So i left off in Olinda...well after that crazy start to carnival i relaxed with Chris for the day, watching a few streets parades and chilling by the pool in the hotel Headed off on a night bus to Salvador in the afternoon, that turned into a night of non stop chatting till we both feel asleep at 6am, when we had to be up at 7am..oh dear, not a good move, when we should have had as much rest as we could before Carnival officially started. Arrived in Slavador exhausted but still had a full day out, found Chris and watched capoeira and lots of bahian women dancing. Its was beautiful. Went swimming and then went to see a famous Bahian group Olodum play..it was samba reggae and had such a fantastic time, so fantastic i had to be carried home by Chris at the end of the night! Maybe a little too many rum and cokes for me that night. The next day i wke up feeling like hell so chilled out at the beach with Dan and Chris, the beach was totally crowded and jam packed with beach sellers, sun loungers and people on holiday for carnival, was a great atmosphere though. Went out for a quiet night to a few bars, and ended up at an African bar owned by a Ghanian so i was able to practice my twee with him which was really fun. Stayed up with Dan and Chris till 7am having a fun time till we all crashed out. Was able to get some sleep by the thursday which was much needed as it was officially the first day of Carnival, the streets were totally packed with poeple from all round the world. We escaped the madness for the afternoon and found a small italian restuarant that we had all to our selves. Had a great dinner, then went back to the hotel for a swim and got ready to go out. I had in my head that Salvador carnival would just be a bigger version of Olinda, i was so wrong. We arrived in Barra the main distict were the parades were and by the time we arrived, everyone had gone totally mad. It was like the whole city of Salvador had lost their minds! Everyone was so wasted it was unbeleivable. We found our way to the main street to see the parade coming towards us. 20ft tall balloons followed by the loudest floats and hundreds of people around them dancing. We got shoved into a side street where we were robbed in a mass robery! Someone just shoved their hands down my pockets and that was 100reals out the window! It was fine though, im pretty sure everyone in that crowd was robbed, even the robbers. We parked on a wall to watch the mass party going on in front of us, it was the crazyiest event i had ever witnessed, totally mind blowing. I cant even describe the crazyness to anyone, you had to be there. By about 3am, we were exhausted just from watching the hecticness of it all and thats when it went down hill. We were totally lost, 30 minutes drive from our hotel and had no idea of the name or which district it was in! After 30 minutes of searching we found a taxi when it started to pour with rain and said an area we thought our hotel was in, we were totally wrong. We ended up in the dodgiest part of town with another parade going on. It was tipping down with rain, we were soaked through, wading through ankle deep mess of water and sewage for 2 hours, we wandered and wandered trying to ask people for directions to the historical district. No one spoke english or undterstood our poor portuguese! It was a nightmare. Hilarious to look back on though. So we were soaking wet wandering the streets of an area we had no idea about with the weirdest dodgiest people ive ever seen in my life. We were wading through sewage, everything was shut so we didnt even have the option of shelter in a shop or cafe, there were just thousands of people partying in the rain on the streets. We then got electrocuted by one of the electricty masts while standing calf deep in watery sewage! The experience was totally unbeleivable. Through trial and error we found a street that looked familiar and saw the parade coming down the street parrallel so it was a race against time to get in front of them, we ran before we got caught up in the parade and then looked back to hundreds of people dressed in blue and typical Bahian dresses, it was an amazing sight but by this time we just wanted to find somehwere familiar. By the time we found our district there was a power cut so we were wandering round in pitch blackness when a man started following us, it was so scary and even the police wouldnt help, he just wouldnt leave us alone. We finally got back to the hotel after 3 hours of searching! What a crazy night! That friday we caught a flight to Rio. Chris has just been so lucky to get on every single mode of transport with us, its been awesome. Even more awesome when i arrived in Rio mom was waiting for me at the hotel. It was such an emotional moment i just burst into tears after not seeing her for over 4 and half months. We went out to dinner on Copocabana and had some drinks and wandered round the city, i was so happy to see mom. The morning on saturday the 2nd of Feb we went on an awesome favela tour of Rochina, the famous shanty town in Rio, we caight moto taxis to the top and walked down through the narrow streets, the people there were the biggest group of friedliest people i had ever seen, they were so happy and so welcoming to us. Met Chris back at the hotel and went on a booze cruise for the rest of the night and afternoon. It was so much fun, the music was great, the people were young and the drinks were free, it couldnt ahve been better! The sunday mom got into full tourist mode, we went to a diamond factory and went shopping at the Rio Sol mall, it was a sunday and was raining and because of carnival everything was closed. We went to a movie and had lunch. It felt so normal like being at home, with mom there. That night we went over to the sambadromo to wander outside while the parade was going on inside, but we had tickets for the next night so we got some drinks and watched everyone prepare for the parade, the floats were fantastic, the costumes were amazing and the energy was undesribable everyone was so excited. We found out later, outside is the most dangerous area although we were walking round for 6 hours. Someone tried to steal moms necklace but fortunatly for my extreamly fast drunken reactions i managed to grab it off him. Everyone looked round like what just happened even me and i was holding the necklace in my hand. It was so funny. After that we decieded to head back about 3am and get a little bit of rest before the next day of carnival. We spent the next day wandering round for hours and hours in Rio and got totally exhausted, made our way over to the sambadromo for 8pm and it was in full swing. The parades and costumes and floats were out of this world. I never imagined it to be like this. We were packed into this huge stadium type structure and the floats came rolling down the middle. Each one lasted 90 minutes and were watched 6 of them so it was a very very long night. It wasnt anything like Salvador, that was the biggest party on earth whereas this was much more like a show really that you just watched. Was still an amazing experience though. We had 2 more days in Rio so we did the usual things, Sugar Loaf Mountain, Cocrovado to see Jesus, Ipanema but it was so s*** it was raining, we could hardly se any of the city and couldnt even go to the beach, ill have to be back to Rio one day when i can really experience the Brazilian beach culture that is so important there. We left after a week in Rio to an island of the coast about 3 hours away called Ilha Grande, which was just paradise on earth.