Unfortunately our trip to Rio has been slightly dampened by the almost continuous bad weather. In a city bursting with beaches, beautiful views and street parties, it was hardly the place to spend much time inside. Of course this wasn't going to stop us from enjoying the craziness of Rio during Carnival.
During Carnival the city turns into one giant party with countless street parties, the Samba school parades at the Sambadrome and general drunken' adventures. The locals really take this seriously and the city is overflowing with Brazilians dressed up and on the drink. The streets, metro and buses are ringing with Samba music and the cries of locals singing!
We met up with some friends from Sydney and danced our butts off at a local street party in Copacabana. To see how the experts did it we then watched the finals of the Samba school parades. It was simply amazing! The time, effort, skill, money and passion the people put into their parade is unbelievable. Unfortunately photos hardly do the night justice.
The rest of our week has been spent looking at the sights including Christo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) in less than amazing weather. We also visited numerous markets, Santa Teresa, Centro and the beach areas of Copacabana and Ipanema.
For our final night out we once again returned to party central Lapa and busted some moves with the locals at a Samba club! They were kind enough to teach us some of the sexy dance moves and of course we returned the favour (well me at least... no surprises there!)
After getting at least slightly comfortable with Spanish, it has been a whole new fun game understanding Brazilian Portuguese. Even the words that are spelt the same are pronounced completely different! Crazy. Luckily I've got such a winning smile and don't mind playing the lucky dip menu game. Mostly I end up with meat with rice and beans, it usually tastes pretty good!
From here we head south to Sao Paulo in the hopes we can somehow get across into Bolivia to continue the South American fun and games.
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