After spending the most magical month in Brazil it only seemed fit to return for the infamous carnival, and what better way to spend it with my two best friends from London. Carnival this year fell from the 21st February until the 27th February. It is 7 days of non stop partying, colour and glitter! Brazil is a country that parties very very well. Even before carnival had officially begun, the country were celebrating with ‘pre blocos’.
‘Blocos’ (the Brazilian equivalent of a float in the UK) last for 24 hours, some even starting at 07:00am. Everyone in our hostel would be on a different ‘partying schedule’, some waking up at 06:00 to arrive in time for the bloco and some returning from a wild night of partying.
We stayed in ‘El Misti’ hostel in Copacabana, a party hostel with a good social scene but questionable cleanliness. This place seemed like the hub of backpackers, many people would come to visit and it was booked up for months before carnival.
A word of advice for booking accommodation for carnival, it gets very expensive and most things get booked out so try to book it around October/November time. I would also prefer to stay in Lapa, Gloria or Centro as this is where the good blocos are. We spent a lot of our time in ubers getting to the blocos and then missing them! We did not realise how big (like everything in Brazil) Rio is.
Buying costumes for carnival was an experience in itself, most shops are covered in glitter and colour. The vibe around this time is amazing, everyone is so happy and up for a good time. All the staff in shops, bus stations and supermarkets are in costumes!
We started our carnival experience on the Saturday and what better way to start things off than with mimosas and glitter on the terrace! Our first bloco was in Lapa, where we danced in the rain with our French friends and cute head dresses. We then headed to the famous steps where we were greeted with a jazz band and yet more rain. After drying off in the hostel, we headed to Lapa’s strip for some more dancing and fun.
On the second day we headed to the Beatles bloco in centro and then another smaller one down a side street which was our favourite one! We met some amazing dancers and joined in their dance routine (in the rain again).
Mondays carnival consisted of heading to Ipanema beach and enjoying a boogie on the beach, we then spent the evening trying to find Seth Troxlers set but unlucky for us the venue had changed! So instead we ended up in McDonalds.
Tuesday was our final day of carnivaling so we wanted to make it a good one. We headed to Copacabana beach and finally experienced a proper bloco, one where we were able to follow the truck and enjoy the celebrations on the move. That night we partied the night away in Lapa, enjoying cachaça and having a wail of a time!
You may have heard of many horror stories around carnival, in particular phones getting stolen. We did not experience anything too bad and I never felt unsafe. I would recommend not bring your phone out or if you do bring an old one and keep it in a money belt. As a woman you will experience a lot of grabbing and Brazilian men asking ‘for a kiss’, I did not find it to be too much just a bit of light hearted fun (and no this does not mean that I kissed anyone at carnival!).
Romy's Roamings 