The Rio de Janeiro Carnival is a pretty full on affair and the City appears to suffer one almighty hangover after the main parades have finished and it partially goes back to work. The banks and some of the shops reopened on the Wednesday which made Rio feel like the period back home between Christmas and New Year but everyone is still recovering from the excesses of carnival and the last thing they want to do is return to work.
The Carnival itself, after the main parades in the Sambadrome, has not finished. The final results were announced on TV on Ash Wednesday and on the last Sunday there is the celebratory champions parade with the top six Samba Schools. This parade as we understand it lacks the formality of the main parades and should be a joyous occasion.
We caught the results on Brazilian TV and were pleased to say that the most interesting parade, because it was slightly different to the others and captured the mood of the country, performed by the Beija-Flor Samba School won the prize. The scores were very tight and in second place was our other favourite by Paraíso do Tuiuti with its theme of slavery, both modern and current, and also politically challenging, came a close second. This school also had a British girl as its leading samba queen, a first for the main carnival in Rio de Janeiro.
Both the Copacabana and Ipanema Beaches were much quieter and also there was a distinct change in music being played in the beachside bars. Less prevalent was the reggaetron favoured by the younger generations and much more prominent was the more melancholy sounds of the bossa nova style of music. Probably, given the extent of the Rio hangovers, very appropriate.
We went over to Lapa and Santa Teresa areas of Rio on the Tuesday. Lapa was still in full party mode, and the area around the arches was rammed with young people, who had clearly moved on from the beach fronts. The Escadara Selarón had its usually crowd of residents showing off their artwork and tourists all trying to take their selfies while struggling to take photographs without their fellow tourists.
The bohemian area of Santa Teresa also had a party atmosphere, with a more cross generational group of people, simply chilling out in the main square. Santa Teresa has a number of old colonial buildings and being relatively high up with fantastic views over Guanabara Bay and the Pão de Açúcar, which look ripe for renovation. However, that could seriously damage the creative and quirky vibe that makes the area so attractive.
Our final day in Rio de Janeiro there the mother of electric storms, that caused a lot of flooding and some damage, especially in the area around the lagoon on the way to the airport. However the rain also had a beneficial effect of washing away much of the spilt beer and other debris from the week long party.
Date: 13/02/2018 to 15/02/2018