Sooooooo after a week of mosquito´s, no showers and a day of travelling from the jungle to reach Rio de Janeiro, we were truly appreciative of the warm welcome we got when we arrived at Brasil Hostel in an area called Lapa in Rio. We arrived pretty late, but as soon as we entered the doors of the hostel, there were tons of young people all in the party mood for carnaval! The hostel was brand new, clean and had a great little common area with bean bags and a big TV. We knocked out after introducing ourselves to the fellow BRITS that had all succombed to this honeycombe. Unfortunately for us, carnaval mood really does mean that NOBODY gets any sleep- lets just say that these crazy brits were out having a good time for us at 4am in the courtyard outside our room whilst we tried to get our sleep on!

The next day we walked around the central part of Rio, seeing the sights of the city, lots of high-rise buildings and shops, churches dotted about the place and a beautiful monestary at the top of a hill. We walked through an area called Saara, which for us girls was heaven. It was a combination of the beadshop, haberdasheries, claire´s accesories and fancydress shops in the form of little shops and market stalls and we got really caught up in the excitement. There were lots of people out there buying carnaval outfits so we decided to join in and bought some crazy masks. Rio is a fabolous city and has something different going on in each little area you go to.

Being the first day of carnaval, everyone in the hostel arranged to go out into Lapa together- this is where most of the action was every night, a 10 minute walk from our hostel, so we were in a prime location. We walked through crowds of people until we reached the famous Selaron stairs- the ones in the Snoop Dogg and Pharell Video ´Beautiful`. They are a dynamic artform and really spectacular. We re-enacted the video in true BRIT-style and then scattered to the nearby bars for a caipirinha or two! The vibe for carnaval was amazing even though things hadn´t completely kicked off as yet. People were spilling out from bars into the streets and dressed up in crazy colours. There were people of every age group there and the music changed every block down! The craziest thingof all was that we bumped into Danya Taylor from Henrietta Barnett after 3 years! Its a small world! It was a great night but we knew there was plenty more to come!

Just to let you know, there aren´t too many pictures of our crazy carnaval nights out, due to the fact that crime is pretty rife in Lapa, especially during Carnaval, so waving a digital camera about would of kind of been asking for it. Although we didn´t have any trouble at all, we heard many stories from people we met, and in our hostel alone several people had their phones and camera´s stolen whilst out, with one girl actually being attacked with a broken bottle for her bag at 5pm in the afternoon literally seconds from the hostel. Needless to say, we weren´t prepared to take any chances!

The second day in Rio was spent chilling out and planning for our week ahead. We met up for dinner with our friends Daniel and Iris that we met in the jungle, and headed off for our second night of carnaval. This was a crazy night! We walked up the famous stairs, up a massive hill and into an area called Santa Teresa where all the action of the night was starting off. There were literally THOUSANDS of people up there, but we managed to find people from our hostel and had a few drinks and frozen caipirinha´s with them! We then decided to seek out a bloco, so headed back to Lapa where we were just in time to join a parade. It was such a great parade! There was a massive band, a dancer wearing a non-existent outfit at the front, and everyone was samba-ing behind them. The atmosphere was electric! We followed them for an hour and a half and then carried on watching the main stage and generally having a great time. Later we moved onto a club called Faberj which was playing some great music and danced the night away. It was a crazy night and we arrived back at the hostel around 5am!

On the Saturday we went off to the Maracana stadium to watch a football match between Vasco and Fluminense. Apparently it wasn´t a very important match and because it was Carnaval the stadium wasn´t very full, but that didn´t seem to matter....We stood in the Vasco stand and there were huge flags, samba groups, hundreds of supporters and the atmosphere was just as mad as Carnaval. So we stood for 90 minutes, dancing, screaming and shouting along as the guy next to us taught us all the chants and how to insult the other team – it was absolute craziness!!! A couple of fights broke out that literally ROLLED down the stands and almost into us, but people were quick to shove us out the way and the police eventually broke them up. It was great fun and although it ended 4-4 with half of both teams being given yellow cards, it was definitely an afternoon to remember!! That evening of course, we were back out in Lapa for yet more Carnaval antics!

The next day we woke up after a few hours of sleep and got a taxi with Iris and Daniel up to the Corcovado mountain where the Christ the Redeemer statue is. The taxi took a long time to get up the mountain as there was a traffic jam all the way up! The road was steep but had some beautiful views. Being one of the most famous images of Rio meant that we had high expectations, and luckily it lived up to it. It was enormous, and the views from the top were also magnificent. After lots of poses and photo´s, we headed back down to Copacabana, and walked the full length of the beach, all the way to the end of Ipanema beach. We started our own renditions of Barry Manilow´s ´Copacabana ´and just enjoyed people-watching and the sun setting on the bay. Let us paint you a picture of the most famous beach in the world- Bodies, bikinis, tans, speedo´s, thongs, sun, sea, sand, music and parties on the beach! Who wouldn´t want to be here!?!? The beach in Ipanema is however much nicer than the Copacabana, so we parked our towels with Brazilian friends of Iris and Daniel and headed into the bloco happening up the road. A Bloco for those who dont know is a vehicle of sorts with loud speakers pumping tunes, and a parade of people following the music and dancing along. The party was mad, tons of people, tons of samba and tons of jumping!

The main attraction for most tourists at Carnaval is undoubtedly Sambadromo, where all the samba schools battle it out for best samba school in Rio. The tickets are ridiculously expensive and the costumes are ridiculously extravagant. We went to the sambadromo that night, just to get a feel for the vibe out there. From the bottom of the high-way, all the samba schools were making preparations to go into the sambadromo, and could be seen warming up. From the top of the high-way, fireworks were going off, and through the fencing we got glimpses of carnaval in full action. It was a great atmosphere, lots of families, excited children, and just the epitome of extravagance. We walked down to where the parades left the stadium, and asked those leaving if we could try on their costumes. It was like dressing up for panto- costumes of all shapes and sizes and all in different themes! Most of the participants had just left the stadium after samba-ing for over an hour, and were glad to just leave their costumes on the road side, much to our childish delight!

After having had a taster of the beach the other day, we spent the next morning on Ipanema beach with Daniel and Iris, soaking up the sun and watching the world go by. The sea had massive waves and we spent a while being hurled against the beach in a tsunami-like state, and being trapped between backwash and wave. It was like being in a giant washing machine and all up the beach you could see people being churned up and down!

After turning a shade darker, we headed up Sugarloaf mountain. This involved getting a cable-car up and we saw some pretty spectacular views. The mountain itself is lower down than Corcovado with the Christ, so the views were even better and there was less mist and cloud to obscure the scenery. We waited for the sun-set and then for the lights of the city to start twinkling. It was a really lovely evening and you could really see what Rio was all about. A city built amongst mountains and surrounded by beaches. We spent the night partying in Lapa again!

For day 6, we had decided that it might be an idea to get a tour of the favela´s so that all our curiosity could be fed and questions could be answered. Unfortunately we were dissapointed with the tour as it was shorter than expected and we didnt get the chance to see much of what was going on inside. The money that we gave to the tour guide was given back to a school in the favela as part of the scheme to raise more awareness and to increase education, which is the only way out of poverty. We saw some children playing in the streets, the inside of a favela with narrow roads, the school, and a few other little neigbourhoods, but largely we were disappointed. The favela´s are not really how you expect, especially after watching films like City of God. The buildings are not as run down, there are banks and shops and interestingly this was the only place we saw to buy a disposable camera, something we had been trying in vain to buy for days! The favela´s are run by drug lords, this much is true, but the locals have a kind of respect for them as they help out in times of need and generally care more about the communities than the police or Brazilian governement. Most of the violence associated with favela´s is drug related, and therefore does not affect the residents too much, tending to be between rival gangs or between the police and gangs when they make sporadic raids on the favelas – something which the locals are not too appreciative of. This was our last day with Iris and Daniel, so we said farewells and headed back to Lapa where we spent our last night partying away till the 7 am, before literally passing out with exhaustion!!

Our last full day was spent recovering and eating! At dinner we bumped into another ex-Henrietta Barnett girl, Gemma Bridge after 5 years!!! It was such a shock! The hostel was hosting a BBQ that night, so we returned to mingle and party with everyone, but Carnval had well and truly taken it out of us and a relatively early night ensued (3 am!). The next day we packed up, said our goodbyes and headed off to Ilha Grande, a beautiful island further down the coast....