Rio

As soon as we arrived in Rio we could feel the anticipation of carnival pulsing through the city like an electric current. After check-in and lunch we made our way to our first bloco. in the weeks leading up to carnival all the blocos rehearse in public and the one we went to was by the marina. The band
(mainly purcussion- bateria)was so fun to dance to, loads of people came, most in fancey dress.

The rest of the week before the offical carnival start, was spent relaxing on copacabana and ipanema beach. Our most cultural day was spent in the neighbourhood of santa teresa. We went to the ruins of an old house with a panaramic view of the city. Then we saw another house with a collection of artwork all inspired by Brazil
- it was beautiful. That night i went out with some girls from the hostel to Lapa, we alternated between a salsa and samba (live music) club. We met about 10 others from our hostel that night so we all danced in a big group.

Carmelitos
Friday, 2pm Santa Teresa
We danced for 4 hours behind a huge float with a band and amongst the bateria. Everyone's costumes were amazing, people sprayed the dancing crowd with water and foam and threw confetti over us all.

On the saturday we caught the tail end of a bloco in lapa before going to the Vasco X Fluminense football game in the worlds biggest football stadium- it holds 96000 people. I'm not a football fan but the atmosphere was incredible. There was a bateria so everyone was up on their feet singing and dancing throughout the whole match. Fans threw paper that glittered as it fell and when it got dark people let off fireworks. Our team lost, but after so much fun i really didn't mind.

Cordao do Boitata-Centro
Sunday, 7am
There were 1000s of people dancing on and around the palace. Men dressed as fairys were dancing on the statues, it was crazy.

On the way back to the hotel we partied at two more blocos.
Simpatica e quase amor
4pm, Ipanema
Banda da invalida
7pm, Lapa

Monday, 9am... another bloco at Santa Teresa and that evening was the sambadrome. The sambadrome was amazing- float after float, ostrich feathered costumed after ostrich feathered costume. Everything was so colourful amd sparkley, we were there from 7.30pm to 5am- what an incredible end to carnaval.