Rio´s carnival parade finished on Tuesday and we got back 9:30 the next morning after dancing the samba all day in the streets and watching the parade in the famous sambadrome all through the night.

Carnival is all about the build up to the start of lent and ash Wednesday, in a nutshell, ash Wednesday is to deprive yourself of stuff for 40 days so the mentality out here is, well lets party for the five days before ash Wednesday rack up plenty of sins and that will help through the 40 day sin fast, simple really. If you want to experience carnival in england just buy tickets to any summer festival. They are both four day long party's full of topless men wandering around clutching cans of warm larger, women in skirts and bikinis, loud music coming from about 18 different places, half the people dancing, the other half always bimbling somewhere, everyone with a smile on their face, some fellas in drag, no-one at work, the smell of fried food and the sun beaming down.

This blog is set in petropolis, a town an hour long bus ride north of Rio, we nearly fell of our chairs when we found accommodation prices in the city go up 6 times and you have to pay a minimum six nights, it could have been $150 a night in a sweaty dorm but we scratched our heads and found the leafy and much cooler town of petropolis, only an hours bus ride north of Rio where we booked a top hotel for $50 a night. Have been chatting to quite a few other backpackers about the price rise in accommodation, very funny to mention we payed a third of what they were and we had a private room, on-suite, hammocks, swimming pools, air-con.

During the four days we watched a lot of bandas in the streets of Rio. A group of people turn up a certain time in a flat bed truck loaded with sound equipment, speakers etc People around start gathering, just like the illegal raves in england, when enough people are together and the crowd is getting feverish the music starts everyone starts dancing and were off dancing down the streets. We joined this one in the afternoon, its theme was yellow, you had to wear something yellow and you're in! The dress code for another one we watched was ´men wear a dress´.


Every night from 9 till 6 the sambadrome hosts the main parade, all the pictures you see in the media come from here as they are the most lavish. We got some tickets for Monday night to watch the parade which included a giant float featuring a black-and-white tiger, African dolls spinning around and behind the float, 250 women in hoop skirts spun like washing machines. It featured a dancer, Angela Bismarchi who wore body paint and a tiara containing three South African diamonds that required her to be accompanied by 12 security guards.
During the parade Bismarchi lost her G-string but some lucky lad stepped up to provide her with a thong and she kept dancing, apparently this could harm the group's chances in the competition as nudity is prohibited! Hahaha.

All together is was an amazing time and if your in Brazil in Feb check it out. We brought the local rag the next day to see the pictures inside the paper it seemed to be declaring carnival 2007 a safety improvement from last year as during this years carnival weekend only six people were shot dead.

Off to stay in Rio for a week now and see all the touristy things like the big Jesus, sugar loaf mountain and Copacabana beaches.



Her name was lola, she was a showgirl
With yellow feathers in her hair and a dress cut down to there
She would merengue and do the cha-cha
And while she tried to be a star
Tony always tended bar
Across the crowded floor, they worked from 8 til 4
They were young and they had each other
Who could ask for more?

Chorus:

At the cooper (co!) coopercabana (coopercabana)
The hottest spot north of havana (here)
At the cooper (co!) coopercabana
Music and passion were always in fashion
At the cooper.... they fell in love

Cooper Out of Carnival Capers

Love Dan & Kat