Days 32-35 - Chris - We returned to Rio to spend the last few nights of the holiday - mainly for the carnival. The hotel that we stayed in wasn't great, to be polite, but it served as a base. We spent the first day back trying to sleep in as late as possible in preparation for being out all night on Monday the 24th.

The atmosphere arounf Rio was slightly different from when we were her last month - there was plenty of carnival music and people dressed up to party.

The night of the 24th was an amazing experience. We had front row seats for what they describe as 'the greatest show on earth'. This was one of two semi-finals, with 6 samba schools each spending about an hour moving down the half mile track. There were about 90,000 spectators watching and aprrox. 10,000 participants on the night. The music was loud but after a while we got to like it. The floats and the costumes were amazing. They all seemed to be having such a great time dancing and singing as they came down. A spectacular experience to end the holiday. Got back to the hotel at 6.00 am just as they opened breakfast.

After one more day on the beach, it was time to come home, with some truly wonderful memories.