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2002-02-24 - 8:05 a.m. So I decided to wait a while to update again - big surprise, I know. Back to Brazil - Carnaval is not nearly as scary as I thought it could be. I guess in my mind I had imagined hundreds of people dancing and drinking in the streets, crazy nakedness, looting, riots... Nope, the town was dead. In Brazil, those crazy people are all about the show. Hundreds of people dress up in the most feathers and elaborate headdresses (and yes, several beautiful women wore almost nothing else) and dance around a huge-ass float with weird heads of slaves, snakes, conquistadors, horses, etc, all over them. Some sweaty guys stand off to the side and sing a song they wrote specificaly for this while other elaborately dressed guys play drums. Then they walk and jump and wave their arms as they process down a stadium avenue. They are judged and then the winners are announced. They do this for days in a row. We watched a little every day. It's a little addicting and the costumes, with the feathers waving, are a bit hypnotic. Unfortunately, or fortunately as the case may be, this all starts at about 11 at night and goes to six in the morning. That's why the city was dead - everybody has to sleep in except us poor tourists and my sister who has to interview some poor bastard who had to get up and put on a suit. Anyone not in the show heads to the beaches about 40-100 miles from the city. All except our poor hotel workers and the employees at Pele's museum and McDonalds. It's like Christmas in the US of A - unless you have to work, you are not out and about. It made getting around the city easier. It made getting souvenirs difficult. The last day I was there (Wednesday) the city was back to normal so we went out. It was 95 degrees and humid as we came back from our outing at the park and the souvenir shops. Jeez, was it hot. As we dripped our way back into the hotel, the rain started. I took a shower (don't need to stink up the airplane) and finished packing my souvenirs. We were on the twenty-third floor and could barely make out the buildings next to us with the torrential downpour. There was flooding and the news showed the cars just sliding down the hills to pool (no pun inteded) at the bottom. We called my ride to the airport and his blase answer was to wait it out as rush hour traffic was bound to be better the longer we waited. He was right. I was able to get to the airport on time and other than having to move my liquor into my carryon vs my checked in luggage, the flight home was uneventful. So that's Brazil and I had better get to church. I'll update again to let you know about our brand new purchase!! Until later.
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