E-V-O F-R-E-V-O



Wait, Don't Move, I Think I Lost my Contact



Cooler at Night?



Papangus in Bezerros

Nazaré da Mata - Nazareth of the Forest

One of our Carnaval excursions was a road trip on Carnaval Monday [Feb. 19] to the town of Nazaré da Mata [pop. 30,000; 65km NW from Recife]. Known as the home of Maracatu Rural - a Pernambucano ceremony/dance which evolved from the sugarcane workers - Nazaré is the gathering point for more that fifty different Maracatu Rural Nations - or groups - that will dance from mid-morning to past midnight over Carnaval.

Maracatu Rural is a blur of colour and percussion, in which the most striking participants are the Caboclos da Lança, the colourful sugarcane workers come swordsmen with elaborately sequined and cow-belled ponchos, two-metre lances and big tinsel heads, who dance and stomp around the ex slave-based version of the Portuguese Court. Already seeing one is pretty neat. Seeing hundreds all at the same time is a sight that is nearly indescribable.

Next to the Carnavals of its famous cousins Recife and Olinda, Nazaré's is relatively unknown, even by locals themselves. Spending several hours there watching group after group assemble and then perform was definitely one of this year's highlights.

Scratch That

Is it my fault? Did I speak too soon? As it turns out, it is anything but quiet here as dozens of rigged-up semis with bands on them - a.k.a. Trios Elétricos - are currently snaking their way past my building. The music is pounding, my walls are shaking, the floor is vibrating, the Brazilians are dancing. Does it ever end??

Sensory Overload 2007

As happened last year, this year's rendition of Carnaval also zipped by in a blurr of sensory overload. My guests are safetly back in Canada, my house is strangely quiet, and once again, I am trying to make sense of the frenzy that constitutes Carnaval in Brazil. Stories to follow....

Carnaval is Coming

Third stop on this year's Carnaval Circuit was the city's 43rd Municipal Costume Ball. Held a week before Carnaval officially begins, the Ball is a terrific event to which Everyone - that's everyone with a capital E - wears a costume. From simple to incredibly creative to group themes to costumes for which a gaggle of peacocks donated an inordinate amount of feathers, it's a feast for the eyes. Overall, the music was great, the costumes were fun, the people were animated, the dances were danced, the drinks were drank, and merriment was made.



We ended up leaving at 3:30am ... it was only the intermission!!

Carnaval 2007 - Stop 1
Carnaval 2007 - Stop 2

The Storm

The first part of the storm has arrived....

The Calm Before the Storm...

Tonight, I am home alone, tucked in on the sofa, quietly reading my book....

Carnaval is NOT for the Faint Hearted

Even though this weekend is a full two weeks before Carnaval, the street outside my house which normally looks like this ...


... looked like this today ...


... as super mega-star Ivete Sangalo belted out her stuff for an estimated half million people outside my front door! As they (she) say(s) Que vai rolar a festa!

Pre-Carnaval Fun

Saturday was also spent in some pre-Carnaval fun, albeit a smidgen quieter than Sunday's bruhaha, as Saturday's fun took place in Poço da Panela, essentially the Rockcliffe of Recife.

Nine Months

There's a lot that I want to accomplish in the next nine months. After that it'll be too late to ....

The A List

- Trek to Serra da Capivara, an archeological site of waaaaay in the interior of the state of Piaui (distance from Recife: FAR!) which boasts cave paintings between 2,000 and 25,000 years old;

- Relax at Praia da Pipa, a fabled beach in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. It's only four hours from Recife by car - why I haven't made it there yet is anyone's guess!

- Snorkle in the waters of Fernando de Noronha again;

- Sip one more espresso under the ginormous fig tree at Figueira Rubaiyat in Sao Paulo;

- Finally learn how to dance Frevo;

- Eat ridiculous amounts of macaxeira frita - fried manioc; and

The (High) B (Almost A) List

- Trek through the Chapada Diamantina in the State of Bahia;

- Visit Salvador one more time;

- Dance with the bumbas of Maranhao one more time....

Because you see, in just less than nine months, these guys will be knocking on my door, bundling me and my stuff up, and shipping us back to the homeland. Hard to believe that my three years are almost up. Better get cracking on that list!

How Lovely

Last night, I saw one of these scurry along the side of my building. Hmmmmm ....

According to Wikipedia, the source of all things true in the world, while wild rats living in cities may suffer from poor diet and internal parasites and mites, they do not generally spread disease to humans. It's good to know!

Other interesting Wiki rat facts:

- the province of Alberta has upheld and maintained a rat-free status since the early 1950s (take that you BC, Saskatchewan and Montana rats - ratports please!);

- Around 26% of all electrical cable breaks and 18% of all phone cable breaks are caused by rats. 25% of all fires of unknown origin are estimated to be caused by rats - Not in Alberta though! Do they have less cable breaks, I wonder?

- It was discovered that rats emit short, high frequency, ultrasonic, socially induced vocalization during rough and tumble play, and when tickled. This laughter is associated with positive emotional feelings and rats that laugh the most also tend to play the most, and those that laugh the most also prefer to spend more time with other laughing rats. Studies, however, could not prove that rats in fact have a sense of humour...

So there you have it. Rats - urban pests with advanced senses of joy!