Carnival! When we signed up to join the WARC, being in Salvador, Brazil for Carnival was what I personally looked forward to the most. Now, the day had arrived! There weren’t very many of us, with just the crews of Atla, Steve from Alora, the Babsea crew, Paul from Chao Lay, the Charm family, John and Josie, lately of Coco de Mer, Danica, and we Sweet Dreamers, but we made a happy little knot of folks in various states of carnival regalia that set forth on our decadent adventure at 15:00 in the afternoon. Salvador did not disappoint! We left the marina security gate, dodged the yellow motorcycle taxi drivers, and water sellers, crossed the impossibly busy street, wended our way through the craft market, and woohoo! Free access to the elevator! That lift is something else. It’s ancient and creaky and holds about 20 folks at a time for a seven second swoosh from the port at sea level up to the old city. Riding it is akin to stepping aboard a county fair ride, it’s dirty, it smells bad, giant bugs scurry into the cracks, it makes scary noises, you are jammed in way too tight with mostly strangers for a ride you start second guessing the minute you enter; then it’s over, you’re out in the fresh air on a new level, and in retrospect it WAS fun! Ha! On non carnival days it costs 15 centavos to ride..that’s less than a nickel in US money. Oh, and you’d better have exactly those 15 centavos, or you will receive a glaring, eye rolling, unhappy tirade in Portuguese from the cashier. This was the first time we’d ridden the lift with exactly correct change and voila’ it was free! Must be some kind of gift to the people for carnival. We strolled through old town, breaking off into small groups of sightseers and shoppers, and arrived at Ua Ua, a fabulous venue that Helmut and Barbara had booked a room in through Gilbert, the travel agent, for the night. What a beautiful place. It was up a wide flight of stairs overlooking one of the narrow twisty streets with floor to ceiling window balconies just made for Carnival viewing. It was decorated in the old hacienda style that gave you the cozy feeling that you were dining in some one’s home. Not a restaurant. It was in a perfect spot for this side of Carnival. The food was good, the fellowship was fun, we took turns crowding three or four into a balcony to watch the passing drum troupes. This took some nerve, as we began wondering just how much weight would the little balcony bear before tipping off. Tonight they held just fine. After a nice leisurely meal, we went out into the street amongst the beautiful drum cores and gaily dressed people, and down into the triangle where a stage was set up and some famous Brazilian Carnival group was doing a sound check. We met a precious young couple with two daughters, and they all spoke a little English, so they explained that they had been bringing their girls to Carnival to dance in the street since they were babies, and that the band, which was to play at 8 pm, was one of the famous ones from the beginning of the trios electricos, (those big trucks with speakers on the bottom and a stage on top.) It was very refreshing to talk with them, and see that local folks brought their children to the party. We wandered around, followed a pint sized trio electricos through the main square, dancing in the streets with lots of diverse humans. I loved the eclectic mix; every colour of the skin rainbow, every gender, locals, tourists, and visitors of all ages from the teeniest babe in arms to some really strikingly beautifully garbed really old ladies then at 20:00 we went back and melted into the crowd in front of the stage for a fantastic hour of music and singing. The music was really really good; old dude guitar virtuosos trading licks, drummers showing off their chops, everybody dancing from pogo style to soft gyrations. My favourite part was when almost everyone in the crowd was singing a Capella some very sweet moving song. I couldn’t comprehend a word of the lyrics, but the beautiful emotion in the whole crowd singing together was very moving. All I could think was how lucky I was to be there! Carnival in Brazil was always one of my bucket list items and here we were in the midst of it! We found Glen and Mary from Danica, decided to start heading back, met up with Helmut and Barbara at the square where a giant trio electricos was playing reggae music, with happy people slow dancing all around the big truck and singing along with the old school reggae music. It was the perfect whipped cream and cherry on top finale for the evening. As we were leaving the square, our friend that we had met earlier in the evening ran up and wrapped a long strung of sons of Ghandi beads around Lars’ neck and wished us well, and said he wanted us to feel welcome in Brazil. Very kind, and yes, thank you we felt very welcome. We tiredly danced our way to the elevator, made it down without having to wait or pay, then crossed the street only to find out the market that was between us and the marina had all been padlocked shut, so we found ourselves between the wall and the buses. Not fun, but we arrived unscathed at the marina gate, were let in by the night watchman and his armed guard, took a few minutes to watch Cobin’s cool video of the whale sharks in St. Helena, then arrived home tired and happy to our boat. There was still a cacophony of sound coming from every direction, so sleep was out of the question. We shed the feathers and glitter, took showers, made some popcorn and watched a movie. By midnight, we were asleep...carnival music for our lullaby.
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