gone living

i wish i had some witty and insightful thoughts to give you in today's blog entry, but what few brain cells are actually alive and functioning today (i just stumbled out of bed at 3pm) are in desparate need of a hamburger and a "bomba tropical" juice drink at the local juice bar. after that i'll spend time on the beach until it starts getting dark, and then meet up back at the hostel with my friends to figure out which parties we're going to tonight, the last night of the carnival festivities.

parties run hard, long, and late here in rio for carnival. besides the two nights of parades in the sambadrome, there are the blocos (what essentially end up as block parties), with vendors selling ice-cold cans of skol and antarctica beer and freshly-made caipirinhas to the many brazilians dancing and socializing in the streets.

i can't emphasize the delightful debauchery that i've been enjoying for the last week. thanks to the urging of my good friend marshall (who in turn was urged by aaron), i made a last-minute plan to come out here to rio and attend carnival while i was in south america. this has been one of the best decisions of the trip. the people staying at my hostel have been fun people to head out on the town with, the parties have been absolutely nuts, the brazilians are extremely friendly (and the women here are some of the most beautiful in the world), and i've basically been having one of the best times of my life.

but all good things must come to an end, and so tonight is the last night of the carnival parties, and the regular day-to-day life of rio will begin again tomorrow (albeit with a whopping hangover). and so tonight my hostelmates and i will head out to stay out until all hours -- there are more balls tonight, no doubt there will be more street partiers, and i'm sure that at least half of us will be contendly watching the sunrise on copacabana beach once more tomorrow morning.

a little side note: before i left to go to rio for carnival, i'd heard a story the carnival in rio wasn't a "real" brazilian carnival anymore because many cariocas (residents of rio de janeiro) didn't stay in town for the actual week of carnival, preferring instead to go to nearby beach towns to celebrate carnival. however, some brazilian friends have told me that in recent years the beach towns have gotten far too full, so cariocas are again remaining in rio for carnival. from my point of view, i saw far more locals than tourists here during carnival.

uh-oh... one of my friends at the hostel has just brought me my first beer of the day (a can of antarctica, my favorite brazilian beer). this means it's time to wrap up this blog entry! hope you're all having a great Fat Tuesday wherever you are -- i know i am!