Carnival in Recife: The New Rio

The first thing that probably comes to mind when you hear the word Carnival is Rio de Janeiro. Forget about Rio, its massive floats and feathers, the buxom dancers with strategically placed outfits, its exclusive Sambadrome and the booming battalions of samba drummers. There is another place in South America to explore during this time of year that holds just as large of a festival to celebrate that you may be unfamiliar with. Recife. 

Recife is along the northeast coast of Brazil.

Recife is one of the major cities of tropical Brazil's tropical Northeast, an old city originally built by Dutch sugar planters on the easternmost bulge of South America, the part that fits like a puzzle piece into West Africa's nook. Carnival in Recife and in its colonial sister Olinda is more of a carnival for the streets. There are no roped off areas or expensive tickets, just utter human chaos and crowds of people celebrating in the sun. It is a one of a kind experience that is more like Halloween meets Mardi Gras than like a religious celebration. Many party-goers can be seen dressed up in costume and parading around. There is no specific theme to the festival, all you need to do is use a little creativity. Typically these costumes satirize moral, social and political aspects of Brazilian society. 

A display of the bonecos gigantes. 

Some of the most popular costumes are inspired by political corruption and so many political figures (as well as television personalities and athletes) are displayed in the form of bonecos gigantes, or giant dolls, which are carried throughout the streets during the celebration. 

Galo da Madrugada has been listed as a Guinness 

World Record for the largest Carnival parade in the world!

The party starts early and opens with perhaps considered the largest carnival celebration in all of Brazil, Galo da Madrugada, or the Dawn's Rooster. It boasts more than 1.5 million paraders bringing together a variety of dissimilar people flocking around a giant rooster float about forty feet high. The first blocos, or marching Carnival bands which parade through the streets starting at 8 am. During the day, nearby Olinda is the hot spot, where there are many wandering vendors sell an arranging assortment of alcoholic drinks for essential party hydration. These streets are literally packed beyond capacity, so you have no choice to follow where the crowd flows. When the blocos come, they are playing frevo music on tubas and trombones or thundering maracutu on giant wooden drums. Smaller impromptu dance parties are taking place everywhere and anywhere with anyone who has a tambourine or a loud-speaker and a song to sing. One of the main advantages of Carnival in Recife is the many small groups of friends and family that come together and perform. Locals also encourage tourists to take an active part in the more personal and traditional samba dances and events. This kind of interaction between the locals and the tourists and their friendly, open personalities is what keeps attracting millions specifically back to Recife in order to witness this carnival for themselves. When night falls, Olinda clears out and revelers head to downtown Recife to enjoy waterfront concerts on large outdoor stages. The programming varies every year, but the concert brings a new wave of energy and a lot of life to the already lively festivities. 

Downtown Recife with gigantic crowds of party-goers enjoying a concert.

One day of Carnival feels like an entire week. The whole experience feels like an entire lifetime. By the end of the event, you are so tired and happy that you experimented with a Carnival experience outside of Rio. So the next time you think about heading to Brazil to celebrate Carnival, you should head on over to Recife to embrace the traditional and modern celebrations and experience this wonderful atmosphere for yourself. 

For more information on visiting Recife or planning a vacation during Carnival please contact a travel adviser at www.peruforless.com. 

Amazon Eco-volunteering in Ecuador

Yanacocha Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation Center

Visiting the Amazon is not as easy as spending a week in Hawaii, but it can definitely be a life-changing and awarding experience. You can fly to South America and stay at a lodge in Ecuador for less than $3,000 which is relatively cheap compared to other international journeys. This is something that I found out first-hand when I volunteered at the Yanacocha animal rehabilitation and rescue center in Puyo, Ecuador for a month. The role of the Yanacocha center is important towards conservation in the Ecuadorian Amazon, taking rescued animals and providing them with a better quality of life, with the ultimate goal of reintroducing them to their natural habitat, and giving them a second chance at freedom.

Handing out fish on designated days to the Tigerillo,
a type of feline found in the Amazon. 

The Amazon rain forest is a primeval tangle of canopy and undergrowth filled with life. Upon entering and being guided through the premises of Yanacocha, I was in awe of the wild assortment of animals in their enclosures such as Capuchin, Wooly, Spider and tamarind monkeys, toucans, macaws, parrots, coatis, ocelots, margay, peccaries, kinkajous, olingos and tayras. Also of the wide array of indescribable exotic flora that I had never seen before. 

The cabana I slept while volunteering at Yanacocha.

During my stay there, I was lodged in a cabana that was equipped with bunk beds and guarded with mosquito netting, basic electricity, and at the time cold showers (now they luckily have hot water available). Everyday I would wake up to the sounds of the rain forest which were a symphony, an orchestra of animals and rain, a hallelujah chorus of nature. There was a mischievous little squirrel monkey who lived outside my cabana who I would see sitting on my window ledge or squeaking for attention. She was rescued by the center and released, but since she was so accustomed to human interaction she found her way back to the center and would constantly be following volunteers around and stealing food from the buckets we used to feed the animals in the enclosures. 

Attempting to read while relaxing in the hammock.

My daily morning routine consisted of heading to the communal kitchen to eat breakfast with other volunteers and staff. Afterwards, I would head to the food preparation house and prepare the diurnal animals' food. Then we would bring all the food to their designated exhibits and allocate the specific food to the each animal. Depending on the day, the team of volunteers would group together and carry out other tasks throughout the center that needed to be done such as enclosure creation or building new pathways. After lunch you would have a little free time to rest and relax. Volunteers would meet up about an hour after and arrange the afternoon activities and prepare the nocturnal animals food. This usually lasted until about the late-afternoon and then for the rest of the day we would be able to have free time and head into town in Puyo for food or to get some drinks. There was also wi-fi available in one part of the reserve which made it easy to keep in contact with family and friends back at home and a swimming pool and Jacuzzi that we were able to use and spend time with other volunteers. Volunteering is a great opportunity to meet tons of new people from different parts of the world that have the same types of goals that you have in mind. One of my personal favorite things to do during my free time was take night hikes and witness all the fauna when the Amazon really comes alive. 

Me introducing a coati doing a slow-release
technique into the enclosure. This is a process where you
introduce the animal in various steps in order to see if it
 is properly adjusting the new environment.

Those looking for an out of the ordinary vacation while simultaneously doing something beneficial for animal conservation should look beyond the normal vacation and look into eco-volunteering for some type of organization like Yanacocha within the Amazon rain forest. My trip to Ecuador volunteering was an experience that I would do again in a heartbeat and will never forget - and surely something you would never forget either.

For more information about volunteering or visiting the Amazon rain forest please contact one of our travel advisers and they can help plan this experience for you.