The joy of a carnival on a loop

As you saw in yesterday’s post traditional Portuguese carnival is more about political satire than Brazilian exuberance. There was though plenty of colour as well as political statements in Sunday’s parade in São Brás de Alportel, but first lets remind ourselves of where we left the carnival yesterday.

We thought the arrival of the 2Cvs might be the end of the parade but no there was plenty more to come including dancing crusaders.

Did you spot the clowns? Two of them had great fun joining in the crusaders dance. They were followed by one of the more colourful floats – a beautiful papier-mâché garden with giant mushrooms, bees and real gardeners.

I thought King Louis was adorable, he wasn’t though part of the parade. He’d just dressed up for the day as had quite a few locals which is what makes it so much fun. The clowns and gardeners were followed by more colour in the form of Angry Birds, and some of them certainly looked angry! Perhaps that was because they were followed by rather forbidding gangsters, a SWAT team and some very scary looking raiders. The little girl on the enormous horse was amazing.

It was at this point we realised that the carnival was on a loop. The floats we had glimpsed on arrival were now returning. I was amazed to see these kids still full of energy, goodness knows how many times they had walked the loop!

Donald was also still smiling despite being followed by the Mexicans, and the rather odd looking couple had also completed the loop. Such a fun afternoon, and the loop idea was just brilliant. Happy Mardi Gras everyone!