Samba!

no expensive seats for us at the sambadrome (scalpers were selling for 100$ or so); instead we had a great time walking around, checking out floats before they entered the 'drome. Then at the guesthouse I took photos of the tv.

Each float was usually led by a scantily and sparkly clad lady, followed by a hoard (the opposite of scantily clad) dancers surrounding a mind boggling float. The float often had a few more ladies on it, along with other dancers. Everyone sambas though the drome, which takes around 90 minutes. The samba-ing is smooth and it (from tv at least) almost looks like they are on a conveyor belt.


(The samadrome-- the glitter can be seen from space.)


We saw a few ladies like this (what a big... smile she has!)
but 90% of the dancers were clad in piles of polyester, sequins, faux fur, and random accessories.



Accessories include but are not limited to: camel heads, tennis balls, sheep, mesh, turbans, spears, giant fake flowers, frills, top hats, and ruffles. And usually at least 3 of these elements at the same time.

Maybe it's because I can't speak Portuguese, but some of the themes escaped my grasp of the word "theme"


(sheep + giant wheels of cheese + doughnuts?)

But all of the floats, while perhaps stretching the limits of the theme, were impressive.


(a dude walks next to the blue circle and spins it while everyone sambas around it-- trippy)

While walking around the next day we saw people assembling the floats. It is really quite impressive.

As was the whole spectacle.


(that giant tiger head moves!)

It was the carnival that you think of-- but with more polyester than you thought possible.

Location:Rio de Janeiro, Brazil