This is going to be a long one. I'm going to share with you the last 5 days of street parties that I've experienced in Rio De Janeiro.
I love the floor so much I decided to work on my computer that way too!
Vlad lives in a solid sold Portuguese building. the floors are super solid, they don't creak when you walk on them like old buildings in the US, and you don't really hear the neighbors downstairs at all. It's pretty nice.
They smoke inside, which is alright. I haven't done that in years, and wasn't about to start but walking up and down 3 flights of stairs every time finally had me submit to the etiquette of my peers.
My brazil Architecture post will be a separate post so I wont nerd out about the buildings here yet. This post is about Carnival.
So I've had carnival explained to me by a few different people a couple different ways.
I don't really know the HISTORY of how it began... but what the locals have explained to me for the most part, is that its basically the culture of the african slaves that live in the favelas-- celebrated by the People of Rio as a whole. The young people here who are "cultural" (hipsters) like to embrace the african influence on the culture of rio. This is not to say everyone who participates in Carnival is a hipster! it's just that its very HIP to do so.
The band stopping to lay down and play like that was part of the performance. The band moves slowly forward down the block as everyone else gravitates around them singing and dancing along.
The main parades that you will see in the video below consist of 12 schools that compete, each doing a 1.5 hour show of what they have worked on for years. This red bloco that Bia organized has a story too but I'm not sure what it was about.
Rio has its own vibe, compared to say, Sao Paulo. It's an artist's city. Surrounded by favelas on the hills, the city is closer to sea level, and the favelas are built on the hillsides that surround rio.
I've heard rio is more of a rebellious city, where they like to defy the "colonialism" that run the government here. Kinda sounds like what leftists in the states do, but its different, because they have a different history.
I honestly don't know the deep secrets to how brazil's society took form, so its not proper to speculate too much.
I have a brazilian friend who lives in california who was explaining his reasons for leaving rio. He said there is an inherent problem in the fabric of the brazilian people. He believes it has to do with the concept of "selfishness". He believes that from the top of the pyramid to the bottom, Brazilians are inherently more selfish, than of service to others.
I found this interesting because of the "satanic" vibe to the art in the floats on the main carnival parade. lots of depictions of demons and creepy stuff. I was told brazil has a strong Catholic influence, which totally makes sense because everyone knows that the Vatican in italy is the headquarters of the satanic global elites that ruin the world.
i want to watch some history channel videos on brazil or something.
After telling him that I was bummed because I missed the opportunity to put the moves on and kiss the girl who's number i got, he said, carnival is all about seizing opportunity. he said its like skate photography, you gotta take the picture at the perfect time, because it only happens once. So people really send it during these carnival days.
He said carnival is not about God, spirituality or anything like that at all. its all about the flesh and blood of the physical realm. This is a materialistic kind of way to view the world. this DOES relate to the concept of being selfish: "do as thou shalt" is the devil's advice.
I didn't hear the selfish theory before talking to the guy above, but his explaination for what problem with Rio, is that they dont realize what they have.
- Best food (steak based, best grown non-gmo Cows on earth probably)
- amazing climate (tropical most of the year)
- the amazon rainforest (the lungs of the world, for how much oxygen it produces)
- the ability to grow the best food because of the climate and oxygen
- beautiful women and men
- ethnically diverse human population
- their own language
So you look at that list and it literally describes a futuristic city like wakanda. So why is brazil behind economically and not one of the leaders of the free world?
Basically their government is corrupt. Same as in the US but more, and with less oversight. The government buildings are some of the shittest. They need a trump or elon musk to audit them, like many places in the world but hopefully the whole world changes soon within the next 10 years as we put the Us government on a blockchain to track how they spend our money, other countries will follow, because people will demand it.
I honestly didn't feel like people acted selfish towards me though. they were all super nice! people weren't rude, like even in the crowded streets, people didn't really bump into each other in a rude way.
I found people to be very kind for the most part. like 95% kind interactions with everyone.
Not understanding Portuguese also kinda puts me in a dream world where i can imagine anything i want people to be saying. Looking at the world through rose colored glasses... but honestly i'm loving the excuse to do that.
Back to the story:
So motorcycles are fucking Rad in brazil!
With a motorcycle, you can drive on the median between lanes. you can even say fuck it and drive on the sidewalk. you can park your motorcycle anywhere too. they treat them just like bicycles lol. As the motorcycle driver, you are supposed to honk when you are zooming through cars on the median (the dashed line in between lanes) and what ive heard is that if you try to block motorcycles from doing this, they will kick your side mirror off your car lol. sick!
Watch the edit below for a depiction of what it feels like to be in Carnival: the never ending street party.
The main parade was televised and we watched most of it on TV when we got home each night. The show started at 10Pm and would go till 4AM each night. The music each school plays during their parade is insane, its literally a 1.5 hour long Looping song. its so hypnotic and trance like- combined with the super-psychedelic visual art of the costumes and floats, its TRUELY amazing to see.
To me, it symbolized the spirit of the rainforest, and each parade sort of tells a story like, a theater parade, of a theme of their choice. The one I liked was the one about the female slaves from africa that died from the boat sinking that was bringing them from africa. they turned into water goddesses and blessed the land in brazil.
I'm so glad vlad invited me to visit a week before we got the air BnB so that i could live in his apartment with Bia and Magnolia and feel like a local cria. Rio has kind of a chicago vibe to it, and its been a while since ive been in a big city.
People always asked me "where you from?" and at first i told them Minnesota, since thats where i live now in the US, but i changed it to just say "im from chicago" because in Portuguese "mini-shota" sounds like "mini-pussy" in Portuguese, which i think is just hilarious.
sidequest: buying weed in brazil
So weed is totally illegal in brazil, despite them having the best climate for growing basically everything. empty lots have banana trees growing in them, but for political reasons, they are not allowed to grow, buy, of posses, weed.
The way people buy weed (and the weed sucks) or hash (even worse) is to enter the favela. Vlad and I didn't know the dealers in the favela we went to but Bia did. So we sent in the woman to negotiate the deal.
We stuffed her pockets with a geo tracker just in case she disappeared.
We were able to see her on the map and monitor how deep she ventured into the danger that awaited her beyond the men with machine guns.
We sit on the curb nearby and wait for Bia as the statue of Christ looks down upon us.
Something wasn't right. She was taking way too long. Vlad checked his whatsapp and Bia said her card wasn't working. Usually you gotta pay cash for weed in the favelas but tonight, they accepted Pix which is like the venmo of brazil. Her Pix was malfunctioning, and the machine gun guys told her to have a seat. Vlad then was able to Pix the dealer remotely, from where we were. We waited, and shortly assumed the weed was secured because Bia's location was moving back to us again.
All that stress for a brown nugget in a tiny plastic jar with Albert Einstein on it lol.
Ive really enjoyed learning about the culture of brazil. This post probably doesn't do it justice. but Thank you to my local friends who have taken care of me. I know this post isn't the most organized, but thats in the spirit of chaos that is Carnival~ !
watch the video above!
We went into a neighborhood dive bar and this was the pool table. what game is this? is it called Pool? the balls are all only yellow or red lol. why is this? Can a brazilian answer this question for me?
Dude, I'm loving the Carnival vibes you're sharing with us..
And that picture where you are assuming the role of a GOAT... i cant help but notice an overgrown, well-taken care of tummy in the background!
hahaha yup! new post coming soon of our beach workout routine we are going to try and do every morning
glad to see you are having a great time! can't wait to see more posts!
Yea carnival is not about religion, it's just have fun, enjoy the time and party
Brazil has indeed a lot of corruption, not as much as some African nations but still high
smokin' that einsteinium
remembering how hard it was to get weed when it was illegal - - i'm so glad to live in america 😅