Carnival has arrived early!

This weekend is an opportunity to experience carnival- for free! And we like FREE. Yes we- that’s me, Jean and Alberto. An interesting trio we make. Myself from London, Jean from Belgium and Alberto (a travel journalist!!) from Italy. We share a common interest to experience the best of Rio!

Yesterday was the first day of carnival rehearsals at the iconic Sambadrome. A great chance to get a flavour of Rio’s world famous festival taking take in February. Admit-ably it’s not a dress rehearsal so non of the spectacular show of colour which can be expected in a few months time. However there was no shortage of good samba music and dance… and space to dance!

The atmosphere in the stadium was safe and relaxed, filled with families and friends. We even managed to get a laugh from the guy selling beer as he told us to

‘buy some more beer to wash the salt down.’

The salt he was talking about was from the prawn crackers- brazilian style ladled with salt! Of course what he was really trying to tell us is

‘don’t be so cheap!’

As we bought 1 beer to share between the 3 of us! Rsrsrsrsrs!

We danced and enjoyed the spectacle of what to expect in February. I managed to bag a souvenir as a member of G.R.E.S Caprichosos de Pilares samba school was kind enough to give me his (possibly because my samba dancing is really good… possibly)! We liked the taste so much we’ll be back for more today as three more samba schools rehearse.

All photos are courtesy of Alberto Lentini