The day started off fairly early, (who would have thought it was the Canadians slowing down the Brazilian), we decided that we should try to experience as many different flavours of Carnival as possible. With the help of Andrea (0ne of Karen's many Brazilian friends), we took the group to Bezerros to see the papangu's (Brazilian Mummers).
This was a nice outing from the city along a four lane highway that had some CIDA links, (enviromental studies). Why do I mention the highway, well unfortunatly I believe (and supported by others) that the carnival in Bezerros has grown a little too quickly. It was interesting to experience a local Carnival, but the lack of shade, seating and places to eat cut short our time in this potentially quaint little village. After watching a parades and not seeing any big congregation of Papangu's we decided that we had had enough, and called it quits. Since we were all starving, we decided to stop at the King of Coxinhas for a totally loaded hamburger (fried eggs, bacon, hotdog, ....)
After a somewhat tiring day in the sun, there were not many takers for another trip to Old Recife (Antigo) for more of the same, crowds, drumming, dancing, eating, drinking. I have to say that this was a highlight of the trip. The 3 Manitobans, scratch that "Dauphinite's, and our Brazilian hosts (Karen and Andrea), braved the crowds once more to see some of the shows and try to experience the crush of a full on Carnival Mosh pit. We succeeded, after the traffic jam, questionable parking location and walk into the site, we stopped to watch a few of the indigineous groups prepare for their entrance, think beaded bikinis, and giant beaded and feather headdresses. It was quite entertaining.
After actually watching a few performances on a secondary stage, we made our way to the main stage. Along the way, we decided that the best approach was to follow in a drumming group, as they will clear the way, and we will just go with the crowd. WRONG, I think the only safe spot, would have been to carry a drum, and even then. Well after a few minutes of "Where did they go", Brad spotted the girls about 25 feet in front of us, when he turned to tell me he saw them, they disappeared. After a few more tense moments, we spotted them beside a tree and made our way towards them, across three lines of opposing people, and at least one in our own direction. I guess two tall, Canadian males are pretty easy to spot in Brazil, as the were waving towards us. I think being able to speak the language would have lessoned my tension, but as they say, "No blood, no foul".
We finally arrived at the main stage, where the Maracatu's were performing. Since we were going to see them the next day, we were not that concerned, but it was good for Brad and Gillian to see them as they figured that it may not be possible to go with us. On a positive note, even though there were some dissenters regarding the necessity for so many groups of this type, the announcer stated that every group deserved a chance to show their culture and many of them had worked quite hard all year long for their 15 minutes of fame.
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