A man jumps into the mud during the traditional “Bloco da Lama” or “Mud Block” carnival party
Forget the sexy nurses, the pirates and devils. At the Bloco da Lama Carnival street party, swamp creature is the costume of choice.
Last weekend, revelers in the seaside colonial town of Paraty threw themselves into deposits of black, mineral-rich slime, emerging covered head-to-toe in the sludge. Bikinis and trunks disappeared beneath the mud, which highlights both gym-pumped pectorals and beer-fed guts.
Those hoping to remain pristine didn’t last long at the Bloco da Lama, which translates from the Portuguese as “Mud Street Party.”
One woman wearing a spotless, white bikini was chased by a reveler freshly emerged from the mud who said: “She’s so clean, it makes me want to hug her.”
Her swimsuit soon became a black bikini.
“Usually when you think of Brazilian Carnival, you think of sequins and feathers — not mud,” said French tourist Marion Douchet, 28, as she smeared the stuff onto the back of her neck and the few other spots clean skin was still visible. “It’s fun, it’s original and it’s exotic.”
Patricia Azevedo, who owns a hotel in town, said the mud was helping her beat the intense mid-summer heat.
“When you go to a normal ‘bloco’ you’re all packed together like sardines and it gets insanely hot,” said Azevedo, 43, a vine tiara giving her swamp creature look the crowning touch. “The mud is really refreshing — plus I don’t even need sunscreen.”
Legend has it the “bloco” was born in 1986 after local teens hiking in a nearby mangrove forest smeared themselves with mud to discourage mosquitoes and then wandered through Paraty. The party grew year after year, but revelers eventually were banned from parading in the colonial downtown after shopkeepers complained pristine white walls were stained with the hard-to-remove mud.
Now revelers dance on the beach instead, getting down and dirty to competing soundtracks of Brazilian funk and house music amid cavemen chants of “uga, uga.”
As the afternoon wore on and the number of empty beer cans abandoned on the sand multiplied, so did the flying mud balls, hurled willy nilly by over-enthusiastic teenagers. Real estate in the mud deposit became scarce.
“It’s good spirited fun,” Azevedo said. “I mean, I haven’t looked at myself in the mirror, I’m sure I look ridiculous. But then again, everyone does.”Jenny Barchfield, Paraty, AP
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