iPhone report from the Sambodromo

Well, I've been in Rio since Wed but have been unable to post anything because I'm staying with a friend who has no Internet (oh, the horror!) - and I'm also not in a tourist area so have no Internet cafes nearby. And, of course, Carnaval. When you're racing at 6am from the Sambodromo parades to the early-morning meeting of your next bloco parade, or wandering through the million-person kegger that is Lapa, or maybe just hanging out in Ipanema at one of the beach kiosks trying to make the terrifically hard decision about what fruit to have in your caipirinha (tangerine? passionfruit? mango?) ... getting on the net suddenly seems not very important!

However, this year I brought my iPhone, and sprung for an international data plan that should give me just enough mb to post a few carnaval updates.

So. Short rundown. Took practically of Thurs & Fri to get my cell phone and arrange tonight's Sambodromo ticket. Carnaval officially started Friday, with the ceremonial handing of the key to the city (an actual huge glittery gold key) from the mayor of Rio to the Rei Momo, the "King of Fools"/"King of Mischief"/etc, who rules the city till Ash Wednesday. Immediately began the Carnaval chaos... which for me has been: INTENSELY AWESOME Monobloco show till 4am Friday night, street parades all Sat, the magnificent Grupo de Acesso (second rank) escola parades on Sat night till 3 (well, actually, they go till 7am but I had to leave early). Then today I hauled my butt back out of bed after 3 hrs sleep, booked it over to the Botanical Garden to play repique in the three-hour Banga parade. Then ran into another bloco... and now I'm at the Sambodromo again.

So I'm writing this sitting in the bleachers of Sector 7 of the Sambodromo (Rio's samba-parade stadium - I know some readers are new to this blog so I'll be giving a little more explanation than usual.) Tonight is the first night of the Grupo Especial Parades, the top-ranked parade groups, the multi-million-dollar competition that will determine the champion escola of the Rio Carnaval, which is the biggest show on earth. It's 7:50pm, parades don't start till 9 (and will run all night). My ticket cost three hundred dollars... and that's for the cheap seats! (The really good seats run $1500 and higher.) So I'm perched up in the crowded, uncomfortable concrete bleachers - all open seating - jammed in with 80,000 other people (mostly Rio natives right around me... I seem to be in a clump of Mangueira fans cause they're all belting out the Mangueira song). The crowd is so giddy they're giving huge cheers to anyone who walks along the parade runway. HUGE ovation for the little street-cleaning machines that just rolled by, the four guys driving them waving and bowing like royalty. OK, I'm going to see if all this text can actually post before I write any more... here goes nothing...