Round the world in 90 days!

There are a few things that everyone feels they need to do in South America and if you are a boy, it is probably to go see a football match in one of the most famous football staduims. The match we saw was between Fluminese and Vasco at the Marcana stadium which ended in a 4 all draw. Although they are both top Rio teams only the Vasco fans bothered showing up because Fluminese have not being doing so well and Rio supporters are renowned for being fair-weather. 30,000 people in a 120,000 stadium certainly looks empty but those Brazillians sure can make some noise!

Carnaval didn´t interrupt much of our beach time but on one day we were lucky enough to have a Bloko (street party) on Ipanema beach so we jiggled along behind it. Loads of fun!

Before we knew it, it was time for the big one, the one we had all been waiting for (drum roll) . . . . THE SAMBA SCHOOL PARADE!

The parade goes for hours and hours and hours and hours. It looks amazing but it really does feel like an incredibly long night. Another thing that I didn´t realise is that each school sings the same song over and over for the duration of their performance which is about 70 - 80 minutes. That is a long time to hear the same song. Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun and the floats and costumes were amazing . . .

The parade ended at about 5.30am and we waited in line for a taxi for at least 1 hour. I´m getting tired just thinking about it!