Top Travel Leads

The Rio de Janeiro Carnival is the biggest carnival in the world with almost five million people attending in 2011. Since 1723 the carnival has been put on 46 days before Easter to prepare for Lent. People flock to the city to join in the street celebrations and watch the incredible costumes, dancing and floats go by. Accommodation for Rio Carnival fills up quickly – the key is to book early to get the best beds at a decent price or it can get expensive.

How Rio Carnival began…

It was the ancient Greek spring festival in honour of Dionysus, the God of wine, that started it all off. The Romans liked the idea and took the festival as a great excuse for some drunken revelry. The Roman Catholic Church turned it into a festival for Ash Wednesday and it quickly evolved into a week-long celebration of indulgence before the 40 days of abstinence before Easter. Since then the Carnival has developed from once being a street fight with brawls and riots involving mud, water and food, to a masquerade ball to a costumed street parade. All these influences have ended in the Rio Carnival as we know it today.

Rio Carnival is now a huge event that’s televised around the world. The country stops for a week and the festivities run all day and night. Reports state than 80% of the country’s annual beer consumption is washed back during this week and it’s also when 70% of the country’s tourism happens too.

The Samba dance off

One of the main aspects is the Samba school dance off. Each participating school nationwide chooses a theme for their production and the costumes, floats, music and choreography interpret this. Each school could be made up of thousands of participants and a good few floats uniting in their quest to tell a story with their production. As they progress in the school they’ll be put nearer the front with the ‘comissão de frente’. These are the people who set the theme for their school-mates to follow. There will usually be one or two dancers on top of the floats while more will stay on the ground dancing around and working the crowd to impress the judges in their allotted 80 minutes.

The samba schools are not just musical groups – they are neighbourhood associations providing a variety of community needs, including health and educational resources.

When and where is the Carnival held?

The Carnival begins as soon as the year’s King Momo is crowned by Rio’s mayor on the Friday. That night a children’s parade starts things off innocently before the dance, theatre, arts and music get going on the Saturday. Sunday and Monday are the big days, culminating in the top six Samba schools competing on the final day.

The main parade is in the Sambadrome in downtown Rio, but there are always local events in the streets, including a huge ball at the Copacabana Palace and Beach. Everyone joins in in whatever way they can. They bring their percussion instruments to join with the batucada style of samba that is danced in Brazil and they all know the moves to dance along.

Getting around

Taxis are the simplest way to get around Rio during the carnival, although it could be quicker to walk with the amount of people in attendance in the centre. You can of course take the subway to the Sambadrome too. Admission to the Sambadrome is anywhere between $200-1000 – although there are some agencies that can arrange for you to actually be part of the parade, making it free.

The carnival is much safer than it used to be with security stepped up a notch. Plain-clothed police and security officers will be everywhere, but of course, make sure you still keep to the usual safety rules that you would in any situation full of people.

After a beautiful drive through the terraced landscape, river valleys, traditional Bhutanese architecture and chortens (domed monument) we reach Simtokha Dzong, the oldest Dzong in Bhutan (built in 1629). From here, the road winds through pine forests and small villages, and passes by more chortens and prayer flags before heading up to Dochula Pass (10,000′), the first of four passes of the trip. The prayer flags on mountain slopes, bridges and high passes, transmit prayers to the Gods and keep up a constant communication with the heavens.

For the next two hours, the road slowly descends into the lowlands of Punakha valley. In the village of Lobesa, we see Chimmi Lhakhang, a temple dedicated to Drukpa Kuenley, a favorite saint of the Bhutanese, is known affectionately as “the Divine Madman”. The temple is on a hillside in the middle of rice fields and has become a pilgrimage site for childless couples.

In the morning we witness the Punakha Dromchoe at Punakha Dzong, the “Palace of Great Happiness” built in 1647 by Shabdrung Nawang Namgyel, the saint who unified Bhutan.

Bhutan had in the past defended its sovereignty through ways of skillful mediation, war, and other means of defense strategy. Punakha Dromchoe depicts one of such victories, which have resulted in what Bhutan is today.

The Punakha Dromchoe festival take place in the first month of the lunar year; next festival date is February 18-22, 2010. Other prominent festivals of the first half of 2010 are Punakha Tshechu – February 23-25, Chorten Kora – February 28-March 15, Gomkora – March 23-25, Paro Tshechu – March 26-30, and Ura Tshechu – April 24-28.

The Dromchoe festival ends with ‘Serda’, a magnificent procession which re-enacts an episode of the war against the Tibetan invading troops in the 17th century.

The Pazap (medieval Bhutanese army) in red uniforms rush out of the dzong, flourishing swords at the head steep wooden stairs at the entrance. With the deafening sound of firecrackers, the Pazaps leap into horsebacks to ride into battle.

The Serda Berkhor procession at the end of the festivities is led by the Je Khenpo (Chief Abbot of Bhutan) who comes out of the dzong amidst great fanfare, led by troops and Pachham dancers, to pray on the banks of the river and to proclaim the victory of the Bhutanese forces.

Canceled in 2008 because of protests and calls for Tibetan independence the previous year, the annual Lithang horse-racing festival may not happen once again this year if the situation in Tibet and much of the Tibetan-populated areas will turn for the worse in coming days. Tensions have been reported as high ahead of the 50th anniversary on March 10 of a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959 that led to the Dalai Lama fleeing into exile in India. As last year, once again this February and March the towns across the Tibetan plateau are being sealed off from visitors with armed Chinese troops on heightened alert to prevent any repeat of last year’s explosion of discontent.

The annual Lithang festival, scheduled once again to be held in Mola Grassland in vicinity of Lithang from August 1 to August 8, a grand gathering of Tibetans to race, compete in acrobatic stunt riding and archery, is an experience to add to your list of places and events to must-see in your lifetime. To witness thousands of Kampa Tibetans gather decked in striking traditional garb and ornaments singing and dancing in an ambiance of nomadic atmosphere is one of those cultural celebrations that should not only be allowed to be staged every year but encouraged as well as protected as mankind’s cultural heritage. Unfortunately as individual tourists as well as tour operators have been banned from bringing their clients to Tibet, Westerns Sichuan and Gansu, and to make sure no uninvited visitor slips through troops block approach roads, more of the same hardline treatment dished out by the Bejing regime breeds more resentments worldwide, the crackdown induces a thouoght that China’s Tibet policy, they themselves, one could only hope, should finally realize is indeed in need of an overhaul.

Panama was settled by the Spanish in the 16th century and it was not until 1819 that Panama declared its independence from Spain. It then joined Simon Bolivar’s Republic of Gran Colombia, a federation made up of Venezuela, New Granada and Ecuador, that dissolved some eleven years later when subsequently Panama became a province of New Granada, later to be renamed Colombia. This was an unstable relationship that lasted seventy three years until finally on November 3, 1903 Panama broke off from Colombia.  The US navy prevented the Colombian military from sailing to Panama and an assault overland through the Derian Gap, the deep jungle between Panama and Columbia, was impossible. Panama became a new republic. November 3, the Separation Day, is celebrated all over Panama as the Independence Day from Columbia, and with zest where even small communities organize parades teeming with dancers dressed in traditional Panamanian clothes and school bands.