Some responses to the comments(me gusta las commentes): Most of the people we have met have an overall positive outlook on gingos(thats what we are, because we are not technically "Americans" since brazilians are americans too) and they have all been friendly towards us. There are a few people, the greeks and a girl from Sao paulo who will travel with us to our next location, Ilha Grande.
This morning, at about 6:45, Crisitana came home from Lapa, these brazilians are crazy! It was already dawn! We all slept in until about 10 and then started to prepare for our saturday afternoon feast, called Feijoada, here in Brasil. Feijoada is a traditional brazilian meal that originated in the begining of the country and had alot of influence by slave culture. The meal consists of four dishes, aalot of meat and starches. There is a kale and garlic dish, a manioc flour(cassava/yuca/manioc/tapioca(not the pudding)these are all the same thing, different names) with bacon fat, onions and garlic dish, a big pot of black beans, bacon, sausage, salt meats, onion and garlic, and of course rice! It is a very filling meal and we shared it with beer and many friends. In cristianas small apartment, we had many people, 5 brazilians, 3 chileanos, 2 americanos(us), 1 french, 1 bolivian, 1 peruvian, 1 lebenese guy, 2 greeks, and some more south americans. It was very exciting. we were all talking and arguing, joking and laughing in many different languages, mostly spanish portuguêse, and some english. So far everyday i have been learning more and more spanish. As the meal was winding down, we got out the birthday cake for the french girl! It was her birthday! We celebrated and soon it was time to go out to dance.
At 1:15 we left the apartment, went to a streetside restaurant and had some beer over fun conversation, we were alot of people and we raised quite a ruckus. After a little while, we headed out and grabbed 3 taxis to take us over to the place we were going, a very large samba school dance hall located in a very happening part of rio. As we drove there, it felt like a car racing vídeo game the táxi driver was going so fast and slaloming the car infront of us. We drove clear across rio in 20 min,looking out the window, i saw the gas station, and I saw there were two options,alcool, which was 1,63R per liter, or gasoline, 2,54R per liter, wow, a big difference. In case you didnt know, brazil has cut down alot of the rainforest to grow sugar cane for alcool, or alcohol, ethanol, and it has hit US magazines for environmentalists as a big coutravoursy. Finally got to the party that was around around the samba school. Getting out of the táxi, i thought to myself, this is brazil. Both side of the blocked off street were loaded with people and blasting speaker, everybody looked like they where here to dance, and have fun. There did not seem to be that many tourist here. As we got closer to the samba school, which is called, Mangueira, their colors are green and pink, and they will be competeing in carneval 2009, the crowd thickened.the building looked to be of thick concrete, and painted white, with thick green and pink stripes. Once inside, we all held hands as we walked through the crowd, because there were som many people inside. The building is about ½ th size of a football field, and is entirely open. At the frount there is a balcony where the band will play, and to the right there is another balcony where the steelstringed ukulele and three singers will play. We crawled our way to the front of the room, there have got to be 2000 people in this room, and the singers are yelling into the microphone, in portuguese getting everyone pumped up for the upcoming show. Then all of a sudden, as loud as thunder, all 50 members of the school slam on their drums. And then the samba beat starts. Like i mentioned in the last samba story, samba beat is very complicated, and intricate, so it is better just to hear it for yourself, and dance along. It was so loud, that I could not hear anything after we left, at 4 am. I was so tired from dancing for that long and all i wanted was a little sleep. Laina, I and the two Chileanos took a táxi back and got some much needed rest.
Things to look up: Mangueira samba, Feijoada, and Manioc
