View from Corcavado, Christ the the Redeemer, Riode Jabeiro, Brazil
Brazil,  Football,  Independent travel,  Photography,  South America,  Travel Blog

Rio Carnival: Pageants, Parties….And Pickpockets

February 11, 2024 /

I am so angry with myself for letting it happen. We came to Rio knowing everything about its high rate of petty crime, knowing it’s a centre of the theft universe, came here knowing we had to take extra precautions, be doubly careful, and yet we only reach Day 4 and it’s happened to us. As you will see.

But first, the Maracana…..

Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Flamengo vs Botofogo
Maracana before the crowds arrive

There’s still around 90 minutes till kick-off as we enter the stadium, plenty of time to watch both sets of supporters fill their respective ends and make a start on creating an electric atmosphere. They do just that, and they do it in style – the whole evening is a magnificently passionate pageant of orchestrated song and movement: these guys are loud, fervent and partisan. Technically, Botafogo are the visitors, although the Maracana is the home stadium for both clubs, and it’s not long before the Flamengo hordes drown out the away end with a non-stop delivery of hardcore support, roaring encouragement and staying in key surprisingly well.

Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Flamengo vs Botofogo
Game on….

It’s a fantastic atmosphere from start to finish, every bit as committed as you would expect Latin American football fans to be, the only pause for breath in the club songs all night coming during the half time interval. Surprisingly, the quality of the football doesn’t quite match the fervour in the seats, both teams giving a rather punchless display which has 0-0 written all over it until some very late drama when Flamengo grab a winner in the third minute of added time. Cue wild celebrations around three sides of the wonderful stadium; stunned sulky silence on the fourth. 

Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Flamengo vs Botofogo
Derby County in the Maracana…

It takes a long time to get pretty much anywhere in Rio. Traffic jams commonly approach gridlock status and a red traffic light soon creates a huge tailback of snarling motors and chugging buses – yet there’s no impatience or intolerance, these drivers are well used to the way of things and nobody expects to get anywhere quickly.

View from Corcavado Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
View from Corcavado

And so it is that the Uber driver taking us to the rack railway station at the foot of Corcovado isn’t in the slightest bit fazed at taking almost 40 minutes to earn his fee of just over £3. As the rack railway train hauls itself steeply upwards, magnificent views across the spectacular city unfold and we really get a feel for Rio’s unusual layout. The city’s different districts are quite distinct, separated by  the impenetrable giant morro rocks which give Rio its unmistakable vista – from up here at the top it’s really possible to see how the whole is made up of several separate parts.

View from Corcavado Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
View from Corcavado

View from Corcavado Rio De Janeiro, Brazil with Capuchin monkey
Need any help with that picnic?

At the summit of Corcovado, Christ The Redeemer stands erect, watching over the beautiful scenes below – those separate districts, a whole gamut of huge sandy beaches, the large lake immediately below, and the mountains or the Atlantic beyond. Tourist helicopter flights buzz around the statue like giant dragonflies. We’re lucky with the weather – Corcovado is often shrouded in cloud – and the views in the bright sunshine are fabulous. What’s not quite so fabulous is the crowds: there are huge numbers of people shuffling around Christ’s feet today and they’re all vying for the same photo vantage points: patience and tolerance are a must as we shoulder our way through the masses.

Christ the Redeemer Rio Janeiro Brazil
Christ the Redeemer Rio Janeiro Brazil
Christ the Redeemer

Beneath Rio’s manic streets, the metro system is extensive and offers an alternative which is quick, efficient and cheap, so we use it to venture from our home in Copacabana to the equally famous beach of Ipanema. Ever so slightly more sedate than its neighbour, Ipanema has no volleyball courts or football pitches, far fewer beach bars along the roadside and an atmosphere which is a little more gentle and a tad more pricey. It’s still extremely popular though, and the web of different coloured parasols, so tightly strung together along the shore, makes the beach look more like a Gaudi mosaic than a stretch of sand.

Ipanema beach, Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Ipanema Beach

Ipanema beach, Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Ipanema Beach

Friday evening we return to Ipanema for our first experience of the “bloco” parties which form the backbone of carnival week. These are the free-to-enter, crazily themed street parties where, according to the internet, it is de rigeur for the whole population to act silly and dress accordingly. There’s a definite air of madness in the streets. (Note: the following Bloco photos are all from the following day, not from Ipanema. You will learn why, shortly).

Bloco Party, Copacabana, Brazil
Party time

Glitter and tinsel dominate costumes. The street is full of bare chested males wearing sparkly tutus or the skimpiest of speedos which leave nothing to the imagination – or both. For the girls, tiny bikinis, often paired with fishnets and running shoes, are the dress of choice, and more often than not those tiny bikinis are of the thong type. Ipanema tonight has more naked buttock flesh per square mile than we’ve ever seen before. I don’t know where not to look.

Bloco Party, Copacabana, Brazil
Dressed to kill

Here there is a suntanned guy whose lithe body glistens with glitter as he walks by in his speedos and police cap, next a muscle bound black fella wearing tight fitting bright red hot pants, matching bow tie and a naval officer’s cap takes the hand of his girlfriend who probably has less than 2 per cent of her body concealed by clothing. Standing here is like being in the “Relax” video, or being on stage with Village People singing “YMCA”.

Bloco Party, Copacabana, Brazil
At the Bloco

We gravitate to the central point where the masses are gathered, but the street party is not quite as we pictured. Strangely, there is no music and no dancing, just a street rammed with chattering, drinking bodies in a heaving mass – sardines in fancy dress. We’re just starting to wonder whether we’ve chosen the wrong party today, or whether it just hasn’t got going yet….when it happens.

Everything valuable is diligently put away, everything is in secure pockets, or so we think. With all these fabulous costumes around, I take out my phone and snap a couple of pics, then return the phone to my pocket, and fasten the pocket back up. What can only be seconds later, I decide to take more photos, reach for my pocket….only to find that the pocket is now undone, and the phone is gone.

In those very few seconds, someone has seen me put the phone away, undone the buttons, reached right down into the “secure” deep pocket and whipped out my phone, without me feeling a thing. They’ve been incredibly fast and incredibly devious: I almost admire their audacious dexterity. It’s myself I’m angry with, more than the thief. I was aware of every danger, yet still got caught. (Insert appropriate swear words here to capture my mood). 

And so it’s a dash back to the hotel as we get our heads round all that we now have to do. Download everything from the cloud, report the theft to our service provider, contact everyone, etc etc etc. And, of course, start to think of the ramifications of only having one phone for the rest of this long trip. A thorough pain in the ass.

Two side issues here. One, because I am in no way a gadget freak, I don’t have anything like Apple Pay or Amazon or anything which could impact finance, and both my phone and Bank App are fingerprint access only. For the same reason, that lack of interest in gadgetry, my phone is an iPhone 6 which is so old that it’s not even compatible with recent updates, so it’s amusing to think of the thief’s reaction when they realise that their ill gotten gains are so old and crappy as to be their worst “pick” of the night.

Second side issue is our service provider, O2, whose advertising and websites are adorned with messages such as “Stolen or lost phone? Don’t worry, we are here 24/7 to help”. It’s a downright and blatant lie. Phone the “lost phone” number and you get a recorded message telling you to call back after 8am when they reopen; use the chat line and the bot tells you to call that same number. Outrageous that they lie in such a barefaced manner!

Anyway, by morning it’s all dealt with and now it’s just the pain of having only one phone for more than three months. But hey, we’d rather be pickpocketed than mugged, and nobody got hurt – and, given the amount of independent travelling we do, we’ve been very lucky and were probably overdue an “incident”. Life goes on huh.

Bloco Party, Copacabana, Brazil
Carnival atmosphere

Bloco Party, Copacabana, Brazil
Time to dress up

And if our first experience of a bloco party didn’t quite meet our expectations, the balance is set to be restored the following day. We may have lost an iPhone, but the sun is still is shining and Rio is still vibrant and alive and it isn’t long before our beaming smiles have returned. Wouldn’t you smile too if you were seeing this….

Bloco Party, Copacabana, Brazil
Bloco Party, Copacabana, Brazil
Bloco Party, Copacabana, Brazil
Bloco Party, Copacabana, Brazil
Bloco Party, Copacabana, Brazil
Bloco Party, Copacabana, Brazil

Bloco parties take place all over the city at all times of day: the first ones start at breakfast time and the last ones late into the night. You can party without sleep: no doubt some do. So our second bloco is in downtown Copacabana in the heat of Saturday afternoon, where the costumes are just as outrageous and the acres of flesh are just as exposed. But this time there IS music, and there IS dancing…both in abundance. The heaving hordes move in rhythm, sometimes swaying, mostly bouncing, and every last person seems to know every last lyric of every last song played by the joyous live band. Due to the course of events, all of the party photos in this post are from our second bloco rather than the first.

Bloco Party, Copacabana, Brazil

Bloco Party, Copacabana, Brazil
Bloco Party, Copacabana, Brazil

And we think: THIS IS IT, THIS is what we expected Rio carnival to be. Loud, crazy, manic, and laced with joy. 

The band bid farewell and the masses clap and cheer. As everyone disperses, the streets fill with scantily clad bodies wandering past shops and into bars, brazen and unashamed whatever shape, size or age their exposed body is.

Bloco Party, Copacabana, Brazil

Bloco Party, Copacabana, Brazil

Don’t you just love that sense of utter freedom. 

Maybe I’ll buy some speedos and a tutu. On second thoughts….bartender, gimme two caipirinhas please…..

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