Did a familiarisation tour of Rio this morning, metro to Ipanema Beach then walked to Copacabana Beach. Extremely hectic, beaches as jammed packed - they are like sardines almost. Our tour guide kept telling us all to slow down, if I went any slower I would be walking backwards. Took a long time to do little.

At Copacabana Beach there was a locals Bloco getting started, essentially a party in the street. These start up in areas daily during carnival, people dressed up in all sorts - nearly every male was dressed as a female or wearing a nappy?? It was crazy, and some serious boozing going on. This was about 11am and would continue for hours, possibly until next day. Literally a sea of people slowly making their way along the esplanade, dancing and singing - 2 hours later we had made it 2 blocks, absolute mayhem.