Welcome to Rio. The city of 12 year old muggers, the city of carnival, the city of beautiful beaches and the "City of God".
Rio is city that for me will be down on the list of places to return. Far from being My Kind of Town, I found it dirty, expensive for South America, and really lacking in charm. Yep everything the Simpsons made it out to be. But once in your life you must come to be part of the spectacle that is Carnival. Maybe the part y animal in me is gone, (or never there). Carnival, once you get there, is nothing short of dumbfounding. Bright colors, elaborate mechanical floats and a droning samba beat keep even a soggy crowd moving underneath their 2 dollar ponchos.
Women dance and the men step from side to side, or just gawk at the gyrations. And from 9 till about sunrise it goes on like this where the only thing really changing is every hour and a half the 4 minute samba sample changes and is replaced with a slightly different beat or clave.
We left the hostel at 8 taking the long way there arriving at 11, did our 3 hour two but unlike the cast of Gilligan’s island made it back to civilization, and our hostel to enjoy the last 5 hours of sleep before the AC goes off and the heat of the day steals any desire to sleep.