Rio Carnival

Carnival for a week in Rio – we are here!

This was a surprise trip for my mom’s bucket list – we carved out a family vacation with my sister, brother, mom and myself. Last time we did this was in high school. Whoa.

The connections weren’t great ie the opposite of direct but an up grade on the first flight was awesome. Real glasses and cutlery. Who knew? 😉

We arrived first thing Sunday morning. So early our rooms weren’t ready. We wandered around the area meandering through more than one samba party and checking out expired floats from the previous evening – expired meaning bits broken off or mutilated. When we finally checked in though – four single beds 🙂

Loud jumpy music and skimpy outfits is carnival. Most popular – super heroes, Mario and Luigi, Joker. And bathing suits with fishnet stockings. We purchased some supplies to fit in. Nothing outrageous. Drinking beer in the street never goes amiss. Lots and lots of police out and about too.

Monday we walked around the downtown and port areas. In the afternoon we picked up tickets to that evening’s samba school parade. The atmosphere is one big party. Every other person is in costume. It smells like urine, charcoal and burned meat. We dressed up and went out!

The parade was like nothing I’ve ever seen. Six samba schools, 70 minutes each, 4-5 floats, 500-1000 people, competing for first place based on the theme and how well they execute it. The schools work on their parade for a whole year, including writing and releasing a song. We wrapped at 5am – can’t remember the last time I did that!!