!!!!!!!CARNAVAL!!!!!!!!

Not quite sure where to start with this one. I´ll kick off with a brief desciption. Unlike Rio which is more a spectators Carnaval, Salvador´s Carnaval is a monsterous series of street parades that happen all over the city. There are two main circuits Barra and Campe Grande. The circuits that the parade takes (each approx 8 - 10 kms) is lined with 3-4 story temporary multileveled stands that people watch the parade from. The parade itself consists of many Blocos. A Bloco is a huge modified truck (effectively a mobile sound system with massive speakers) with a famous band playing on the top of it. Back from this is a support truck with a bar and toilets in it. Surrounding all of this is about 500 - 600 people holding a rope and inside the rope is about 3000-4000 people seriously partying for about 5-6 hours as the Bloco slowly moves around the circuit. Some of these Blocos stretch about 1 km long. In each of the main parades there would be about 15-20 Blocos one after the other. The rest of the city is going off with smaller parades and lots of other activity. This is a MASSIVE party!!!!!!!! In the four days that we were involved were lucky enough to go in three Blocos and got free tickets through our friends in Salvador to the invite-only Military Police stand on the side of one of the circuits. Here we could look down on the party from funky couches with free food and drinks. During Carnaval there are only two speeds, on and off. When you are not partying, you are sleeping getting ready for the next party.

Recover......

The plan was after the craziness of Carnaval to chill out on the beautiful island of Morro de Sao Paulo, two hours off the Coast of Salvador. The problem with this is that a fairly sizeable chunk of the Carnaval goers decide to do the same thing. So the Carnaval effectively moves across to the island (as I am sure that it does to many other parts of the country as well). Morro is an absolutely postcard perfect tiny white sand beached island filled with funky pousadas (hostels) and a few bars and restaurants. At night the streets come alive with cocktail stalls where you buy freshly made fruit Caiprifruitas (fruit cocktails). During our three day chill out period here we managed to see the sunrise twice with Caiprifruitas in hand. So much for recovery...

The Long Haul....

After a day back in Salvador we hit the airport for a 6 hour flight to Santiago, Chile, and then a 4 1/2 hour flight down to Chilean Patagonia. Scottito had managed to get himself sick again at this point so spent as much time in the airplane toilet as his seat. Seriously bad timing. We arrive in Patagonia at around midnight and walk out of the airport in our shorts and tees from the extremely hot and humid climes of Bahia to be hit by the winds blasting up from the Antarctic. My God it is cold. We are in another part of the world now. We hit the trails tomorrow, time yet again for some sleep.........

PS Click here to see photos from Salvador and Carnaval
PPS Click here to access videos of Carnaval