The pace of the Amazon
- 4 Feb 08, 09:59 AM
Posted from: Benjamin Constant
In the Amazon I feel very English at times. Saturday is the first carnival night. They said 8pm and there we were - fed, cleaned and waiting for carnival to “happen” - whatever is to happen, we just want it to happen in time. Ah…the pace of the Amazon really tests our nerves. Even I, who has been to this place so often and knows that in Brazil things run to a different rhythm, get irritated.
I mean, anyone would get frustrated sitting in an inhumanely loud environment, looking every inch the outsider and waiting for a bunch of unknown cross-dressed men to show up in their costumes. The adrenaline goes, the enthusiasm goes and poor Bruce needs us to keep up some momentum in order that he can parade on a catwalk dressed as a girl in front of a whole town.
Merely four hours in, a few beers and GV’s later, the first members of this funny bunch start to appear, from where we know not. Maybe they just awaken from a “power nap”, full of home cooked dinner, or more likely beer. They come chaotically and not yet really knowing themselves where and how things are supposed to happen. But somehow things do happen and eventually we all have amazing amounts of fun.
Next day we think we know the “Brazilian way” and try to beat them in their own game. It’s the “Mascarados” (Masked) parade. They say they will go to the streets at 8pm…we think, we know your ways, we will join you at 10 pm, hehehe…but we find the streets deserted and they have paraded at their promised time.
Comments