Crazy Carnival

Wow what a whirlwind the last week has been since leaving Argentina.... Last Tuesday we arrived into a very hot and steamy Salvador (Northern Brazil). The Carnival had not officially started when we arrived in Barra which is the beach area of Salvador, however there were people everywhere. In fact people from all over Brazil had decended on the city to either party in a bloco (a roped off area around the trio (big bus that has a bar on board with the band on the roof)or being ´popcorn´ on the street - basically jumping up and down and getting slightly crushed!! We couldn´t quite get over the cost to join a bloco - you´re looking at an average of $200, so we politely declined joining in and instead opted for the ´popcorn´ option.

A massive 2 million people decended on Salvador over carnival - and I hate to think how much Skol beer would have been consumed, at only 75c a beer and always only an arm reach away, they were free flowing during the 8 days of carnival. You´ve got to feel for the thousands of Brazilians who slept on the streets in make shift tents to make a few dollars from selling beer. I can´t put into words how much the place was stinking after a few days of so many people living in such a small space!

Oh yes and of course, we can´t forget the mugging on the beach incident! On one of the nights we were slightly trapped with crowds so we chose to take a shortcut along the beach. There were people everywhere so we thought it would be safe. We took only a few steps and there must have a gringo alert that went off as straight away 3-4 kids surrounded us screaming in our faces in Portuguese and thrusting a big shiny rambo knife in Tom´s face. Scary stuff, but luckily no harm was done and we only lost $15!

The Pelo (old Colonial town area)was our fave for carnival as it was more traditional African and with drummming, samba and a lot of booty shaking. It´s also a stunning area, with multi coloured crumbling buildings and cobbled streets.

We´re now in Itacare, an awesome little surfing town with seriously heavenly beaches and $3 Capoeirinhas!! Now we´re talking....

Check out the photos below.....