Carnival – Survival
Well It’s a miracle that I survived the last 7 days.. Carnival week was unrelenting. Everywhere you turned in Rio was just crazy with people and music and general mayhem. There were street parties that mingled with overspill from every club, bar and restaurant. The beaches were a litter of people, stalls and stands selling everything you couldn’t possibly need at 4.00am (along with some stuff you did need at 4am such as some of the strongest and cheapest drinks I think I’ve ever tasted, and assorted “food” stuffs that tasted incredibly good at that time of night) – along with pumping music which varied in style as you progressed along the beaches.
The samba clubs, most of which could hold around 50 patrons, spilled and echoed around the streets all night till past sun up. These were a real treat as the music was an incredible experience – I just wish i could Samba… On the last night of Carnival, a few of us from the hostel managed to skip about a kilometer of cuing to get into a club where the winning Samba school from the Carnival Parade were playing.. There was about a 50 piece band playing on stage, and it was amazing how energetic it all was. Unfortunately I had to exit and find a cab back to the hostel early (around 4.30am) to shower, change and get on a plane to Salvador at 7.00am, which, in many ways, was a hard thing to do.
Somehow I avoided getting overly sick from the street food consumed, perhaps it was neutralised by all the strong alcohol and beers drunk. I later heard the delicious hot dog thingies that were covered in everything you could possibly think of, were appropriately named ‘Garbage’ by some of the locals… Gawd damn they tasted good but 
I also sampled a number of traditional Brazilian meals in restaurants (mostly not too sure what i was eating, but i think a few of the dishes involved hoofs & snouts etc etc.. Interesting to try once I guess.
In between all the partying, I still managed to do a number of touristy things and take lots of photos.. (some I’ve uploaded already, so go check ‘em out – but it takes forever so more to come later). Some of the highlights were Sugar loaf Mountain, The Statue of the Christ, seeing a football match at the famous Maraçana Stadium and a beautiful hang glide over Rio.
What an amazing city Rio is. Such a beautiful place, yet so dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. Luckily i managed to stay out of trouble, even met a local who claimed he killed some people.. Really nice guy apart from that, and strangely we got on really well and hung out at one of the beach parties for a number of hours..
So I’m now in a little beach town in Salvador recovering from the whole experience of Carnival in Rio. Feels like I could sleep for a month or two.
I’m planing a few bus trips over the next couple of days to find some nice beach spots up the coast, and then my next major adventure will be in Peru for the Inca Trail on the 20th of March.
Check back over the next few days – I’ll try get more photos up for you all to see..
