The museum we went to see, but was closed due to the carnival.

There were four cruise ships in port, those cruises would have been very expensive.

Old warehouses opposite the cruise terminal.

If it wasn't for the carnival I'm not sure if I'd be walking these sorts of streets.

Another pay by weight restaurant, popular in Brazil.

I wouldn't want to be that high up on a flimsy podium.

It was safer to have a beer and wait for sunrise before walking back, that's was my excuse, anyway.

The street cleaners popping in for their breakfast.

There are a number of people you see who go round collecting cans and plastic bottles.

Breakfast pancake with chocolate and banana, at least I didn't have to make them this year.

The Longest Day

March 3 in Brazil ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

Early this morning we were going to go for a run along the beach, but Carol woke up with really sore calves. A delayed reaction to her hour of dancing at the parade 36 hours before. At least I got a lay in.

We took a taxi to the port area but the museum that we wanted to have a look at was closed, as were most of the roads in the area. Judging by the number of people in the area and what they were wearing, there must have been a bloco, a carnival street party, later in the afternoon. I'd read that there were 243 of these arranged across Rio over the 37 days of carnival festivities. Along with 38 next weekend alone as a final blow out.

We had tickets for the Sambadrome this evening so around 2pm the plan was to go back to the hotel to rest up for a very late evening. However, just as we got out of the Uber outside the hotel, a table outside the bar next door became available. Those tables are always busy so it would have been rude not to have sat down for a quick one. Well, a quick one that turned into another two or three and then something to eat and then back for a nap at 6pm.

Tonight in the Sambadrome we were in sector 9 which has allocated seating, what luxury that was in comparison to the first night. However, seating is actually a concrete slab, but even so it was nice to take the weight off your feet in between parades. Only four schools tonight, a 10pm start and they still managed to stretched it out until 3:30am before the last parade started.

We were told that tonight was the Premier League of schools and they didn't disappoint. I was impressed the first night but this was on a different level, the size and imagination of the floats, their intricacy of the animation, the choreography of dance routines and the sheer number of people. I was told there were between 3,000 and 5,000 people in each school's parade.

We finally left the venue at 4:30am. There was no way we'd get up for breakfast, so we stopped at the first bar and had a few drinks while the sun came up. Breakfast went down very well, including pancakes as it was now Shrove Tuesday (chocolate and banana). Bed finally came at 8am.Read more