the brazilian Carnival

When I knew that we would travel to Brazil - I was devastated... because we would just enter Brazil 2 weeks after the carnival...at that time I didn´t know that a few carnival shows are held "off season". So Brazil welcomed us with a three day carnival party in “Uruguaiana”, a rather small city but with a big carnival right at the border to Argentina. One year later, 2016, while we were living in Rio de Janeiro we had the chance to see and live the carnival there, too, which was just an awesome experience.

The samba schools are structured into a primary league and a second league. Every year they compete to stay among the 12 best rated samba schools until on Ash Wednesday the winners are announced. The last one of the 12 best will be degraded to the second league while the best one from the second league is joining the special group. When Carnival begins Rey Momo is given the key of the city. Rey Momo, normally a fat and tall man, is quite lucky, cause he is always surrounded by his queen and the first and second princesses.

In Rio de Janeiro the carnival begins a week before and ends a week after the normal carnival season. Just at the peak of summer in Brazil with temperatures around 40 degrees Celsius. Within this time Rio is just one big party. In all the different districts you can attend "blockos" which follow an event agenda you can download over the internet.  If you are a party animal you can spend the day from 8 am until far after midnight partying on the street. Everyday - for 3 weeks!! Remarkable is the quantity of beer that can be drunken during the hottest period of the year dancing and singing under a burning sun.

To see the carnival in the Sambodrome which was built in the 80´s by famous architect "Niemeyer" for the big parades and can be visited throughout the year you need to buy an entrance ticket in advance. I recommend the „Rio Samba shop“ in Ipanema. Booking with them is really easy. They even have a transport system which brings you to the Sambodrome and back.

For the second league parades on Friday and Saturday the tickets are much cheaper than for the primary league which parades on Sunday and Monday. For all who arrive late or spend carnival partying on the streets there will be another option on the following Saturday where only the 6 best samba schools parade once more.

I recommend to come early (minimum 1 hour before) cause the transport system is at its limits these days and if you have a ticket for the grand stands you need to take what´s left. If you have seats in front it´s enough to be on time and if you are a vip, well, you know already you´ll come one or two hours later ;) Notice that each samba school will parade one hour followed by a half-hour break, so a night which begins around 9pm in the Sambodrome can easily stretch out until the morning hours!!
Always dreamed of being a part of the carnival. You can!! There are various options to take part in the carnival and walk down the alley with a samba school. The only problem is that you need to buy your costume and that is quite expensive!!