October 10 2015 Oktoberfest in Blumenau, Santa Catarina, Brazil

Off we go to Blumenau, we got 3 hours of sleep on this Saturday morning, 10 October to catch a taxi to the bus station. Thanks to our hosts in São Paulo for the app named Taxi99. We got to the bus station with no problems and took a 5 hour trip to meet Giovani and his family. He picked us up at the bus station and drove by the house we would be staying at when he took us to his sister, Patricia's apartment to have breakfast. We were met by his wife, Cida, his sister, nephew, Andreas and Philippe. We had a great breakfast and then we took his sister to get a washer machine for her new apartment.  Giovani showed us around town before we headed over to the Mall to have lunch with his wife and sister.

After lunch, Giovani took us on a tour of the historic areas of the City.  We were able to get prime seats at a coffee shop to watch the parade which started at 16:00. This we a really great parade and our first for Oktoberfest. As we tell our story, this was the BEST parade ever seen in our lives, so much fun and interaction from everyone. We then got to the house we were staying at, took showers and got ready to head out to Oktoberfest Party.

Oktoberfest signs line the parade route

City Hall

Main street with European feel to this German City

Capybara along the banks

Keith and Giovani watching the parade

The parade started then there was a break, here we go!

Schweinwargon

Dancing and more dancing

Bicycle that weaves up and down the parade route with music

Parade in front of us, so much fun and excitement

Blumenau looks like it could be in Germany

Here we are in the crowd 

A little look of Europe in Brazil

Oktoberfest Blumenau 2015

Inside the party in one of the 4 staged areas. We had BBQ while listening to the entertainment

We were so lucky to be able to experience this event, we had no intention to go to Blumenau until everyone kept saying you must and just so happened to be Oktoberfest. At first we thought we would not get into the Oktoberfest Party since the ticket booths were closed since they sold out but a Military Police Officer told our host he thought the gate may get us in since he was with two American travelers. Finally we were told some tickets were being sold on the street, the tickets sold for R$30 at the booth and we paid R$50 ($12 USD instead of $9 USD). It was so worth the experience! Great rib BBQ meal was huge and we listened to 4 different bands staged in 4 areas of the venue.  

We had a very nice host in Blumenau and greatly appreciate his greeting us to his City.  We do not usually do a couch for one night but glad we did.