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.

Arrial D'ajuda

Our last stop before Rio was this small, hippy beach town. They had the most generous portions of acai smoothie that we've so far found, the craziest looking hippies and the best capoira school. One evening we watched a capoira class through the window, as part of the fight the master would walk on his hands and do crazy flips. I don't know how but after the class, the master persuaded me and Leggra to join a class the following morning at
10am. The class was hard but we loved it and with the few basic moves we'd learnt we were able to fight
(though worryingly I did nearly kick Leggra in the head at one point.)

Olivença

This was a magical place for me! Me and Leggra were really treated like part of a family here. Our friend´s (from Itacare) friend owned a bar with his wife and every night me and Leggra were invited to eat dinner with them and the rest of the staff. Dinner ranged from Sushi to Seafood Spagetti to Chicken Strogonof which we all would eat on the beach or in the bar (which was on the beach). Every evening live music would play at the bar and people would come to dance foro, eat, drink and chat. I had a go a foro myself and love it- it´s a really fun style of dance and the music is beautiful.

On our second night in Olivença, it was the full moon. We all sat on the decking of the bar and together watched the moon rise up out of the sea- it was stunning and so wonderful to share the experience with our new friends. That night I learned to make caiparinha (the brazillian cocktail), stayed dancing till the early hours and walked along the beach to watch the sunrise before heading home for some well deserved sleep.

The next day we´d been invited to a bbq with some people we met in the bar, so we turned up and got given the most amazing meats, salad and even mango caipiroska (best I´ve ever tasted). It was really nice to hang out with some locals and they had really funky brazillian music playing as they cooked- we loved it.

I was so sad to leave Olivença and my new adopted brazillian family. There were absoloutly no gringos in the little villiage of Olivença, only hanging out with locals taught me so much about Brazil´s culture and I really think it helped improved my portuguesse alot.

Itacare

Arriving at our friend´s house in Itacare was like stepping into paradise- hammocks were strung up outside and mango, coconut and cashew trees all grew in the garden. As we entered the house we were given freshly made mango smoothie and then our friend made us coconut cous cous for lunch- amazing!

Whilst he went to work, we chilled on the beach and watched an incredible sunset. After wandering around town and popping into the restaurant where our friend worked at for a drink, me and Leggra got home via moto taxis and cooked dinner. At 11.30ish our friend finished work and off we three went on his bike to the town´s street party. The town was buzzing with energy- There was a car with massive speakers and booming music. The streets were packed with so many people it was hard to move and lined with cocktail and food stands. I tried a traditional Bahia food- Acaraje (fried bean, cut in half and then stuffed with shimps, salad and creamy sauces). A big stage by the beach had bands to which we danced to way into the night.

The next day, we all had lunch together and then took a hike into the beautiful forest (passing several showers by streams to cool off in) to the hidden beach. That night there was a rock band playing in a local bar (girls had free entry) so we went along. The next morning was a lazy one before catching the 3 o´clock bus to Olivença, where kindly our friend arranged for us to stay.

Morro de Sao Paulo

So the island hopping begins in this beautiful place with sandy streets and absoloutly no cars. Our first night here, there was a free beach party with cocktail and crepe stands lining the beach. The music was a kind of brazillian hip-hop to which all the locals shook their stuff like crazy.

Most of our days were lazy beach days, but occassionally we would walk up an down the beach selling jewellery we made. There is a really cool chill out area we went to one evening to watch the sunset, it has the best view and is covered in bean bags and hammocks. We went horse riding on our second to last day and I galloped for my first time- woop wooo! On this island its really easy to get to know people, one night our friend said that we could have a free drink each just for sitting in the outside bar- excellent!

We managed to arrange staying with a local so really felt like we were part of a family and even got in free to an open air club party. It was really nice to take it in turns cooking and all share meals, staying at a locals is such a different experience to in a hostel filled eith tourists. The last day me, Leggra and our spanish friend all went to the fourth beach (the most beautiful) and our friend tried to give us and some little kids a capoira class. Later we watched him at his actual caporira class- they begin by playing traditional music (everyone joins in) and then have a gruelling work out, before making a capoira circle and taking it in turns to fight. That night, our spanish friend came over and she cooked us all a spanish tortilla which we had with vino tinto before heading out to another beach party. The beach party was the perfect way to say goodbye to the island, we stayed up till sunrise which we watched sat on the second beach.

Salvador

Salvador is a beautifully vibrant city with music constantly playing. Groups of people will gather on the street playing drums to which two people perform capoeira- a type of martial arts dance. We stayed in a really cool hostel just outside the pelorinho (the cool place to be) and most days caught a bus to Barra the closest beach, soaked up the sun and drank from coco nuts .

We got some advice on jewellery making from an artesan who took us shopping for wire, beads and thread and taught us how to make different things. Our shopping trip lasted 8 hours and then we sat in our friends workshop for a few more hours getting creative. Back at the hostel we sold a few braclets and a necklace too.

Tuesday night is the big night in Salvador- the streets thrive with people and all over the pelorinho there are live samba bands which hundreds of people gether to watch and dance. Muito Bem! We also for some reason ended up spending some of the night outside our artesan friend´s shop playing chequers and eating fried fish.

El Pantanal

A 16 hour train ride and several buses later we arrived in Corumba and from there booked our trip to the Pantanal, Brazil´s grass lands. As we´d spent a while faffing around, we missed the bus and had to be driven by the boss instead, which actually ended up being a much more comfy mode of transport. When we got to the lodge we were showed to our hammocks where we were to sleep for the next 3 nights- they were so cosy.

That night 17 of us were loaded into the jungle truck, we sat on the roof and off we went for our night time safari. I held up my torch and saw all of the aligators glowing red eyes as we passed the rivers. We even saw a pair of tocans snuggling in a tree together. After a few minutes of driving the truck stopped and the guide signaled for us to climb down as it was time for the nights walk. We scrambled under some wire and suddenly were surrounded by aligators resting by the waters edge- humans apparently don´t bother them. The guide found an aligator (reasonably sized) and grabbed it before picking it up in order to show us different parts of its body including its stomach and jaws! So it wouldn´t attack when the guide placed the aligator back on the ground, he rubbed its tummy with a plant and bit by bit the aligator went into a trance and just fell asleep.

The next day we got into canoes and had a boat trip to this beautiful little town, went swimming in the river, did a bit of fishing (I caught a pirahna- YAY) and had lunch. Though it was fun lazing in the sun, there were problems with our transport back to the lodge so we didn´t get back for dinner until 10pm.

Day 3 day was by far the best!! Of course the 2hour jungle walk in the morning in the rain, didn´t leave me in the best mood as i got swarmed by visicous mossies and cut up by brambles, however after lunch it brightened up and we went horse riding for 2 and a half hours!

The next morning we had an unsuccsesful time trying to fish for pirahnas so chilled in the hammocks mostly and got henna tattoos from an artist working at the camp. Soon after lunch we reaturned to civilisation and are now staying in Campo Grande.