Carnival in Rio de Janeiro has always been a dream in a drawer for me and finally became a reality.
In fact, Rio and specifically “the Carnival” has always been a secret wish, which sooner or later, I knew, I would have to realize.
Two years ago I finally managed to convince my husband to go to Rio during the Carnival, and immediately got busy looking for a hotel, flight, and getting information about the parade, an endless task as I wanted everything to be perfect.
Well I absolutely had to stay in a hotel in Copacabana one of the most popular and probably one of the coolest neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro. This is where I wanted to be to feel the real soul of this marvelous city during Carnival. The Miramar by Windsor Hotel in Copacabana with its incredible swimming pool on the last floor and breathtaking views, seemed the right choice and believe me it really was.
Assisting to one of the parades at the Sambodromo Rio’s “stadium of samba” where the parades are being held. The Sambodromo was designed by a famous Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, and is a permanent parade route with concrete spectator stands on each side which can seat around 70,000 people. You need to buy a ticked, and after reading various reviews I opted to assist at the parade from the Folia Tropical Camarote, I contacted them by e-mail, and booked our seats at the Super Folia Tropical (VIP).
The flight was obviously the easiest thing to book!!!
The flight, even if long was quiet and finally after almost 12 hours we landed at the Galeão International Airport in Rio. I had booked a transfer from the airpot to the hotel directly with them, and upon stepping out of the airport our driver was there waiting for us.
Drive from the Airport to the Hotel was of about 30 minutes, upon arrival we quickly checked in, unpacked our bags and set off for our first walk along the Copacabana seafront. It’s Carnival, you can see and feel it in the air, music, people dancing, the beach is crowded, I can feel the adrenaline rising in me, I’m happy, it’s like I’m a child again.
As we are walking along Copacabana, my husband is snatched by a young boy of about 12/13 years old, as fast as lightning he rips the gold chain from my husbands neck and runs away with his bike and disappears in the crowd. We stood there looking at each other incredulous for what had happened, my husband remembered that when the boy ripped the gold chain from his neck the medal fell to the ground and two much older boys in front of us saw it fall and picked it up.
He runs and stops one of the two boys and asks him to give him back the medal, I do not move, I am afraid of what may happen, but the boy looks at my husband and without batting an eyelid gives him back the medal. Once back at the hotel we told the reception about the incident, obviously they apologized for what happened and recommend to be very careful in the future.
Our hotel the Miramar by Windsor was a very good choice. Located right in front of Copacabana beach, the room was very comfortable and clean, and must say that the security was great. The pride of this hotel is the rooftop pool with breathtaking views of the beach. What can I say, we often had lunch and dinner at the pool restaurant, even if the menu was not remarkable the breathtaking view made up for this small gap.
The hotel also has a private beach, well let’s say that they have a space on the beach foreseen for the guests of the hotel.
The next morning we ask about the beach and they inform us that it is located right in front of the hotel at the Establishment 6 where there is a gazebo with the name of the hotel, just need to show the key and they will take care of everything.
So we go down to the beach, we show our key at the gazebo and the attendant takes a beach umbrella and two beach chairs, which are really low and seem uncomfortable, and asks us to follow him, my husband and I look at each other wondering where he will accomodate us as the beach was crowded.
Finally he finds a free 1m x 1m piece of beach, the attendant sets up the umbrella, opens the beach chairs, gives us towels and 2 bottles of water and says “you can stay here and be careful do not leave anything unattended”. Well we where finally on the famous Copacabana beach together with one million cariocas, I must say that at first we felt a little bit lost but after a while we really enjoyed our day.
While on the beach you can see street vendors, selling hats, caipirinha, and even one that had a stove and prepared fish skewers, another sold bathing suits, you can buy almost anything you want and the funny part is that credit cards are accepted!!!
We really enjoyed our day on the beach the first of many others to come.
After dinner we would go out for a walk on the promenade of Copacabana or Ipanema, we would stop and watch people dancing and singing, some in the bars on the beach, others improvised a party dancing and singing and drinking caipirinha, to the music coming from the open trunk of their car and a blasting stereo.
Going to Rio and not seeing the Corcovado and Sugar Loaf is impossible, being Carnival and to avoid queues, we booked a tour with a guide through the hotel.
We where picked up at the hotel in the early afternoon and our journey started, the first stop was the Largo Do Boticario, a square hidden behind the Corcovado, the building maintains the essence of the colonial past of Rio de Janeiro. This square is named in honor of the Portuguese Joaquim Luiz da Silva Souto who at that time ran a boticario (a pharmacy). A family still lives there and you would not believe how proud she was to show us the house and surroundings and we really enjoyed the visit.
At the Cosme Velho neighborhood we took the cog train to reach the Christ the Redeemer, the train will take you through the dense Atlantic forest of the Tijuca National Park almost to the top of the Corcovado mountain. We reached the Statue of Christ the Redeemer which dominates Mount Corcovado and hissingly embraces the entire city, leaving us breathless when seeing this gigantic statue towering over the city with incredible views.
From there we headed up to the Sugarloaf Mountain, which you can reach by cable car in two stages, the problem is that I suffer from vertigo, so it was not easy, but the reward once we got to the top was great. Seeing the beautiful Guanabara Bay and Christ the Redeemer from the top of this mountain is incredible.
But the main reason for our visit to Rio was the Carnival, we had heard about it and seen lots of pictures, but physically being there is something completely different.
The Carnival of Rio de Janeiro is celebrated everywhere in the city, on the various beaches and in its colorful and very extravagant parades, but the real parades of the various schools of Samba take place at the Sambodromo. A gigantic stadium that holds over 70,000 people, with a 700 meter long track, with stages and private camarotes on both sides and where the various schools have a maximum of 50 minutes to prove they are the champions of samba.
We chose to go on Saturday, where the top six ranked schools return to parade.
We had booked at the Follia Tropical at the Super Folia Vip, the price of the ticket includes transfer, a buffet dinner, unlimited drinks and champagne and table service. This sector also has a security service therefore we really felt safe. Obviously, luxury has a cost but believe me it was worth every single penny to assist to the parade in this camarotes.
That evening we went to the meeting point, wearing the orange polo shirt they gave us, from there we where brought to the Sambodromo and escorted to our Super Folia Vip camarotes.
Entering the Sambodromo and seeing all the people at first made us a little nervous.
The Camarotes consisted of a ground floor called “Folia Tropical” and a second floor called the “Super Folia Vip” beautiful, large, airy and not more than 100 people, with everything you could wish for as Moet Champagne, any type of drink and cocktails and a beautiful buffet.
I immediately grabbed a spot on the parapet of the camarotes with my feet dangling waiting for the party to start.
At one point the stopwatch starts, the music of the sixth classified starts loud, deafening, you see 70,000 people stand up, sing and dance, I stay there incredulous with the music that beats inside of me, adrenaline to the max, my dream has finally come true I am at the “Carnival of Rio de Janeiro“, while writing this post I can still feel the goose bumps. I want to do everything watch, film, take photos, sing and dance with the crowd even if I don’t know the lyrics of the songs, I am so happy and excited that I forget that I am afraid of heights!!!!
I stay there perched on the edge of the camarotes for 6 hours, enjoying the music, the colors, the carnival floats, every step of Samba, every person who parades in front of me. Unfortunately, our flight is this evening and even if the last two schools still have to parade, reluctantly we have to get up and be taken back to the hotel.
Describing the Carnival of Rio and its sensations is impossible, the only way is to go there.
