Carnaval: The Parade

Well, Carnaval is officially over here-it ended yesterday at 12:00 pm. Unofficially, it's still going on through the weekend.

We attended one of the two main parades this year. It is an amazing experience that your really have to see to believe. You just can't imagine the amount of effort that goes in to these two nights-the thousands of participants, the costumes, the music. I posted about it last year when we actually participated in the parade; this year we decided to just watch. However, Ballerina girl did march, and her school took 3rd place! Way to go Ballerina Girl!

Our school (the school Guapo's company sponsored) came in 12th out of 12th, knocking them out of the big parades next year. I'm pretty sure it's because we didn't participate.

That's ok. I have a well established reputation of being a front-runner-so here I am with a friend and co-worker of Guapo's. He bought me a shirt from his school, who just happened to win last year.



My mom pointed out later that the lady on the front is naked. Nice. Probably won't be wearing the shirt that much-but it's the thought that counts-right?

And I have to mention in here, that this is the same guy that last year at the parade told me that I was, and I quote, "the best thing that's happened to the company in the last 15 years." I have no idea what that means, and he was totally drunk at the time, but when Guapo gets testy with me for whatever reason I remind him that I am the best thing that's happened to his company in the last 15 years and that he'd better watch it.

We had great seats-front row-you can see how close we were in this photo of my dad:



And, we were right in front of the final judges station, so the people were working extra hard in front of our section:



There are always rumors of judges being paid off by this samba school or that one and I found it interesting that the judges would stand and clap for things that they liked. This doesn't seem very judge-y does it???



The big floats are cool, but my favorite thing about Carnaval is sitting so close and being able to see the faces of the paraders and having them smile and wave. There are men, women, kids, adults, and senior citizens of all shapes, sizes and colors.

So here are some of my favorite pictures:





















We also sat pretty close to Gisele, the world famous super model:



And this guy (I don't have a clue who he is, but everyone seemed pretty excited that he was there. Fabiola, do you know who he is?



It was a fun, long night-we didn't get home until just after 7:00 am! I am still recovering.

Have a great weekend.