Brazil

I know i have started many of my articles with "words cannot describe," referring to the insane events i have been fortunate enough and lucky enough to experience. but let me tell you something: nothing and i do mean NOTHING i have ever experienced in my 29 years on Earth so far even comes close to what i encountered in Brazil for Carnival.

The trip started with an invitation from my good buddy Ronnie Ebanks. Ronnie happens to be good friends with a guy named Gonzalo, and Gonzalo happens to be the KINGPIN of Brazil. I kid you not — I felt like I was with royalty. Everywhere we went it was unreal to see the treatment he got. I have been with people who received the royal treatment, but I’ve never seen on it on this level. Best thing about Gonzalo is that you would never know he was so big-time because he is so incredibly humble — genuinely one of the greatest guys I have ever met.

As soon as I decided I was going, it was time to gather a crew. You know I never travel without a posse!! What formed was the best group of guys possible. It was Phil Laak (world’s greatest poker player — LOL), Ronnie Ebanks (our liaison), Glynn Beebe (good old Texas boy), Sam Zavosh and Tony Licari (my two best friends growing up), Michael Kelly (who was kind enough to fl y us down on his private jet), and Nick Sprigs (Michael’s partner in the real world). It didn’t take long before Nick’s name was changed to Uncle Sprigs. Let’s just say his nephews learned a lot from this man!

What took place in Brazil was pure debauchery. This was my fi rst time to Brazil and I did not know what to expect. All I knew was that Brazil is known for beautiful women. Well folks… the rumors are true! Holy shit — the Brazilian women are gorgeous. And their bodies and skin tone… pure heaven. Not that I would know from personal experience… I’m just a very good observer.

All we did was party, lie on the beach, and gamble. It was just FUN. Pure fun. On the last day of our visit to Brazil, we were scheduled to attend the actual Carnival festivities. All of us here in the States have been hearing about Carnival for years; but nobody really understands what Carnival really is and I was defi nitely on the same page.

I always thought it was just some big party in Brazil. Little did I know the “blocos” is a big part of it. This is a gigantic competition between different samba (dance) schools. Imagine a huge marching parade of 20,000 or so people (maybe even more, who knows?) down a long strip with 2 million people watching from the stands. Imagine trying to organize THAT many people into a routine???

And here is the kicker: Each school (18 in the competition) has less than 1 hour and 20 minutes to get from one side to the other. Okay now, understand this — if they go over by one second, it’s a huge penalty; and this is amazing if you know that each school fi nishes no earlier than about 1 hour and 18 minutes. Yes, you heard me correctly — they march over 20,000 people down this long row all dancing and going absolutely crazy and SO into their music and routine and they all do it in that tight time frame. It really was fascinating.

We were there with Gonzalo for the celebration of his school taking third place. He had the BEST skybox/suite you could imagine. Every single person marching was singing at the top of his or her lungs. Everyone so proud to be there — it really was a beautiful thing to witness.

As we sat enjoying the beautiful sight, one of Gonzalo’s guys came up to us and brought us some t-shirts. At fi rst I thought they were just souvenir shirts to take home. Boy, were we wrong — and boy did we regret not holding on to ALL of them. About an hour later, Gonzalo found us and said, “Put on your shirts and let’s go, boys.” Huh?!?! Tradition is that on the fi nal day of the Carnival each school (Gonzalo is a major contributor to his school) has a select few that get to JOIN the parade. I could not believe what was happening. We were going to march down the parade WITH the school with two million eyes on us???

One problem — we were missing two shirts. Michael and I seemed to have misplaced our shirts. And it was impossible to go without the shirt. Later I found out that these shirts were like GOLD and having one was priceless. Everything was happening so fast, and in the midst of everything I wasn’t too sure what to do. I really didn’t want to miss this once-in-a-lifetime experience!! Ronnie threw me his shirt and said, “You go, I’ve been before.” Talk about taking one for the team. In a moment of true kindness, Tony grabbed his shirt and threw it to Michael. It’s never fun to leave soldiers behind, but sometimes you have no choice. I was very sad to march down without my best friend Tony, but hey, such is life.

As we started to march down the parade, I looked over at the boys and said, “Gentlemen, we are not at Carnival, we are IN Carnival.” In my non-sober state, I marched down this long stretch of road with 20,000 Brazilians with many MANY more watching and I have never felt more alive in my life. It was more intense than winning the WPT.

As we approached Gonzalo’s suite/skybox/villa (his area was just so massive), we were looking for Tony when we saw he had came down to the very bottom of the box with bottles of water in hand for all of us. The guy gives up his shirt and then proceeds to look out for us (he knew we would be thirsty). Thanks, Tony and Ronnie, for SERIOUSLY taking one for the team.

I highly recommend a trip to Brazil for those of you who have never been. It’s a wonderful country with fantastic people. Thank you, Gonzalo, for making our trip one that will never be forgotten.