The Biggest Party in the World

Couple of days at sea found us hot tubbing, card playing, eating plenty, reading, dressing up, and chilling. That translates to: we were ready-for-anything/everything by the time we docked in Rio. What a whirlwind! We rode the cable car up to Sugar Loaf and admired the city from a bird’s eye perch. We ate a Brazilian feast. We rode the train up to Christ the Redeemer statue. Some observations: much of the city shuts down for Carnival so the throngs of crowds I was anticipating along avenues was pretty much non-existent. This Alaskan gal found the heat to be oppressive. Street mini carnivals popped up randomly in streets where crowds did mingle, sing, drink, and move together like a slow moving caterpillar. These groups were scantily clad and feeling no pain. While we had read about the ‘dangers’ of Rio, we were delighted to be surrounded by a general sense of jovial merriment.

Day two included heading to Copacabana Beach, not to sun/play, but to just say we’d been there! Because so much of the city IS closed down, the beach was cram packed. But we can say that we’ve been to the Copacabana in both Havana and Rio. Ipanema Beach was next as it has the reputation of being THE place to shop…but not so much during Carnival shutdowns. Strolled through the Botanical Gardens, what a HOT (heat index 104) day, then headed back to the ship to rest up for the nighttime Samba parade.

How to describe the parade? THIS. Is the biggest Carnival in the world. It’s been held every year in Rio since 1723 so rest assured, they know how to party. There are twelve top-tier Samba schools who compete to be the best. Each school has roughly an hour to strut their stuff—six one night and six another. The entire bleachers, 100,000 strong, of revelers sing as the schools (some with as many as 3,000) dance, parade their incredible floats, and move down the avenue en mass. It didn’t begin until 9:00 p.m. It only cooled down to 82 and still felt like 90. It was exhilarating and exhausting. We celebrated with the best of ‘em, but left before it finished because these old farts were whooped at 2 a.m. Pics here.