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Carnival 2011 begins Thursday, March 3rd, and it runs through Tuesday, March 8th -- officially. Unofficially (and actually) it runs to the morning of Ash Wednesday, March 9th. |
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Carnival 2011 begins Thursday, March 3rd, and it runs through Tuesday, March 8th -- officially. Unofficially (and actually) it runs to the morning of Ash Wednesday, March 9th. |
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Encanto Carnival 2011 Package Prices
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These prices include breakfast and all taxes. Our package rates are among the best (lowest) to be found in Salvador (while our quality is among the highest). And we believe that our encanto offers a great balance between the agitation of Carnival in the city and the soothing tranquillity of our nearby beaches.
A BIG Feijoada -- Brazil's most traditional dish -- is gratis during Carnival...providing an opportune time for our guests to meet one other and trade experiences, tips, and plans on what to do and where to go during their sojourn through the biggest party on the planet.
Carnival Modus Operandi Carnaval (as it's spelled in Portuguese) 2011 starts Thursday, March 3rd, and it runs through Tuesday, March 8th -- officially. Unofficially (and actually) it runs to the morning of Ash Wednesday, March 9th, and then continues in the arrastão (roundup) of Timbalada, which starts Wednesday morning at the Farol da Barra and winds its way along Avenida Oceanica to Ondina. Carnival in Salvador basically has two parts: the parade of trio elétricos and the barracas. A trio elétrico (see photo above) is a done-up semitrailer, loaded with thousands of watts of sound equipment and with a band playing on top. They parade very slowly along one of two circuits; one closer to the city center, running from Campo Grande (literally "Big Field", Salvador's central park) to Praça Castro Alves (named for Antônio Frederico de Castro Alves, the Bahian poet who, among other things, wielded his mighty pen against the injustices of slavery and political oppression) and the other running from Barra to Ondina. They are called "trios" because the first one was an old car ('29 Ford) with a driver and two musicians (Dodô and Osmar) in the back (the car can be seen in the museum at the Lagoa da Abaeté in Itapoan; it debuted in 1950). The trios form the nucleus of the blocos (with the exception of the blocos afros). One pays to join a bloco and is given an abadá (a getup consisting of a t-shirt and shorts, usually), which allows one to parade with the bloco inside the cordão (rope carried by security personnel). The people who aren't in blocos, and who are hence outside of the roped-off areas around the trios, are called pipoca (or popcorn). The other part of Carnaval is the barracas. They are everywhere, turning Salvador into a city of ten thousand parties. A lot of them have their own sound systems. And where there isn't a barraca, there'll be somebody with an isopor (styrofoam cooler) selling beer or batidas (cachaça/fruit mixtures; killer strength). On the Thursday evening which is the beginning of Carnaval, the city's mayor turns the key to the city over to the Carnival King Rei Momo at Campo Grande. Thursday is generally kind of a slow Carnaval night ("slow" being a very relative term here!). Friday night picks up even more steam, and then from Saturday (Sábado do Carnaval) on it's full-blown all-stops-out Carnival. A lot of people with the money to spend rent camarotes (kind of like boxes along the parade route) from which they can watch the activity and then descend into the muvuca (madness) when they feel like it. So, What's Up With All These Carnival Circuits?!The three Carnival Circuits are: • The Campo Grande - Praça Castro Alves Circuit, also called the “Osmar” Circuit, or simply the “Avenidas”. • The Barra - Ondina Circuit, also called the “Dodô” Circuit. • The Pelourinho Circuit, also called the “Batatinha” Circuit. 1. The Campo Grande - Praça Castro Alves Circuit is the original Salvador Carnival Circuit (going as far back as the 50's anyway; the where and what of Carnival is actually something of a complicated story). Carnival's official opening is at Campo Grande, and this is where the political bigshots sit and where the Carnival blocos are judged. The trios move away from Campo Grande and down Avenida Sete de Setembro (usually called “Avenida Sete” by the locals) to Praça Castro Alves. From there they swing around the corner and make their way back to Campo Grande by Rua Carlos Gomes, which runs parallel to Avenida Sete. The course takes six hours or so to run (“crawl” might be a better word!). The denomination “Osmar” is in homage to one of the two creators of the trio elétrico. 2. The Barra - Ondina Circuit was added in '92 (when it was very much secondary to the Campo Grande - Castro Alves circuit). The trios start at the Farol ( Lighthouse ) da Barra and wend their way up along the ocean to Ondina. The course takes some four hours or so. Nowadays there is a tendency for the bigger names to play this circuit, as it is seen as more desirable (a view I don't necessarily share) by a lot of Salvador's middle-class youth, the ones with the money to join the bigger blocos. The denomination “Dodô” is in homage to the other creator of the trio elétrico. 3. The Pelourinho Circuit is a late-comer, having been added in the last several years (though it might be more rightly said that this circuit experienced a rebirth). No trios here, rather a lot of old-time marching bands and people with kids in costume. The denomination “Batatinha” is in homage to Batatinha (Oscar da Penha), a sambista and composer of wonderful music. Batatinha died in 1997 at 72 years of age, and if you're close to Campo Grande you can stop in at Bar Toalha de Saudade -- owned and run by Batatinha's son Vavá -- on the Ladeira dos Aflitos e-mail: encanto@bahia-online.net |
