Carnival has finally begun! emma and I have had two of the most surreal days we can remember. The atmosphere and the people are both absolutely crazy.

Friday was spent collecting our sambadrome tickets and lying on the other end of copacabana beach from where our flat is. though the sea was really churned up and horrible, we had a good afternoon sun worshipping and met some hilarious characters including a guy from Japan who introduced himself as "Slim Shady" and then started rapping to us.

after a quick supper, emma and i went to a district of rio called Santa Teresa to experience our first real taster of Carnival. Santa Teresa is on top of a hill with only two roads that wind there way up from the lapa district below. it's a really beautiful place with much older and more traditional style buildings, and except for during Carnival i think it would be really peaceful. As we wound our way up the hill in a taxi, emma and i got increasingly worried that there would be nothing going on at the top as there was no sign of anyone but suddenly as the taxi stopped, there were people everywhere, almost all dressed up. it was so much fun and felt like we were part of some secret party though neither of us have felt so hassled or harassed in our lives. there were barely any tourists and not many girls so we stood out so much. I don't think brazilians are known for their subtlety as their general chat up line seemed to go along the lines of "can i kiss you?" before trying to lunge at you. as soon as we got out of the cab, three guys came up to us, including one dressed as a lifeguard who offered a number of times to rescue us! we declined.

once the music had started to die down in santa teresa we wandered down the hill towards lapa which was also full of people. this bloco seemed much more like a parade and a bit more organised with food stalls as well as music playing. the atmosphere was great and we bumped into some more tourists down here which was nice, including some australians who helped rescue us from the brazilians.

yesterday was really busy. we decided to join Ognen on a "carnaval hash" which basically involves running (/walking in our case) from bloco to bloco with a number of beer stops along the way. it was a great way to experience the carnival during the day and visit some of the biggest blocos. the people we were doing it with were such an ecclectic mix. the only common link seemed to be that they were all totally eccentric but it was good fun. we were exposed to a number of "hash" rituals including "hash flashes" or photo opportunities and "charges" at the end which involved downing beer. the whole thing was really bizarre, particularly when emma and i decided to sit down in a tube station for a rest while the others were bying tube tickets to take us to another bloco. we had these gold hats and had taken them off and the next thing we know, we have a huge crowd surrounding us and throwing money in our hats!!

in the early evening we headed to ipanema beach where we watched the sunset and went to the famous banda bloco that goes along the beachfront. it is the big gay pride party and so it was filled with loads of men in fabulous costumes. we both commented that many of them looked really pretty!

it had been a really long day and we were both shattered so by about midnight we decided to take a bus home. lonely planet had been right and the drivers drive like maniacs but living on copacabana means that its so easy to get anywhere.

today was spent on the local part of the beach and we are just about to take a trip up sugar loaf mountain for sunset where the views are supposed to be spectacular of all of rio.

love to you all

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