Jan 27

Waking nice and early at 9am we enjoyed breakfast of mango, papaya and pikelets (small pancakes) before donning our team caipoera pants - Riki and Pieter in blue, green and yellow stripes, and Nadine in yellow, green and red stripes. We hit the cobblestones looking extremely coordinated with pants, bandannas, jandals, AND aviator sunnies. Damn we are cool!
This time we were slightly more prepared for the free flow of sweat with Riki and I wearing bikinis underneath. So up the stairs we went with our instructor `King Kong` who has been teaching caipoera for 29years but has the most incredibly muscly body. Our two hour class started off with running around circles and cartwheeling and jumping over sticks put in front of us. Then we progressed into thigh workout material and then came a laugh and a half which girls just DO NOT have the strength for.. holding themselves up with their arms only, with legs above head. So Riki and I are collapsing laughing at our weakness while the boys struggle. Next was our backs. So without telling us the aim of the exercise King Kong literally pulled N over into a backwards bridge position - easy enough to do if you are told about it - but bizarre if you don`t have ANY idea what is coming. Finally we got taught some basic moves and paired off to practise. Interesting to note that part of it is all about the eye contact- they don`t break it at all when you are standing opposite them. By this time blisters on the soles of Riki`s feet had formed, and Nadine had a split toe. Meanwhile we were soaked in sweat with N`s top again changing colour. Then it was on to the floor with press-ups and sit ups. Pieter pulling through with 50, N with 20 and Riki with a measly 9 due to laughter making her weak. King Kong then showed us the musical side to caipoera with a demo of instruments and another session with sticks in a group circle. As you can probably infer, it is a full on session and it is no wonder that Brazilians have amazing bodies- between samba-ing their butts off and caipoera they should be incredible. What a workout!
We all staggered out and headed for (thats right you guessed it) an acai at our favourite place and went back to wash our bead encrusted bodies in the shower. Upon arrival at our favourite joint `la nega maluca` a.k.a our super friendly hostel we found a message from Paul(Kiwi) and Jo(Aussie) (friends we made in Santa Catarina) they had come calling so we awaited their return and preened ourselves. Once they arrived we made the introductions and plans for the following 24hours. The main priority being Ben Harper. So to the shopping mall we went again, tickets we got and not just any tickets.. NOOOOOO folks...golden circle!( P you spoilt us rotten). So N and R had a mad run around the mall dodging the slow walking (waffles=platforms impeding shuffling) shopping hordes and bought the farewell stuff for P, and moisturiser. Somewhere in between we had some healthy lunch and a soft serve and before we knew it , it was 6 pm and we were frantically rushing back to our respective accomodations to get ready and make some caipirinha beforehand. When we got back we got scolded by the hostel for leaving our washing in the bathroom in a bucket- caipoera pants that would be soaking ` oh the crime`!!!! We also got told to return `their` bucket to its rightful place- we quickly put them in their place about it being OURS - which they thought was even stranger and unbelievable (eeeeeediotttts). Anyhow Paul showed up not long after without ice and we set to filling Spu with beverage. The hostel owner then told Paul that if it got busy he would have to leave- hostel by the way was NOT busy but I suppose it makes all sorts of people make the world go round. By the time Jo and her matching Brazilian(Orlando Bloom whose been surfing forever) boyfriend arrived the hostel staff nearly had a seizure so we promptly left the premises and awaited our taxis outside. Our same taxi man came and we soon found out that he and the girlfriend of three years and mother of his child had split over night- `tough crowd` anyway we headed towards Ben as did the hour. Nadine was really taking one for the team with her bodily demands , I think we visited various ladies rooms 4 times within an hour and a half!!!! Taxi driver= Wagner then decided he thought N was `a bit of alright` and he was gonna go nuts and buy tickets like ours (a lot of money for a Brazilian taxi driver I would imagine). At this point we were at the festival and N had scurried off again to find the bathroom. So while P and I stood there we realised the potential disaster we were signing ourselves up for and boosted it- I realize not the nicest thing to do but Ben was our reason and we were determined to enjoy our last night as the trio as much as possible. In saying that we found P, J and J soon enough inside our `special elite` area (fluoro orange wristbands required) and were delighted with the caipirinhas (strawberry and tropical plum) and setting. Oh the joys of having money to spend in a foreign country. The new kids took to the `slice` and the `three` remarkably fast and embracingly!!!!
So after one act ended we took the opportunity to move closer to the stage. Hardly a battle - and positioned ourselves about 5 metres from the stage- beside the paparazzi (which as N pointed out has to be sign of good positioning). Poor Ben - his warmup was this slightly lost Brazilian boyband member in a floral orange with glitter shirt (Pat eat your heart out) and an entourage of amazing dancers with permanent smiles. The music was a style of pop\samba and the crowd loved it but definately a bizarrre choice before Ben. And then it was time- an amazing act but not surprising when it is BEN HARPER and the best part we were SO close about 3m from teh edge of the stage. So in heaven the six of us all savoured the moment.
Ben shone as normal - an amazing fantastic set - All the classics - Sexual Healing, Diamonds on the Inside, Burn to Shine, Steal my kisses, and some newer stuff, along with some classic Bob Marley. As the foreigners who spoke English we knew all the lyrics and consequently were screaming our lungs out while bewildered Brazilians looked at us bizarrely. In particular they didn`t know Burn to Shine at ALL, so we were about the only ones in a 15m radius jumping up and down wildly!! With some awesome percussion and a dance troupe flown in from Chicago he was so good, and we felt absolutely stoked to be in the golden circle. Many photos and homemade movies later Ben finished his fabulous set and we all just looked at each other with grins from ear to ear. We all then realised that we were starving and we went and got ourselves a Pastel do Carioca - in our case a chicken and cheese filled deep fried goodness followed by a really appealing looking piece of chocolate cake which in the end looked better than it tasted. By this time the capoeira pain was starting to kick in and Riki and I just dropped after the adrenalin rush and after a quick dance at the Reggae tent we left the Festival stoked with everything we had achieved during the day. ..and night.