Party party party party is pretty much what we did for Carnival weekend - the best weekend of my life?!?!?! It all kicked off on the Friday night when we went up to Santa Teresa for what was apparently the 'official' start of the carnival. There was a huge bloco going on through all the streets which in other words meant one big fancy dress party!! It was really good fun! Then Saturday was 'The Big Day'! - the day that we got to parade, in full costume, down the Sambodrome with our school 'Imperial de Tijuca'!! We all got ready together at the house in high spirits and had lots of fun trying the costumes on! We then had to get the metro to the Sambodrome so for ease, and in fear of looking silly we carried most of our costumes - but oh no! Pretty much everyone on the metro was either in carnival costumes, struggling to carry carnival costumes or in some form of fancy dress -it was very surreal! We finally paraded at about 12.30am (still 33°C) in rows of 10, mixed up with some Brazilians - who actually knew the words to the song whereas we just did a lot of enthusiastic mouthing! We danced all the way down the Sambodrome and had so much fun although it all felt so unreal! After about 40 minutes 'in the spotlight' we got to the end and everyone was on such a buzz!! Definitely an experience that we won't forget!! On the Sunday we went to what was meant to be the biggest and the best bloco of the Carnival in Ipanema which was packed (not too sure if we got to the actual bloco or not!) and then another party in the evening near the Sambodrome with live music and lots of bars!! We had a relaxing day round the pool on the Monday but lots more fun that evening: the evening when the schools we'd all worked for were parading!! So, we'd got tickets for the Sambodrome and were able to watch Salgueiro, Mangueira and two other schools parade. The atmosphere was amazing, all singing and flag-waving, and it was so so so exciting to watch 'our schools' and to be able to point and say 'I did that'!! All the floats and costumes were so impressive and looked really quite different to how they'd looked in the warehouse with all the lights and finishing touches on them!!



So! That was Carnival!! We found out the results a few days later, which brought even more excitement into our lives....because Salgueiro (Katie's school) WON!!! Mangueira who I was working for came 6th....but 10 out of 10 for the costumes I hasten to add!!!haha! The school we paraded with came 8th out of 12...at least it wasn't last!



A few days after carnival, our 6 weeks in Rio was up and everyone we'd been living with were going separate ways - for Katie and I it was a very luxurious 22 hour bus journey over to the Iguacu Falls. We went to the Argentinian side first and got incredible views of all the waterfalls from pretty much 'on top' of them! The most impressive waterfall was the 'Devil's Throat' and the amount and power of the water that cascaded over the top is indescribable. We got absolutely soaked from the spray because we were standing so close - possibly the most amazing thing we've seen so far! The following day we went to the Brazilian side where you are able to see more 'overall' panoramic views of the waterfalls...cue another 100 photos!!



Since we were flying out of Rio we had to make our way back over again, but we broke the journey up a bit this time. We went via Sao Paulo which is a huuuge city with lots of high-rise very important looking buildings and people everywhere - nothing like Rio!! Only had a couple of days here, but met up with a friend and went to a really good food market at the Mercado Municipal, where we had a highly recommended Mortadela sandwich - the biggest sandwich I've ever eaten!! We also went to a small, pretty colonial town called Paraty, on the Costa Verde which is the coast in Rio State. We had a lovely few days here lying on the beach, and also took a trip to a place called Penha - had lots of fun here sliding down waterfalls and swimming in natural pools!

Our final stop before heading to New Zealand was a 24 hour stopover in Buenos Aires. When we asked a few people what they thought we should do with our one day in BA, most people said "go to the cemetery". Sounds morbid, I know! So, intrigued, we went and had a look and it was certainly different - more like a small village with mostly what looked like small individual churches instead of a gravestone; this is also where 'Evita' is buried. It was a bit strange it being such a tourist attraction but glad we went! Had a bit more of a 'light-hearted' afternoon with a friend from Rio which was really nice!

And now here we are in New Zealand! We arrived into Auckland after a spot of time travelling and, although there's no cake for breakfast like there was in Brazil, so far so good!! We're now in Taupo, and tomorrow there's a group of us embarking on the Tongariro Crossing - an 18.5km trek over an (active) volcano - if I survive it, I'll write another blog soon!!

Hope everyone is well, XXXX.