CARNAVALLLLLLLLL

I got home safe and sound from 5 of the most tiering and amazing days of my life.
I went to Diamantina, a little historical town about 4 hours away from my city with a friend of mine and her family to celebrate carnaval. We rented the bottom part of a house, and fit about 15 people in, all sleeping on the floor.
Diamantina usually is a quiet town, but during the 5 days of carnaval, it is overrun by the youth of Brazil. The city doubles in population (at least), and there is always something to do. Always music, always dancing, 24 hours a day. If you go out in the street, you talk to practically everyone that passes by. There is an excitement in the air, everyone is just there to have fun, and it is probably one of the most exciting places that I have ever been.
In carnaval, time doesnt exist. Seeing as there is always something going on, you go out in the street when you wake up, stay out until you can't take anymore, go home, sleep, wake up, and go out again. On the average, I probably slept 4 hours a day.
There are tons of really funny people walking around in the street. There are ninja turtles, and people in diapers, random stuffed animals, weird clothes, and everyone is just joking around.
Carnaval was an experience that I dont exactly know how to explain...it was that insanity that every youth strives for. Pure fun, and I wont ever forget it.

Usually my days began at 6pm, when I would go out with the kids from the house to the center of town. There were 2 main areas in the center, one with recorded music, which was always crowded with about 2,000 people, and the other, which was a park in the center where the bands were set up. There was probably an acre of space in the park for people to watch the band, and no matter where you went it was completely crowded. I would estimate that just in this one place, there were always at least 5,000 people. Walking 10 feet took at least 5 minutes. aside from these 2 main places, there were random sound systems set up for people to dance to, so anywhere you went, there was some kind of party going on.
There were 2 bands that played each day, Bat Caverna and Batucada. Each is a full on band, with 40 to 50 members. They play popular Brazilian songs, with a bit of variation to make them more danceable. there are probably 20 different types of instruments being used throughout the show, huge samba drums, guitar, tamborines...the singers of the bands wear crazy clothes, and have all kinds of strange tricks. Like the entrance of the singer of one of the bands was walking on top of the crowd in a giant see-through ball. Plus he was wearing a blue spandex body suit and fake plastic mow-hawk. There are people bungee-jumping on the stage. Another one of the entrances of the singer was sliding down on a chord from one of the buildings close to the stage wearing a batman suit with the band playing the theme song to bat man.
These are perfect examples of what carnaval is...pure insanity. Perfectly. There doesnt have to be an explanation, you just do what you want.
I just got back, and I already miss being there...

I have tried to explain how it is, but it's best to see for yourselves. I took various videos there, and have posted them on my youtube account: http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=sommer108

and as always, I have photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/sommerbrazil/CaRnAvALL

<3