De Lá Pra Cá

My first Carnaval! This city isn't really known for its exciting carnival parties. While other cities, like Rio de Janeiro, have 4 days of parties. There is only one day of parties here (or so I've been told).

This is the first part I went to: Capote de Madrugada. Capote is a type of fowl (guinea fowl). And Madrugada is "the middle of the night".

What they do is get drunk, sing and dance and then walk down the street in parade fashion singing, dancing and staying drunk following the "capote" which is on top of a truck. Everyone who goes to the party does the walk too...

Ohhh...I forgot to mention. They throw flour on people. They think its funny. Sometimes they mix eggs in it. So several people will run around throwing flour on people while you're drinking and getting drunk. No one really cares, its all part of the fun.

The culprits!!

In case you haven't noticed by now, many people are wearing the same shirt. This is called the "abada". I have no idea of the exact translation, but its basically the shirt you wear to get into a party for carnival. You usually buy the shirt before and have to wear it to enter, but NOT in this city.

You dress up in ANY costume you can think of. I wore a rainbow-colored afro. No pics of that, thank God.

The second party I went to: Sorry, I don't have a name for it. I think it was called something about crazy people.

Random people though I was working for the local news media outlets, so they all wanted their picture taken. Really, I don't know these people below.

I'm just gonna say wow to THAT shirt....

Ok, Random Dude, You're Awesome!

And I LOVED this mask. Seriously, the funniest thing I saw all night!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the blog! More to come!