Rio Carnival!!!!

After the boys had spent three days resting at Natura Hostel in rural Brazil we were ready for the carnage that carnival had in store for us........or at least we thought we were!

Arriving only a few hours before the Mayor of Rio hands over the keys of the city to the" god of chaos" (who encourages all kinds of skulduggery and baffoonery to the 10 million people that descend upon the streets of rio).  The feelings experienced were those of apprehension and excitement, similar to that of a debut Bok before a big test.

Our first afternoon was a gentle introduction to carnival as we sat at Ipanema beach sipping on a few frosties and enjoying the scenery that only Rio can deliver. That evening we had planned to meet up with a number of fellow Safas for a few drinks. We met up with the band formerly known as the Backstreet Boys (Dev Kerr, Craig King, Stu 'Rookie' Brown and Dave Schilperoodt) on this leg of their world tour and as expected things escalated! We spent the evening following around a samba bus trying our best to mimic the local smut technique and drink everything that Rio had to offer! The following morning we realized that both would be impossible, howeve,r some of the boys had developed new persona's namely; Craig " The Samba" King and Devan" Los Godos Chaos" Kerr.

The team for Carnival, excluding "The Samba" King

King of the dicks after losing a game of Fives alive!

The morning after our samba parade we had to return a lost and confused  Rookie to his friends across town, a simple task but given that it was carnival, it turned into a two hour adventure that ended at a small street bar in the heart of the Ipenema parade. Many a beer and fake tequila were consumed as we were overrun with carnival fever and eventually had built up the gees that is essential when joining the thousands of locals on the streets of Rio. The crowds that  swept us around were extremely bizarre as the men, all huge and ripped, resembled The Village People while the woman took on the more conservative look of the common crack whore! Dodgy hot dogs and various unregonisable foods on sticks where consumed in a desperate attempt to offset the constant flow of Boa Antarctica beer but to no avail as we continued to jol into the early hours of the morning.

The Village people on Ipanema Beach

Street bar on one of the beaches

Streets of Rio, a few beers deep!

Smutting at Bob Sinclair!

The days and nights that followed only grew more and more buckwild as the millions of de Janierions (or de Janereites as they are commonly known)  never missed an opportunity to celebrate the week that they had spent the entire previous year preparing for.


Other highlights of our week in Rio were:

Bob Sinclair, sick
Lapa, jolling in the rain with the locals
A couple drinks on the le Blon beach front, classy
Corcavado AKA Christ The Redeemer, very cultural indeed!  

Christo Redento Statue over Rio

The view of Sugarloaf Mountain from Corcovado

To conclude this entry carnival was an experience that cannot be described in this humble blog it is something that must be experienced in the flesh to understand the how overwhelming and immense this occasion truly is! As we left Rio for Peru there was no doubt that we were running on empty as the physical and mental demands of such an event had taken their toll.