Well the excitement stepped up a level on Friday night with a trip to Mangueira, a huge samba night near or in a favela (large areas of shanty type houses literally sitting on top of each other). We got there at about midnight and things were just getting going. The dance was inside a huge building like a sports hall with a roof that opened when it got hot. The different samba schools had apparently spent ages preparing for this night. The crowd cleared a space in the middle of the dancefloor, then each group from the different samba schools took their place in the middle. There were a lot of older people, and lots of really old people all well up for it! Some groups were all dressed in head-to-toe pink, some in sparkly silver dresses, one really old woman looked about 100 and was wearing a very sexy sequined dress and heels!
Anyway once it got started, the whole place was like a hi-energy rave only even happier and more energetic, if you can possibly imagine that. Basically I fit right in - the more OTT your twisting and twirling on the dancefloor and the more you laughed like a crazy fool as you did it, the better. There were randoms in the crowd who danced so frantically you couldn't see their feet move, and they moved around challenging other people to out-dance them. 2 guys in particular were well into their 50s, dressed in white trousers and shoes with gangster type hats on. They won every battle, the trickest moves you've ever seen on a dancefloor, on the verge of break-dancing. So a very fun night all in all, so many happy positive people... I can totally see why the Brazilians have the reputation for being the best party animals in the world ever.
We came out at about 3:30am into what was now definitely a favela. Huge crowds of favela people milling about, cars with their boots open blasting their stereos, big groups of kids hanging around smoking and drinking, loads of food stalls. Had I not been with Brazilians, I'd have been a bit intimidated... but part of me loved it, that whole hanging-around-in-carparks-at-night-admiring-loud-stereos thing. A really exhilerating experience all in all!
