Carnaval in Brazil - arguably the world's biggest party. A 3-4 day nationwide bacchanalian orgy of outlandish & colourful costumes, outrageously scantily-clad dancers and infectious samba rhythms. Starting on March 5th, right? WRONG!!!

Try to imagine how we felt when we arrived in Sao Paolo on March 6th, to find that the party had started 3 nights ago without us. It was Monday morning, and Sao Paolo, the largest city on the CONTINENT, was dead - 17 million Paulistas were still sleeping off their collective Fri-Sat-Sun hangovers. So we'd all but missed the biggest party on Earth, and of course nowhere was open for us to try to find out what might be going on (if anything) that evening, in order for us to catch at last the final night of Carnaval.

The people we managed to raise from the dead and speak to gave us the usual South American conflicting advice. So we consulted our guidebook - Sao Paolo's Carnaval - not that great; Rio's - big tourist puller; Salvador de Bahia's - starts earlier, lasts longer. Sao Paolo was too sleepy to tell us anything about it's supposed Carnaval; Rio cost too much at $100 each; Salvador was the place for us.

Wet with sweat and close to tears we bought tickets for the coach north to Salvador, leaving that night, arriving in the early morning. An hour later we saw a map of the country and realised the journey couldn't possibly be done overnight. No, Salvador was actually 2 nights away, a 36hr journey, so we'd probably arrive in time to miss Carnaval there too.

So it was over to the other side of town to cancel our tickets. Having resigned ourselves to staying in Sao Paolo, we just had to find the Sambodromo (home of the event) and hope that it was happening.

Elation! Joy! Relief! On the outskirts of the centre we found it. With trembling hands we offered our cash - no price would have been too high at this stage. But no! we'd tumbled on the one night that you can only buy tickets with food, to be given to the homeless. The nearest supermarket was over a mile away, we'd been walking all day, we were in the middle of nowhere and it was getting dark. Off we trudged....

Against all odds we finally got into the Sambodromo to see what was an excellent Carnaval. Phew! Everything we'd hoped for and more - amazing floats, scantily clad (or simply unclad) dancing beauties, and fantastic music. Everyone was having a ball - although it wasn't as glitzy as Rio's it was nevertheless wicked, and was still being televised when we got home in the early hours.

In an attempt to recover from this slightly stressful episode, we've headed south to do a small tour of the coast for a week or so, and will hopefully do a similar tour north next week. This last weekend spent on Isla de Santa Catarina relaxing on the beach and trying again to learn to surf was just what the Doctor ordered!