CARNAVAL!

Ah Jaysus if it isn't yourself... Howaya??

You're probably wondering why I've gathered you all here.. Well it is to shite on about Rio De Janeiro and most particularly the biggest party on Earth: Carnaval...

So if you tuned into last week's episode you will know that we were all sad at leaving the epic New Zealand. We landed in Rio and boom: they'd lost my backpack!! Frickin nightmare after such a long flight and smelling like crap with no spare clothes.. Anyway, spoiler alert it showed up three days later. It's a weird thing though you always think it'll never happen to you but it did to me and a load of other people on our flight too..

The hostel we had booked was good. Nice and clean etc. When we arrived the guy behind the counter said "We are having a pasta party tonight if you want to join?" Maybe I've been left out of the loop but I was imagining a big food fight with Ravioli and sheets of Lasagne flying around or maybe some weird kid's party with plastic cups.. but no, it was just help yourself to Pasta, but still a life first.. Pasta party, tick!

So anyway, Carnaval yeah yeah.. So what happens is each suburb or area of the city holds a street party on different days. They get an open top double decker bus and plonk a DJ on top. You congregate around this bus, they spray you with water and you can buy beer from a guy with a Polystyrene cool box/esky/chilly bin on the side of the road. You then follow said bus with beer in hand along the streets whilst people sing and whistle and bang drums and generally party.. Oh and you have to dress in a ridiculous costume, like a non slutty Halloween outfit.. We went to a couple of these and were often followed by drinking at the hostel and going out to bars after.. Good times were had..

Getting soaked at a Bloco

Me, wet!

An elaborate costume

Emma and Graham from our Hostel sporting above mentioned costumes!

Aside from the general debauchery that goes on around, what makes the Carnaval famous is it's parade. It is without question the largest of its kind in the world. If you haven't been, it's difficult to describe how dam big and over the top this thing is. It goes on for over 8 hours, starts at 10pm and goes on till 6 in the morning. There are literally tens of thousands of people participating and it takes place in a stadium which is over 700 meters long along which fits over 90,000 people. It runs for 4 nights and 784,000 people attend in total. It is the most over the top extravagant thing I have ever been to and struck me as quite a wasteful thing as everyone dumps their costumes on the ground at the end of the parade and they get loaded into rubbish trucks and the one's that get left behind are taken by tourists.. but hey, you have to do it.. a mind blowing spectacle...

We got to attend the Carnival with the other people on our truck trip who we would be traveling the rest of South America with so it was good to meet them and get pissed together for the first time..

All the partying and Parading done, Sam and I had to hit the tourist spots: Cristo Redentor, Sugar Loaf Mountain, Ipanema and Copacabana beaches and Escaderia Selaron (this is a set of steps made from tiles imported from all around the world). The highlight was the view from Sugar Loaf Mountain at sunset.. Take a look..

Ipanema Beach

The view from Sugar Loaf

A view of the coast

Me on top of Sugar Loaf

Cristo is in the background..

A view of the city

Me at Cristo

Another thing we did was a tour of a Favela.. I see your blank look so I'll explain. This is the sad side of Brazil. The poor people live in areas called Favelas. They are horrible slums with limited sewerage and the standard of living is very low.. The people who live here are very angry with the government.. Why wouldn't you be? You live in a slum but billions is spent on hosting the Olympics and the World Cup.. Our guide told us about many of the inequalities in the country and how the poor are getting restless as well as the awful health system for the poor. Very interesting and sounds like a complicated and potentially explosive political situation.

A view of the Favela

Samba Drums!

Example of the place

The Streets

To sum up Rio: It smells (the street cleaners were on strike to be fair), it's humid as hell, it's hot as hell, it's busy as hell, it's dirty as hell, it's frickin dangerous, it's very wasteful, there's widespread inequality, it's tiring, the people are beautiful, it's expensive, there's hills everywhere.. What's not to love?

After a week in Rio during Carnaval, all you wanna do is.......

Zzzzzzzz