We began our 6 day stay in Rio with a talk from our guide, Hanna, introducing us to Carnival. The origins of carnival date back to the ancient Greek spring festival in honour of Dionysus, the god of wine. The Romans adopted the celebration with Bacchanalia (feasts in honour of Bacchus, their own god of wine) and slaves and their masters would swap clothes in a day of drunken revelry. Carnival is a massive celebration of indulgences - one last gasp of music, foo...

The first thing I did when I got to Rio de Janiero was sat on the floor next to our luggage trolley and sobbed. I was worried about travelling round Brazil - everyone we had spoken to said how expensive it was. That was all they said - never it's amazing but expensive or great fun but expensive. Just the cost factor. Our own experience of trying to arrange travel, even with our Carnival providers in the UK was painful. Unlike most South American countries, you ...