How do you disclose an entire week of gluttony, indulgence and disarray? A week where refusal is out of the question and the pulsing music never stops. Well, you don´t. At least not entirely. Afterall, reputations are on the line.
Carnaval in Florianopolis played out like a college Spring Break in Florida, complete with a house near the beach, round-the-clock parties and red meat for breakfast. (Hey, when you´re shooting to wake up at noon everyday it´s not out of the question.)
I stayed in a rented house an hour south of Florianopolis at a beach called Ferrugem. The traffic was horrendous on the drive down as expected. I read that around 1.7 million people were expected to leave Sao Paulo that day. That´s a decent-sized city! We left Sao Paulo at two in the afternoon and checked in at Ferrugem at three in the morning. What I thought would be an eight hour drive turned into a thirteen hour drive-a-thon. The flat tire didn´t help.
In the spirit of the week, we took a stroll down the main road of Ferrugem after checking in to catch a glimpse of the night/early morning life. A surreal scene awaited.
A street party a few hundred strong was stomping and shaking to the techno music blasting from someone´s car in the middle of a blocked off intersection. Then another car pulled up a few minutes later and began blasting its techno music. I had walked into an all out techno-street-war. That wasn´t what was so funny though. The main source of amusement was the Argentinian men that were keeping rhythm with the music - particularly their hair. Single strand rat tails, double strand rat tails, all-out mullets. I felt like I was on the set of some bad 80s movie. I guess Argentinians love to visit the southern beaches of Brazil, and their hair is a dead give away of there country of origin. For comedy´s sake, let´s hope this trend continues indefinitely.
In contrast, the women appeared exceptional - wait, make that really exceptional. Do they have some kind of law against unattractive women in this part of the country? I guess there is a reason 7 Brazilian models appeared in this year´s Sports Illustrated swim suit edition. (I read that in a magazine, so don´t think I go counting these things...well, maybe both.)
My six companheiros and I spent most of our time in Ferrugem, but we traveled daily (and nightly) to the nearby city of Garopaba for the street Carnaval and food supplies. The weather was terrible for most of the week. It rained almost constantly for four days straight. I only saw the sun on our first full day and our last. This turned our daily drive into a daily mud ride as most of the roads in this area where comprised of dirt.
On the days where the weather was nice, I could see why Ferrugem is such a popular destination. The beach is golden and there is a nice, rocky hill in one area where you can get a good look of the surrounding area. Surfers flock to the waves, and on one day I even saw a couple kite surfers taking advantage of the strong winds. I think kite surfing will be my next hobby in another life. The only negatives were the cold waters and the blustery winds - that is, if you weren´t kite surfing.
For those who think of the ornate parades and scantily-clad women when thinking of Carnaval, please desist. That´s only what Carnaval is like in the large cities where they have parades.
Those kinds of things take place in Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Recife. That´s where much of the insanity takes place and where most of the media images are broadcast to the world. Many Brazilians, however, travel to the beach for the week. They relax, they go to parties, they enjoy their free time. I was in that boat.
One night, while having a late dinner in Garopaba, I glanced at a television in the restaurant that was showing the Carnaval parades of Rio. I could see the insane floats of fire-breathing dragons and gun-toting alligator men (or something like that), the dancing women drenched in sweat from constant movement, the baianas twirling round and round. I was as close to that stuff as I was to the Super Bowl.
The cluster of houses that surrounded our place were always a good source of entertainment. As the rain kept most people from going to the beach, everyone instead stood outside their houses, blasted music and did their best running man. (Granted these are all young Carnavalers. In fact, along with ugly women, I believe the mayor of Ferrugem outlawed all people over 25 years of age.) A water fight would break out on occasion or someone would do a running dive into the kiddie pool. This is the neighbors, not me. It´s amazing what can serve as entertainment on a rainy day when you´re seperated from technology.
The food was one of the highlights of this trip as it was one of the few indoor delights of Ferrugem. More days than not, our group would buy meat at the market in Garopaba and have our own little churrasco or barbecue. I don´t think I`ve ever ate so much beef in one week in my life. One night, we went to a rodizio de pizza, where the waiters go around to the tables serving different kinds of pizza. I had pizza with broccoli, lettuce, coconut, peas, dark chocolate, white chocolate, plus all the usual toppings. Did Willy Wonka start a pizza chain in Brazil or what?
When the rain finally subsided, I had the opportunity to try the closest thing to a winter sport in Brazil: sandboarding. Sand dunes can be found outside of Garopaba and for a few reais you can rent a board and surf the desert. I´m not much of a snowboarder so I don´t know how it compares, but it was really fun - and really exhausting. There aren´t any ski lifts or anything like that, so once you slide down the dunes you´ve got to trudge back up. It´s like running stadium steps only the steps begin to sink under your weight as you go.
Runs down the dunes don´t end gently either. Most people end up wiping out in some fashion towards the end, which always is funny to watch - as long as they get up. After about an hour of sandboarding your whole body is covered in sand and you just want to collapse. It´s stuck to your face, your legs. It´s in your hair. Not the best feeling in the world, but it´s worth it.
The parties in Ferrugem didn´t start until around one in the morning. They didn´t stop until the sun came out. There were several barn-like clubs packed with people near the beach. The music of choice was techno and funk. Brazilian funk is probably the worst type of music ever created. It makes my ears cry.
I tagged along every night/morning though the clubs wasn´t really my scene. The free concerts in Garopaba were a little more interesting to me. Right outside the beach front, a stage was set up. On the Monday and Tuesday night of Carnaval people of all ages gathered and danced to axe, a type of popular Brazilian music. We arrive on Monday night at three in the morning and the band kept the party going until four.
All week, the beer flowed freely and people seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely. Of course, how can one float through Carnaval without being kissed? I gave it my best effort, but at 4 AM in Garopaba this persistent Australian girl wore me down.
After a short conversation in which I ignored every sign that a girl wants you to kiss her, I managed to awkwardly peel this girl off my leg and rejoined my friends. As we were walking to the car to drive back to Ferrugem someone grabbed my arm and pulled me back. It was Australia. ¨I can´t let you leave like that,¨ she said. ¨Afterall, it´s Carnaval.¨
So I shrugged my shoulders and bent down - way down (this girl came up to my waste) - for a big, sloppy wet one.
Big. Sloppy. Wet. That was my Carnaval in a nutshell.
