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Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro Feb 2004. I arrived in Rio de Janeiro a couple of days before the carnival started. My friends had already arrived and for the next two weeks we were living in a large apartment, only 50m from Copacabana beach. Rio+Carnival=Party, but we also managed to do some sightseeing and activities. The Estadio Maracana is one of the largest football stadiums in the world and on Saturday we went to see the derby match between Fluminense and Flamengo. The Christo Redentor is a absolute "must see" in Rio. The 30m high statue of Jesus is placed beautifully up in the mountains (710m) and you can see Rio in all its beauty; the long stretches of beaches, coves, a lake, high hills, all surrounded by high peaks. On our second day of sightseeing we went to Pao de Acucar (Sugar Loaf), another of Rio's famous landmarks. The Sugar Loaf is a 395m high hill with a cable car and more great views of the city. Well, it should have been a great view of the city, we saw mostly just thick fog and rain. Anyway, the beer on the top was good... We had more good beer during the stay in Rio, in the apartment, in the street, in bars, out clubbing and at the carnival parades. Some of the parades were just a car with music and people dancing after it, but they also had street parades every night of the carnival with big floats and costumes. All kind of people are dancing around in the parades; old and young, really good dancers and the rather bad ones. You can also join in at the back of the parade if you want. But to see the really extravagant floats you need to go to the Sambadrome. The Sambadrome is a large street with spectator stands around. Here all the best samba schools compete in hope of being the best school this year. We went to the Sambadrome on the Saturday after the carnival; the Champions Parade, where the five best schools parade. Each of the more than one hour long parades is an amazing spectacle of fireworks, music, large floats and of course thousands of dancing people in various costumes. The floats were large and sophisticated; some of my favorites were the space station, the about 10m high knight on horse and the float with four go-carts driving around on two small racing tracks! www.helgeroe.com

brazil, copacabana, helgeroe, parade, ipanema, static-x, fiesta, maracana, rio, carnaval, party, champions, sambadrome, carnival, beach, samba,