Carnaval Week.

It has been an incredibly busy 4 days since I arrived! Carnaval Week started in earnest last night and the city is ablaze. Blocos (street parties) in every neighborhood, final rehearsals for the Samba schools, frantic work on the floats, the Children's Carnaval tonight and so much more.

Two Samba school rehearsals on consecutive nights have blown my mind away! (And not just any schools, the past two winners) These probably were the best parties I've been at for a very long time! The music was making your bones rattle, your legs were going wild, your feet and arms were unaccounted for and the smells, the sweat, the passion! The girls were dancing to heaven and the boys in the Bateria were giving the thunderous rhythm, with their eyes fixed on the dancers of course. And the neighborhood was exploding. These were two nights of blood, sweat and Samba!

Then the blocos. Everything saturated by a frantically partying army. Everything. The cashier lady at the supermarket, the taxi drivers, the teenagers and the old people, the packed buses in a rave, everybody dancing to the Samba. Then the Children's  Carnaval at the Sambodromo. Colours and noise, smells and the beauty all around you. Everything's in place for the first night tomorrow. I can't wait.

But the most striking thing of all is the people. The beautiful, smiling people of this city. This city that makes you feel sexy and smile and fall in love! It's all to their credit.