As most of you have guessed, I am no longer in Rio (and I am back in the states), but just have slacked on the old blog... to be quite honest though, Rio was just too crazy to deal with any blogging!
It was very exciting to finally arrive in Rio, we had literally been camping for about 4 weeks and the idea of staying in a hotel was very appealing to everyone. We stayed in a part of the city called Lapa, which turned out to be a really wild part of town for Carnival - it seemed to be a center of all of the massive street parties that were going on, which was wonderful (but sometimes made it difficult to return to our hotel through the masses).
After the first night in Rio our tour was officially over, so we were basically on our own from there, which was a good feeling - we still managed to hang out a lot with our tour mates though.
Aside from the Carnival activities (no I was not partying for every second while in Rio) Rio had tons to offer as far as tourist activities. My favorite things were going up Sugar Loaf Mountain, visiting Christ the Redeemer (though going on the Sunday of Carnival was a bad idea), and strolling on Ipanema and Copacabana beaches. Looking back on my time in Rio, I might have to make the argument that Rio is quite possibly the most beautiful city in the world. I think the views from Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf really solidified that opinion...
While in Rio a group of us also attended a soccer match, which was nothing short of amazing - mostly because Brazil and soccer are synonymous. The game was great and the fans were very passionate about their teams (no rushing the field or anything though). We happened to go to a game that turned out to be a major upset, so I kept wondering how crazy it would have been if the team that had 50,000+ fans in the stadium would have actually won like they were supposed to, instead of the team that had about 1,000 fans there.
As far as Carnival goes, I have to concede that it has to be the largest party in the world (sorry Drake Relays)... I couldn't imagine how anything could be bigger. I have never seen anything like it - the city is literally taken over by massive parties where tens of thousands of people take to the street all over the city. In addition to that, the parties are non-stop. I am fairly certain that at any time and in any part of the city you could find a party 24/7 during Carnival. It really was amazing to be there for all the madness!
The major event associated with Carnival (besides the start of Lent of course) is the Sambadrome. On the Sunday and Monday night of Carnival the 12 best samba schools in Rio compete to be named the best samba school - it was really weird to have this dance basically treated as a sport. Anyways, we attended the Sambadrome on Sunday night (it goes from about 10 p.m. to about 7 a.m.). It was truly amazing to see all of the costumes, floats and dancers from the samba schools - these are the images you see, if you ever see photos/tv from Carnival in Rio. Each school is given about 45 minutes to an hour to parade through the Sambadrome, where all the fans are going wild and dancing. What an amazing event!
A week in Rio was the perfect end to an unforgettable trip!
