Sapucai done the brazilian way

ps. sapucaí is what cariocas call the sambodromo

Whatta blast I had last night!
My brazilian brother Bruno, who is now living in Botafogo, is far away from Padre Miguel where I'm staying with his family, the wonderful Moraes, and is really busy: moving into a new condominium, setting up the new place, having it painted and repaired, working full time AND going to night classes for his MBA. So, needless to say, I hadn't really been able to hang out with him a lot. He got the new place together last week, so yesterday he and his fiancee Michelle picked me up and took me to Botafogo to swim and have a steam bath. I joked that we could have just gone outside in Bangu (note: padre miguel/bangu, where I live, is known as the 'hell' (temperature wise) of Rio) for the steam bath. It was fun though and the guys had a nice shave....do guys do that in the US too? I had a great time swimming by myself before they arrived...just floating around feeling quite content and cooled off for a change.
We were killing time before we went to Sapucai, that kind of being the point of the evening. I'd gone by myself once and once with bruno before to watch him in Grande Rio, but I was by myself, really, the second time as well because he was playing tamborim. This third time, with Bruno, Michelle and Mafalda...which is a nick name, I confess I don't know his real name even though I've known him quite a while...was by far the best. The schools were Vila Isabel and Salgueiro. i was able to record some of vila isabel, but a huge downpour started before Salgueiro that wouldn't give up and I didn't want to wreck my recorder. Mafalda gallantly took his shirt off so that I could cover my backpack with it to protect the recorder (it worked!). I wasn't close enough to bruno to hear his commentary on, well, everything....he is truly a walking encyclopedia on samba schools, and everything connected with them. He's very humble about it, but it is the truth. We drank lots of beer. I normally don't drink much, but I felt really safe...Bruno knows all the tricks; he's been going to Sapucai since he was a teeny little baby. They kept filling my beer cup...don't bother telling a brazilian that you don't want to drink anymore. they'll fill it up anyway. I gave in and, standing there in the rain, soaking wet, loving everyone and everything was just what I needed. I'd been a little down due to the heat and slight stomach troubles. I'm better now. I tested my stomach out yesterday with the beer and a frango plok....it was soooo good! I'm not exactly sure what it was. I know what frango is, (chicken) so it must have been the plok that sent it over the edge! Yummy! Gostoso!

I went to mocidade saturday night by myself but ended up seeing old faces and got to go up to the stage for the first part of the evening....right up front! Since Bruno is out of mocidade now, it usually takes some scheming, but it was as smooth as butter, probably because I wasn't expecting it!
The bateria was missing some (almost all) their key people due to a show on the same night which used all the best players. The poor guy on the primeiro was either behind or ahead, and then the huge guy that replaced him was overly enthusiastic and ended up breaking the head....
There were mostly new passistas, but a few of the women and quite a few of the men were excellent. The men passistas from mocidade are usually great and they didn't disappoint...wow!



comments are welcome!