Carnaval 2012

Last year Coline was in my womb instead of out in the world and so our first proper carnival in Ouro Preto happened this year Feb 16th-21st. Actually, last year's carnival was quite wet and that is rather the reason why this year's was enjoyed more thoroughly not only by us but by the whole town and its visitors, which included family from France! What a delight to share this with them.

Last year I had the impression that Carnival here was a lot less about fancy dressing than it is in Europe, and so I did not prepare myself for it. Luckily my friend Michelle came with bags full of wigs, clothes, confetti and more, and mamie-Claire had brought into our house Leila's most favorite accessories: face paint crayons. And of course I could not resist the temptation to dress up a little. Cristiano was not impressed when he saw me in his clothes. The worst however was Leila's face when I showed up at her school (parents were invited but just that once I think she wished I had stayed home). It did not put me off, though.

We followed the "blocos" on joyful "marchinha" music and watched the children play in the park near our house where they got barbapapa (algodao doce / candy floss?!) for free and slid down the grassy slopes. Coline was hooked on walking up and down all over town, and collecting beer cans and caps while we were not watching ,and yet we thought we were. At night we heard from our house the chilled samba of Candoguero playing in the distance, reminding us that we do live in a "pais tropical" and I even got to enjoy it live once for one early night out with my cousin (thank you, the daddies!). Carnival 2012 was fun, it made me like it here.