Let Me Take You to Rio

As our flight to Rio was taking off that infamous song from the animation film Rio was stuck in my head.  I was so excited to be going to Rio, but wasn't sure if I'd be down for all the crazy.  We left Friday after school and boy am I glad we did.  We arrived after a flight that was a little bumpy thanks to the "broken" weather (the Captain's words).  We hopped on a bus and two hours later arrived at our hotel on Copacabana beach (I use the word on loosely).  We freshened up and went to find some dinner.  The board walk was packed and it was close to 11:00 at night.  We were exhausted after a long day of work and then the "broken" flight so we headed back to bed so we could get up early for some beach time.  

Saturday we woke up, but on our suits, and headed to the beach.  It was so great to feel the rays of sunshine on my face and hear the crashing waves.  We laid on the beach for a couple hours, but then headed to a little bar/restaurant to wait for our friends coming on later flights. Brazil knows how to do pastels and cold beer.  Of course, we had to try Rio's pastels. 

 

We spent the rest of Saturday hanging out with our friends and at the beach, it was an early night for us on Saturday.  Sunday was much of the same, beach and sun. 

 

During Carnaval people dress up in whatever costumes they want.  It's similar to Halloween, but lasts a week and people are much crazier. 

On Monday night at 8 we headed to the Metro to go to the Sambadrome.  It was unreal and the most over the top parade I have ever seen.  It puts the Macy's parade to shame.  It was so much fun to watch all the different schools perform.

Each school has 90 minutes to preform on the strip. There are multiple sections in each school with different costumes, floats, queens, and samba dancers.  Each school has a theme, some more cohesive than others, but all breathtaking and detailed to the last sequin. 

Sadly, we didn't make it the whole 10 hours, we left around 3 in the morning.  Our friends made it even further into the night/morning staying until almost 6 AM!  Yeah, not me, this girl loves her sleep too much, plus I felt like after seeing 4.5 out of the six schools I had a pretty good idea of Carnaval.  Although the last school was the school that won the whole Sambadrome, so we could have seen their performance, but I was happy in my bed fast asleep.  

 

Tuesday was our last full day, so what did we do? 

Ipanema beach of course.  We were all craving the amazing sandwiches at Post 9, so Stetson, Jess, and I walked on over to Ipanema.  We soaked up all the sun, sand, and food/drinks we could for our last day in Rio.  We decided to take the long way back to our hotel and walked to boardwalk.  Such amazing views and lots of good people watching assured us we made the right decision.  

Tuesday night we tried another Anthony Bordain recommendation, Galeto Sat's. It was a little hole in the wall, but had amazing chicken, broccoli rice, and some other Brazilian side dishes. 

 

The trip went so fast, but we will definitely be back soon.  Next time we will do the Christ Redeemer, Sugar Loaf, and Botanical Gardens, we just didn't want to deal with the huge crowds of tourists that were there for Carnaval.