Rio

Carnival in Rio was how you would expect, lots of street party´s and drinking. The main parade takes place at an area called the Samba Dome, which is a sealed off stretch of road with stands either side for spectators. We got a ticket through our hostel for the Sunday (the parade is on each night for roughly a week) and headed down as a group, dressed up a little, and watched the parade from 9pm until 5am. This was the carnival as you see it on T.V or in the papers with the massive floats and costumes and it was impressive, even from our seats in sector 6, which were the cheap seats. On the plus side we were in with the locals, rather than the tourists (gringo´s) who mostly sat in the expensive seats. The advantage of being with the locals was they were far more up for it than some of the gringo´s.

As well as the main parade throughout Carnival there are the Blocco party´s, which are bassically street party´s being held 3 times a day in different areas of Rio, 9am, 2pm and 8pm. I have no idea how many people turn out but the whole area is a sea of people following a little parade of drums, music, dancers etc getting drunk, singing and dancing. Many of the locals (to make some money) buy beers from the supermarkets for 30p each put them in a cool box and sell them on the street for 60p, so you never had to move a muscle to buy a beer, they just brought them to you.

Apart from the party´s we did do a few touristy things. We watched Flamengo at the Maracana football stadium, sunbathed on Copacabana beach, visited the statue of Christ, and did a tour of the Favelas (slums on the hillsides of Rio).

On the safety side of things we hardly had any problems. People had warned us we would be robbed and probably at gun point, but we were fine. I did catch a lad trying to pick pocket me during one of the blocco party´s but as soon as I caught him he ran a mile.

The whole was amazing and couldn´t have gone better, but it was a very hectic week before heading to Campo Grande and the Pantanal area.