Rio de Janeiro

Harry’s first time in Brazil, arriving straight into Carnival — which he freely admits means he is seeing the city at its least representative and its most fun.

His opening is a beer at 10am and no plan whatsoever. His friends confirm this is the correct approach: there is no plan, there is never a plan, and the plan is to go with the flow.

Obs: the video carries an eSIM sponsor, a camera brand, and a plug for Harry’s own group-trip business, and credits the helicopter operator. Only what the activities involve is recorded here.

Blocos — the street parties

The thing people actually come for now, more than the parade.

• They are not planned. You get a message, you ask your friends, you find out where one is, and you go.
• They start at 6am and roll over each other all day — by midday the first ones are dying and the next are coming alive. One Harry attends ran 6am to noon.
• The whole city becomes the party, for two weeks, with millions of people in it. He calls it the biggest party in the world.
• Vendors are the infrastructure. Drinks sellers everywhere, some with speakers, and a crowd forms around whichever one is playing music.
• Fancy dress is the norm — animals, glitter, and a lot of very little.
• Mostly Brazilians, not foreigners, which Harry says is what keeps it from feeling like a tourist activity.

Caipirinha is the drink: cachaça, lime and sugar, described to him simply as alcohol, lemon and sugar. Measures are poured by eye and the eye is generous.

The Sambadrome

The formal half of Carnival, and the counterweight to the streets.

• Purpose-built for Carnival in 1984 as a parade ground.
• A samba school competition — a high-budget, high-stakes cultural championship with thousands of performers.
• Watched by up to 90,000 people, running through the night until around 8am.

Harry’s own note when he gets there is that he stopped filming: the right thing to do was put the camera down.

Ipanema and Copacabana

A second bloco in the afternoon on Ipanema beach, which he likes considerably more than the first — everyone in fancy dress, Sugarloaf in the background, and Copacabana next along the sand.

Off the party there are thousands of people on the beach, playing football and doing nothing, which he calls quintessentially Brazilian: beach, health, party, no inhibitions. The water is blue enough that he says on camera that it looks AI-generated and that he hasn’t touched the saturation.

Beach food

A vendor arrives at their spot with a portable oven, grills cheese on skewers to order with herbs, and finishes it with hot honey. Harry compares the flavour to a pizza topping and rates it very highly.

• 53 reais for three — about £7, or $10 for the lot.
• He pays on card, on the sand, from a machine the vendor carries.
• He knows it’s the gringo price and pays it anyway, on the grounds that he can’t be bothered to negotiate and they’re on holiday.

The vendor lives in a favela, and it’s from him that Harry gets the observation about favela tourism — that people there have realised there is more money in showing tourists around than in robbing them.

The helicopter

An open-door flight, arranged at short notice, which he takes instead of a departing flight.

• Thirty minutes over the whole city — Ipanema, Copacabana, and a full circle around Christ the Redeemer, which he hadn’t otherwise seen.
• They were over the weight limit for the first helicopter, which he didn’t know was a thing, and had to move to another one.
• The pilot performed an acrobatic manoeuvre without warning them. Harry thought they were going to die and enjoyed it.

Safety

Everyone warned him about Brazil — burner phone, hide your bag — and his verdict on the day is that people are simply enjoying themselves and he isn’t especially worried, while still taking precautions.

Two things he flags as genuine:

• A powder blown into your face in a crowd, used to drug people. If you feel a sudden wave, that could be it.
• Armed police carrying AK-47s among the partygoers, which he treats as the standing reminder of where he is.

The three rules he is given by a fellow traveller, in order: watch out for people trying to rob you; enjoy the carnival; and speak to as many locals as you can.

The crowd

Harry travels with a group of other travel creators — among them Kieran (@kieranbrowntravel), George Buckley, Colin Duthie, Travel with Chris and Arab — all credited in the video description. The running joke is that none of them knew the others were in Rio until an hour beforehand.

Kieran leaves early and does not survive the day.

Harry’s tips

• Don’t plan. Find out where the bloco is on the day and go.
• Do both halves. The streets are the raw version; the Sambadrome is the organised one, and they aren’t substitutes.
• Carry data. He is emphatic about it here, mainly because everyone around him has none and can’t get an Uber.
• Take card and forget cash. Even the man cooking on the beach takes it.
• Accept the gringo price on small things. Negotiating over £7 on a beach isn’t worth the afternoon.
• Watch for powder. The one warning he passes on unqualified.
• Learn some Portuguese if you’re going beyond Rio. Inside Rio nobody speaks English either, but outside it the language is the whole trip.

Source

• Things Got Out of Hand at Rio Carnival 🇧🇷 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rat94OD4lz0