I wanted to self punch myself right in the ear

February 19, 2012:  This year I chose to celebrate Carnival in the Amazonian metropolis of Manaus. I ended up inviting myself and joined a nice group of 10 or so backpackers plus two Brazilians for the evening.  I didn’t expect a gigantic celebration here due to being in the Amazon, but it was huge to my standards.

Our first stop took us to a stage where I was mesmerized watching one of the main samba dancers who was loaded with so much energy.  She was there to help keep the general public in step to the samba line dance, which seemed to be much more faster and 1,344,595,302 times better than the line dance to the gosh forsaken song, “Achy Breaky Heart” by Billy Ray Cyrus .  Even the tattooed gangsters were line dancing samba and they still somehow maintained a tuff look about them – it was hilarious.  I myself did not have much physical energy tonight to learn the steps in 2 minutes. 

Our next and last stop was at the parade grounds to see a gargantuan parade.  It started at 8pm and didn’t finish till about 5am.  Some of the floats were unbelievably large, complex and expensive.  I may never look at a parade in the same way ever again after this.  By the time we left, there was still many families watching the floats go by as they were putting their kids through homeless school, having them practice making a temporarily bed out of a wooden bench seat. 

While at the parade, I wanted to self punch myself right in the ear because I didn’t bring my good camera do to fear that it was going to get stolen.  I need to loosen up a bit…if not, I will continue to miss great opportunities for some decent urban photos.