Our first introduction into Rio carnaval is in Santa Teresa. A beautiful area up in the mountains, near one of the many Favellas. It's a traditional party where people dress up in crazy costumes (or a fancy dress for you Brits) and dance along the cobble stone streets. (Our new friend Leo used it as an opportunity to dress like a woman - something he'd clearly been looking forward to all year!)
Local residents hang out of their balconies and spray water down on us and the rest of the overheated crowd as we follow the band along. A much needed cold shower in the heat of the day! Another we keep cool is with the icey cold skol beer, sold from coolers on the street.
We follow the parade through the streets for a few hours and by the time we've arrived at the end, we're hungry for more. No problem. It's only the first day and there's still plenty more carnaval to come.
After a hectic morning in Santa Teresa, we all relax on the world famous Ipanema beach. As the sun sets, another parade appears along the beach front and Ipanema gets absolutely packed. We hang with the crowds for a bit but for us carnaval newcomers, fatigue is starting to set in. Also we're desperate for some real food; we haven't eaten properly all day (beer apparently isn't food!). We head back to Michele's in Botofogo and go out with the gang for Galetto (a small rotisserie chicken). We also get to sample our first tower of beer (exactly as it sounds).
Stuffed and exhusted, we catch a few hours of sleep.
