Thank you Globo for the fabulous picture!
While I would LOVE to be able to say "Thank goodness they arrested those uncivilized folk," I have been to far too many blocos to say it with a straight face. Hell, there is a damn good possibility that I urinated in the street 96 times my first Rio de Janeiro Carnaval. In my defense, that was before the city was kind enough to place 1 port-o-potty per 50 people at the site of a bloco. Actually, when I started the Rio de Janeiro Carnaval bloco scene the city didn't even get involved unless it was one of the ridiculously large traditional ones.
Also, if you haven't ever walked by a bloco and seen the urinals don't worry, I'm sure if you concentrated you can smell them from where you are. Let's not forget the fabulous bloco urinal pictured above. It's all about class. FYI, don't step in the puddle circling the base...
And while it is essentially wrong to pee in the street, disgusting even, imagine how it is for the bloco attendee. Let me look back and retrieve a memory from my wild Carnaval days. Take the big downtown blocos that start at something like 8am. You get there and you start drinking beer. By your 3rd beer you really have to pee, plus your already finding questionable people attractive. You just may be buzzed. Are you going to go search for a public bathroom when it's impossible to find one between 9 to 5 on a normal business day. No, you are going to squat behind a car and just go with the urine flow. Is it right? Not really. Is it a fact of Carnaval life? Very much so.
As for the 13 women arrest, WTF?! Do you know how much of a bitch it is for us to squat and pee in the street with hundreds of strangers around us? For a woman you either have to pee like a Rhino or you are seriously drunk. Either way, it is an emergency situation. That goes double if your friend found a vendor who would sell you 2 beers for R$5.
Regardless of all of this, if the city of Rio de Janeiro isn't going to arrest people for pissing in the streets everyday why the hell are they bothering during Carnaval?
Maybe Rio should just set up marijuana cafés with hookas. Beer is much, much too urine producing. ;-)
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is that after the aftersmell from Carnaval in 2009, the year there was no rain at all, bless the City for the SaniCans, living with that smell for those several long days without rain was enough to require a hospital mask just to walk the streets. Lets hope there is no police strike in Rio, the stories from Bahia are not at all positive.
ReplyDeleteI remember that! It was horrible! Made me miss being sprinkled on the entire time
DeleteI hate, hate, hate public urination. But have I done it? Of course. In the past there were NO chemical toilets at public events. None. These days things have definitetly improved.
ReplyDeleteWe used to provide a circle of friends on the beach (faced outward) to make a space for our women friends to pee in the sand. There were no toilets!!
Thank goodness (and the city) that now there are hundreds of chemical toilets to serve the needs of the tens of thousands of party goers... now the boys just need to do the right thing.
Rachel and PTRio speak amongst each of the Carnival 2009 aftermath as if they were sharing war stories. Reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where George's father recounts his experiences as a cook during the Korean war. LOL.
ReplyDeleteThe bloco parties along the beach are the worst. That's when the ocean becomes a toilet for the everyone. I have even seen men taking a #2 in the ocean... makes you want to swim huh :)
ReplyDeletePee like a rhino..... hahahahahahaha!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteComments like that keep me coming back to your blog!
This is why I have a bladder bag hooked to my catheter.
ReplyDeleteJK but I bring a vitamin water bottle with me sometimes even though it isn't exactly the best fit, forget pespi bottles(tmi sorry.)
And to people who poop on the beach, we might as well meow at them because they are really being a cat in the litter box.
My solution to this all: do shots of Cachaca instead of beer so everyone only needs a few (9 or so) and they WONT PEE from that. Quite the opposite actually.
lol i am laughing at when you said 'do you know how much of a bitch it is for us to squat and pee' (well, you wrote it in other words). hahaha! SO true!
ReplyDeletebut either way, that is a lot of people arrested for having to pee.
Well, like Globo is now spouting... "Tá com a vontade de fazer xixi... não faz aqui!" kkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
ReplyDelete