Last day – better make it a good one! I decided to come home a couple of days early because, well, with none of my peeps to party with, not able to drink beer all day and dance in the street, I felt like I’d done Carnaval. Originally I wanted to go for two days, but hotels would only book for 5, so I went all in. I was right the first time.
Anyway, dressed up in the costume I had brought with me, purchased after consultation with Valeria, the wonderful person I emailed with from home. After breakfast, hit the streets
which promised to be much more lively today. I guess because more people would be off work on a Sunday? Ran into a horde of men who were painting their bodies green, putting on headscarves and plastic tubs, so they could run through the streets dressed as Michael’s favorite superheroes from 12 years ago. I filmed them in a video, which I hope to upload soon, but meanwhile, here are some young imitators:
At one point, down our street came a band playing the first really danceable (to me) song, which evidently is a big hit in Brazil, because everyone was dancing, waving their hands, and I was dancing in the hotel lobby with the entire staff, who had run up to the gate when they heard the song:
This is what the street looked like as the group went by:
There was real dancing in the streets today:
Another group heads down our way, and I see that people are getting their picture taken with the leader. I ask a press person to snap my picture, but while the leader was preening his/her feathers, I was almost completely cut out of the picture!
Two movies to be posted here later!
Then came the superheroes:
The family that lived across the street were dressed up for the party:
I thoroughly enjoyed the day, and danced in the street behind several of the wilder, participatory songs, singing along like I knew the words. Even after going in to pack and shower off the day’s layers of crud, I ran back out to do a little more sashaying through the street with a great sounding group. I was sorry I neglected to bring my camera out with me, because next up was an assembly of elegant women, wearing gold, glittery (in a tasteful way) long sleeve shirts and long skirts, with what looked kind of like a horn of plenty on their heads (again, in a minimalist, tasteful way) gliding down the street. A fitting end to the day for me. Tomorrow is a seriously long ( 30 hours due to a 9 hour layover in Sao Paolo) trip to head back home. Until the next adventure!!!!