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Went to the Carnaval at the Sambadrome last night...amazing night! 6 samba schools put on an hour long parade each with some magnificent floats - a new born baby, moving elephants and even a working ski slope!!!
Unfortunately no photos of it as we didn´t take the camera (there were a few horror stories going round about crime, but we saw none of it!), but thankfully the BBC have taken some photos for us here!!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/08/in_pictures_carnival_in_rio/html/1.stm
Knackered now as didn´t get in until 7:30am (we´re getting too old for this!!) so will update more another time. Oh - and it´s raining heavily so don´t get too jealous!
>>> ADDENDUM
Had some time to recover now after Rio - wow, what a place! With a frenetic game of futbol in the Maracana between 2 of the 4 Rio teams (Vasco de Gama 2 - 3 Botafogo - complete with riot police and tear gas!!) and plenty of sights on the beaches to gawp at, we had a terrific time.
Our trip up to see the Christ the Redeemer statue was a little cloudy, but proved to be more successful than the trip up Sugar Loaf on a grey day (see pictures).
During Carnaval there are a number of ´blocos´ (street parties) that kicked off all over the place. Fantastic things - basically a truck with a band on the back and a massive group of people following them, dancing and singing. Even the rain couldn´t dull the atmosphere!
We also went out to a Samba club where we boogied the night away to a live samba band. It seemed as though they kept the same beat going for about 6 hours non-stop - the drummer must have been knackered!
We went for a number of marvellous meals around Ipanema and Leblon (thanks for the recommendations Colin!) and all in all spent far more than we should have done, but the memories were worth it!
On the plus side, we didn´t get mugged / shot / urinated on, but on the down side Kathy got her jeans stolen from out of the dorm (that´s the first and last time we stay in a dorm on this trip!!!).
>>> ADDENDUM 2
Just a few extra quick pointers about Samba - there was huge controversy over here in Brazil as one of the Samba queens´ outfit `fell off`halfway down the parade, meaning she did most of her sambaing naked apart from her wings! And there´s me without my camera / binoculars...
And secondly - remember that Brazillian street cleaner from the Orange adverts? Well, he had a star turn as well, and had the biggest cheer of the night!!!
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