Carnival & Rio de Janerio

Imagine...A beach surrounded by aquamarine water. In the distance, there are shapes of various mountains. Tucked into the mountains are small, colorful shacks that hug the mountainside. The water is filled with sun kissed bodies; the beaches are filled with umbrellas, chairs and bronzed bottoms in teeny bottoms. Vendors are scattered throughout the beach crowd offering coconuts, beers and capçhinas(sp?).Face away from the beauty of one of the 72 beaches of this city. There you will find tall beachside resorts, small business, various food shops, along with more mountains in the distance. There is one mountain in particular that may catch your eye. There is a large white statue on top, it is Jesus, with his arms stretched out over the city. Protecting? Loving? Watching? Praying? It's hard to take your eyes off, once you see it.Heading towards the streets into the city, hundreds of thousands of people party in the streets. Confetti, streamers, foam and alcohol is sprayed in every direction reaching the welcoming partygoers. Everyone is dressed up in ridiculous and outlandish costumes. Think if the most ridiculous costume, and I'm sure it was worn at least twice by someone.Welcome to Rio de Janeiro!Putting a city like this into words is difficult. There is so much to it. And the energy you feel once your there is something that can only be felt. But nevertheless, I will try my best to share my experiences with you all!We arrived to Rio late in the night, after a full day of travel. The air was thick and very warm for being almost midnight. The streets were packed with cars heading in and out of town for the big week ahead. On the side of the freeways, there were young boys and men with swimsuits and crazy hair colors selling snacks and refreshments to the motorists. Culture shock 1: people can walk on the freeway here?! Hahah. It should have been an indicator of what the next five days would be like.The following day we woke up early for a your of the city hitting all the main tourist attractions. The tour was great! First stop: Christ the Redeemer statue. The best part of seeing the statue was being there and revealing in the fact that I made it. We then continued to the "Escalaria Saldaron" or in laments terms: the colorful tiled stairs that was an act of love from a man to his long lost love. They are also featured in a Snoop Dogg video. Besides the meaning behind it, there stairs are spectacular to see due to the tiles from all over the world. I could have spent hours on those stairs, examining each tile, attempting to understand how and why these were chosen and placed where they are today. Sugar loaf had amazing views of the city And offered us the experience of using the sky tram. It was great! Touring the city of Rio that morning was a great way to start off our time. We learned so much about the history of Brazil and the people who lived there. But now, it was time to get the party started!!Carnival is one of those experiences that must be done once. It was so incredible! And exhausting. Brazilian partying is intense. During the day, the streets were PACKED of party goers in outlandish costumes. Anything went. It was quite amusing to see, and it definitely got Camden and I excited to join in. It wasn't hard to find what we were looking for. On every corner, there were merchants selling bits to accessorize with. Glitter. Wigs. Headbands. Leis. And anything else you could imagine. Camden and I ended up with some face paint, a sangha, a curly blonde wig, bunny ears, flower headbands, cat ears, glitter and a flower bra. You can use your imagination as to how those were all used..Once we were all dolled up, we headed out to the streets for our first party in Rio. We started at a private beach party with free food and drinks. We met some great people who we would end up going out with the remainder of our time there. Once the party died down a bit, we headed to the city of Lapa. The streets were packed and we could hear music coming from all around. It was good fun! After many many hours of heavy drinking we headed back to our hotel to catch some zzzzzz's.We had the drunchies once we were back at our room so we headed out to our newfound second home Big Bis; where we could order anything from smoothies, to burgers to trading Brazilian food 24 hours a day. Back at the hotel I of course had an accident. The elevator closed on me while I was walking to our room, which caused me to slip about 100 times (trying to catch my balance) and landed me right on top of a metal ash tray trash can. The pain was unbelievable and the bruise was forming quickly. Luckily I had Camden to help me up, wipe away my tears and calmed me down until my face paint washed and I was fast asleep. What a night....For the first time in ages, Camden and I didn't set an alarm and woke up on our own accord. Usually we wake up slowly and calmly but when we read that the clock said 1:30 pm we figured something was wrong. My phone must have broke. There was no way we would have slept that long. No way. So I quickly got dressed and asked the reception for the time. She confirmed it was indeed 1:30pm. I immediately started laughing. She must have thought I was nuts. When I explained our confusion, she laughed and the staff clapped saying, " welcome to carnival!".We had only a few hours before the next street party, we we geared up, got some breakfast and went back out for the day. The bloco (what Brazilians call block parties) had an estimated 100,000 people attending. We ha don idea what to expect. It was MADNESS. Imagine sweaty people all crammed into streets trying to move in one directions trying to find the truck with the music and samba dancers. With all the alcohol and frustrations of being crammed, it was no surprise when a huge fight broke out. It was terrifying. The entire crowd next to me started to wobble, with people running into the fight and people running away from it. I felt like I was a sacred deer in the middle of a stampede. Lucky for me, the boys in the group covered us girls and got us away safely before we were hit or trampled on. Culture shock 2: the police did nothing. Back at home, someone would have been put back in their place or taken away but here it seemed like the cops were just as scared as the tourists were. After this episode Camden and I walked around a few hours more before calling it quits and heading back to the room. A bit frustrated with the day's events, we went to relax in the pool and talked about our plans after Brazil. It was a lovely way to end a weird night out.Our third day was much better. We toured a favela which was quite amazing. The way those people lived was outrageous. There were exposed wires everywhere, sewage draining down the street, shacks built up wherever they pleased and loads of animals picking at trash. With all of this, the people seemed quite happy. They smiled, waved and were proud to show us their way of life. We were told that the mafias control these favelas and extort the people who live in them for protection. It is apparently one of the safest places to live in Rio since you are protected by crime itself. The police are very corrupt so it's a good way of life for many. It was quite a humbling and eye opening experience to say the least.Back in the city of Rio, Camden and I set out to see the beach. It was beautiful. We jumped in the water for some time, while a very nice Brazilian family watched our belongings. The water was so refreshing after being in the heat and humidity all morning. We also did some shopping where I got a Brazilian swimsuit at an unheard of price of 17$ and Camden got a Brazilian tank top. With our new purchases in hand we set back off for some pool time before we needed to head to the Sambadrome!!!The Sambadrome. It is the most sought after event during Carnival. It is in a huge grandstand, packed with people of course. There is where the spectacular floats are paraded around. And where all the Samba schools preform. Even though we do not know Portuguese, we tried to sing along to the songs and got into the spirit. It's hard not to with energetic like that surrounding you. Each flora at that passed was more and more amazing. For each Samba school there must have been at least six to eight floats and five hindered thousand samba dancers. Each dancer had leapt able costumes that must have weighed a ton. The fetal put into this parade was mind blowing. Each step was on beat, each float and costume represented something so great to Brazilian culture and history. And each attendee was so enthralled by the exhibition that was in front of them. To explain this experience doesn't give it justice. It's something that you must experience in person to fully understand the measure of this event! I am so incredibly thankful I was able to be a part of this tradition! The parade lasted until six or seven in the morning (lasting about a full twelve hours). Unfortunately, I could not hang like the hardcore Brazilians and left about five to six hours into the parade, but nonetheless I feel like I had an incredible Sambadrome experience! We arrived back at our hotel around 2am and as Americans, we had to watch the Super Bowl! Again, I wasn't able to hang and fell asleep who knows when, but it was a great way to end the night and have a little taste of home.Our fourth and last full day in Brazil was great!! We finally attended a bloco that didn't break out into a fight and we found the truck immediately!! There was approximately 20.000 people attending so it was quite smaller than the last. Regardless, seeing the sea of people was something that never lost its awe, at least for me. The music was great to dance to! There was a huge jump rope in the middle of the street and we all lined up to jump around. No one could fully do it because everyone was so drunk. But I always managed to get over the rope!!! Woooo!! Drinks were handed out like candy and cold water was sprayed everywhere! The truck was selling t-shirts and lucky me caught the eye of someone on the float who threw a t shirt down! If you know me, you can only imagine how stoked I was! Camden was happy for me, but quite sad because he kept asking for one himself. Girl power! ;)Anyways, after some time in the bloco we had enough of sweaty drunk people and headed towards the beach. I actually had to go to the bathroom quite bad, and all restrooms are closed down during a bloco (blocos can go on for 8-12 hours....). So once I set eyes on the ocean I sprinted into the ocean, as well as everyone else. It was one of those moments I will never forget.We finished the night with some Brazilian barbecue and finally went to bed at a reasonable hour for once. Sleeping has been the hardest part for me. I'm always excited. Not wanting to miss a single beat. Buuuuut with 17 hours of flights ahead of us....and five days of straight partying behind us, sleep won over everything.In the end, Brazil was awesome! We learned so much about their way of life in Rio. Learned about the history of Samba and inner workings of the favelas, got to see some incredible sights and met great people along the way! Well done Rio & Carnival, you shine brightly and gave me experiences I will always remember! To follow our journey in even more depth please check out our other social media outlets!Instagram:@christinabammbina @marlon_cramdo#boygirlandtheworldYouTube:https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCC9qwNoy9QSRXLHKgoKLHtw