Postcard From the Algarve - February 05

And there is always a political float. Last year, the float was an iron barred cage on the back of a truck with a well dressed man in the cage and two police officers outside. Everey hundred metres or so the truck would stop, the well dressed man would get out, laugh and clap his hands, and then one of the police officers would put him back in. We found out later that this was a reference to a corrupt politician who had been released on bail while awaiting trial, and had immediately been arrested on other charges just as he left the prison.

Last year’s procession was interrupted by an ambulance which came to pick up a patient from a house on the carnival route. The patient was loaded into the Ambulance which could not start. Another ambulance was soon on scene, and the patient transferred. I don’t think the cheers of the happy and slightly tipsy carnival watchers could have aided his recovery.

Of course, up the road in Loule, the Algarve’s Perth, the Carnival is a much more elaborate affair. There are three days of processions, with Samba Bands, massive floats carrying 10 foot high political figures and, you will be disgusted to hear, topless dancers, and almost naked models. Not the sort of thing that would appeal to Highland Perthshireites.

* Sao Bras is home to three or four groups of musicians and singers who perform at the 10 or more feasts and Saint’s days throughout the year. The groups vary in number from fifteen to forty and in age from ten to eighty years.