Ok people carnival has unofficially arrived!! I'm in a beautiful town called Olinda just out of Recife and its absolutely amazing, carnival being this Friday but a practice warm up party was in need so when we arrived yesterday at 5 the whole town was packed with the most drunk people ive eve seen in my life, everyone was so happy or drunk enough to pretend they were, so many costumes and people dressed up, the most transvestites ive ever seen in my life, if you're a guy and not wearing a dress you just aren't cool! Man oh man it was spectacular, when I was watching a drumming procession I felt goose bumps and brought tears to my eyes…it was so emotional! Ok ill start my story from Jeri, that was the most awesome town ive gone to, was a little beach town on the sand dunes, I walked around in a bikini and bear foot for 3 days straight was awesome, full of little hippy bars and boutiques, hot Brazilian surfers everywhere and so much life and energy to it, was full of backpackers but not to the point where the town lost its character. we traveled by 4x4s from Parnaiba, where I met back up with Chris and James, and traveled across the beach and over sand dunes for 4 hours, was beautiful, as soon as we got there, me, Jen, Emma, James and Chris headed straight for the bars and just had an amazing relaxing day of swimming, lazing around, people watching, buying cool things, and partying. Chris rented a flat where we had a party but that turned out into group meltdown of a huge row between me and Dan which wasn't very pleasant, the group has totally fallen apart know, two people cant stand each other, the rest want to kill each other and half of the group just ignores the other half, the mix of people are just too weird to get along. My sanity is kept going by Chris who has been with me since Venezuela which has been really fun, he has changed his flight 5 times now so at this point hes coming to Rio with me! Haha anyway spent the night in Jeri partying away, doing random things, falling over many a time, going swimming and loosing my clothes so having to walk around wrapped in a sail from a boat for quite some time. Wasn't as bad a Jen who actually lost all her clothes and had a walk back to the hotel BUT naked!! Such a funny story. Me and Chris got locked in the flat the next day so we actually couldn't leave because James lost the keys after locking the door. We then spent all day trying to come up with a plan, managed to speak terrible Portuguese to a passer by who found a rotting wooden ladder and 4 other guys to hold it so we could climb down! The next night was a usual state of events of starting partying very early, we watched the sunset from the big sand dune with a load of argentines playing the guitar, watched a capoeira display on the beach which was awesome! The strength that these men have is unbelievable. Had more wandering around the town and lots more fun and partying. Woke up in a terrible state and had to leave, said goodbye to Chris thinking I would never see him again. Made our way to Fortaleza which was about an 8 hour journey on buses, started to get group fever again! Ah the trapped feeling of only having the same 8 people to talk to who you don't even want to be traveling with. Spent the night in Fortaleza which was a pretty cool city with an amazing beach and took an awful night bus to Natal, was comfortable but I felt so ill, ive got a really bad cold that just wont budge, I blame all this damn air-conditioning traveling on buses. Made our way to anther paradise beach called Pipa where we stayed for 2 nights, found out Chris and James got drunk in Jeri and decided to go to carnival so got a 12am bus to Pipa, so they were there before me. Pipa was also extremely pretty but a lot of package holidays go there so it was kind of touristy but really nice when menus and stuff are in English. The beaches around were the most beautiful beaches I had ever seen in my life, topping beaches in India, Costa Rica, the Caribbean, Africa- everywhere! They were perfect white sand beaches, rock pools with electric green seaweed, crystal turquoise waters; we walked to the other beach. Another coconut palm fringed beach with electric blue waters, lots and lots of surfers, we went swimming and swam with dolphins! Was like a dream come true. Me and Chris went out to some of the bars and clubs which was great, saw an amazing break-dancers in the square for quite a long time, somehow the night just disappeared and by the time we knew it, it was morning time and we had to leave! Got on a bus to Recife for about 8 hours, watching the absolutely beautiful countryside roll on by. Brazil is just getting so much more beautiful and lots more developed the further south were going. Arrived in Olinda with Chris and James still in tow…they really have just joined the tour, Dans even buying the bus tickets for them and organizing their transport just cas its like an extra person to take care of, im sure everyone finds it hilarious. Arriving in Olinda was nuts, we were just thrown into the middle of a street party trying to find our hotel and it was jam packed. The sights we were seeing were totally and utterly crazy felt like a mix of a falini party, the party in Romeo and Juliet and Sarah's 16th birthday party at the big house where 300 drunken kids were in fancy dress! Ive never seen such hedonism. And this was just a practice run for real carnival and Olinda isn't even a big town. We wandered the streets for about 6 hours just soaking up the incredible atmosphere, joining drum processions, watching the amazing dancers, turning down little streets to find groups of masqueraded people singing, dancing and playing really strange instruments. Man I never imagined it to be anything like this, it was just totally nuts! And everyone was absolutely wasted and having a ball. Boy do Brazilians sure know how to party, never seen anything like it. After wandering around this pretty town for hours on end, got to about 12 which was incredibly early by south American standards but me and Chris hadn't slept yet so just completely passed out, was great to get a full view of what carnivals actually like though without getting too into it to not remember all the crazy stuff going on. Were heading off on a night bud to Salvador tomorrow and flying to Rio on Friday, Chris and James have the same flight so they'll be with the group for some time now! And then im seeing mom on Friday, only 5 days to go, I am so excited!! Shes going to love it so much.