A dancer at The Week.
Photo and story by Dennis Hensley
Saturday, February 2 – Florianopolis, Brazil
Yesterday, during our last day in Sao Paulo, our gaggle learned about the city's May Pride celebration over a tasty salmon pasta lunch at Mestico in the Jardins district, which is like the Beverly Hills of Sao Paulo.
Pride in Sao Paulo is gi-normous -- the biggest event of the year. It attracts over 200,000 people, whereas Carnival gets about a third of that. Even the Pope's visit was a feeble also-ran next to Pride, which the Guinness Book lists as the world's largest street party. Its also the only major one allowed on the city's main drag, Avenue Polista. I hear even the 'Walk for Jesus' event had to move, but Pride was a-okay.
In the evening, we hit the Sao Paulo Carnival. It's amazing the amount of time, passion and energy the different samba schools invest in their presentations. We've all seen footage of the spectacular floats and costumes but I'd like to give a shout out to the people who push the floats down the street from behind. They may not be wearing feathers or a thong, but they're as into it as everyone else.
Post-Carnival we went to the popular indoor/outdoor nightclub, The Week, home of the hottest go-go boys on the planet. No thongs here, just matching floral square-cuts. Although Brazil is obviously a very sexy place, there's a 'taste level,' as they say on Project Runway, that I appreciate. No one gropes the boys or tips them and you don't see buttcheek or fluffing. Sexy is good -- sleazy, not so much.
On a related note, I heard that sunbathing topless is not allowed for women here and you can actually be arrested. That's an episode of "Tara-dise" with Tara Reid just waiting to happen.
