Rio de Janeiro

The first Portuguese expedition explored the Brizilian coast between 1501 and 1502 visiting sites around Rio.  By 1763, Rio became the administrative capital of Brazil.  After Brazil became independent from Portugal, the city became the capital of the empire.  In 1960 the capital was moved to Brasilia.  While Rio was the capital, Brazilians from all states in Brazil were sent to Rio along with diplomats and businessmen.  Because of this, even after losing economic leadership to Sao Paulo, Rio retained the status of cultural capital of Brazil.

Perhaps at no time is the city's festive reputation better displayed than during Carnival which enlivens the city for 3 solid days with music, singing, parties, balls and street parades of brilliantly-costumed dancers performing the samba.

We were here during Carnival (how's that for timing).  We docked early Saturday morning which was the first day of Carnival.  the city was teaming with about 8 million people from all over.  Most of them dressed in costume, from extreme to simply a face mask or head dress of sorts.

We started our day by visiting the son of an old friend that had passed away.  He owns a jewelry store in Ipanema.  We spent about 2 hours together then Gary and I walked the neighborhood.  We passed Ipanema beach where throngs of people were celebrating.  When we returned to the ship, in the terminal were people selling tickets to Carnival that evening.  The bus left at about 9:00 and the mass of humanity in the streets along with all the traffic converging at the same point, made for a 45 minute bus ride.  As the seats in the stadium were just cement bleachers we were given cushions and beach towels to sit on.  There was no assigned seating and we were all the way at the top, but I was able to make my way down to the railing at the bottom so I could take pictures without somebody's head or arm in the photo.  Gary sat about 5 or 6 rows behind me with a lovely couple from Montevideo.  As you can see, it was fabulous.  there were at least 30,000 people in the stadium.  It takes about 1 hour for each school to pass.  They all had their own theme floats and work the entire year making their costumes and floats.  It was a spectacle I will never forget, you can see that it was absolutely amazing.   How great to have experienced Carnival in Brazil!!

Not sure how it will come out at home, but if you click on the pictures with an arrow, it will be a video that, hopefully, you will be able to play.