`Would you like some of my sweet nectar?´ -Annie Carter

Day 7 - Rio De Janeiro

The last few days have been a crazy and amazing experience! Carnival officially kicked off on Friday night with a massive `Bloco,´ a block party of epic proportions!! Armed with our flask of tequila and boys in towels and shower caps, we braved the crowds and danced to music coming from a band on top of a large truck. I had never seen anything like it (at least until the next night), and doubt that I ever will again. The costumes on all the men are probably the best part.

We went to the Sambadromo on Monday night. What a crazy experience. It is a huge competition of Samba schools all across Brazil, each school has its own separate parade lasting about an hour and a half each, with about seven schools performing. It begins at 9 p.m. and goes all night until about 6:30 a.m. Leanne and I stayed as late as we could handle, until 4 a.m. It was by far the most amazing thing I have ever seen, the floats, the thousands of dancers and the crowd of people there to watch was staggering.

Last night was Shrove Tuesday, and after going to another bloco, we found an Irish pub in Ipanema and went there to meet up with some of other Americans we met. A bit of the comforts of home (i.e. pints of beer, and clean bathrooms) was a welcome change.

Today was tourist sight seeing day, we went up to see Cristo Rendentor, Christ the Redeemer, it is quite a marvelous piece of art and the views are amazing! We also saw the soccer stadium and the Cathedral, beautiful!

So far Rio has turned out to be a great city, and a great place to visit. Seeing the poverty and inequality, particularly between the light skinned Brazilians and the Afro-Brazilians, has been a bit difficult to see, but humbling as well. Sometimes we forget how good we have it, and you really aren´t able to forget that here.

OK, gotta run, the girls are waiting!!

Besos,

Annie