Imperatriz

http://www.metro.co.uk/showbiz/pictures/photos-10799/pictures-rio-mardi-gras-carnival-2011/38

In my last blog post I talked about my trip to Rio and the carnival I watched, but I also mentioned that I had participated in one of the schools parade. I had mentioned this idea to my parents but I didn’t know until two days before we went to Brazil that I was actually going to be in the parade. As a way to make some profit, most of the schools offer spots for tourists in the parts of the parade that have big groups of people. The people in the cars and in the sections with choreography have to be locals who have spent a relatively long time practicing and preparing. The people who pay for the costume like we did can just show up around 30 minutes before the show and participate by dancing or just walking. Two other people from the group we traveled with decided to come with us. We were going in the second school, Imperatriz, so while the first school, Sao Clemente, went by we got dressed, as soon as we were done we went to the concentracao which is where everyone lines up to go on. The time before the show was very exciting, everyone was getting their final touches on make-up, fixing costumes and some were practicing their moves. When we began walking in the sambodromo there were tons of fireworks and the whole crowd was shouting. At one point we passed by the other people we were travelling with and they took pictures and filmed us. In total we talked for about 40 minutes, even if we were tired none of us would have noticed because the excitement from being part of something so great and fun had made us forget about anything else.