Day 3, Part 2/3: Samba Parade

The Samba parade is the highlight of Carnaval. There are nearly 200 samba schools in Brazil, and here, at Carnaval, the top 12 compete for number ONE! Six schools parade on parade night one, and another six schools on parade night two. The are judged on things like color, creativity, fan response, etc. Locals usually favor one school and cheer for them, wave their flag, wear their shirt, etc. The parade is held in the Sambadrome, about 850m long.






(Sorry for the crap pictures... They just don't do it justice!)





This is just one section of 15! You can see the parade through the middle (the bright colors, from left to right: white, red, orange, yellow, white...)





Floats are huge!!!





Very intricate floats!





Many themes!





Douglas & Marcelo!






Rainbow snow crabs...

ALL THOSE FLOATS (and that's not even all of them!)... AND THATS ONLY THE FIRST SCHOOL! That's right! Each school has 6-8 floats, and 3500-4500 people in the parade. Their part has to be between 1h05m and 1h22m (nothing that crosses the "finish" after an hour and twenty two minutes counts for points).

School two was our favorite:






So colorful! This one has two large snails pulling it...







Cute little "Nemo's" (and they had lady bugs, butterflies, grasshoppers...)






A man flying out of a canon ball!





They are huge - this is one of my favorites!




See the three green shaggin wagon vans? And the two red punch buggies on top of them? They were all over the float!




So sad; at the end of the parade line they just trash all the costumes! :(





Manu, Natalia, Douglas & Marcelo




Us fabulous ladies!!!



Our ultimate favorite float.... Tiered layers of pianos spinning in all directions!


Close up of one half.


No festival this cool is complete without condom balloons flying around!!! Lmao!



Whoop whoop!

Continued in Part 3...