---
type: Place
title: Rio de Janeiro
description: Carnival from 10am — unplanned street blocos that start at 6am and move all day, the ticketed Sambadrome at night, and an open-door helicopter around Christ the Redeemer in between.
tags: [rio-de-janeiro, brazil, carnival, blocos, sambadrome, ipanema, copacabana, beaches, helicopter]
coordinates: {lat: -22.9110, lng: -43.2094}
timestamp: 2026-08-05T12:00:00Z
---

# Rio de Janeiro

Harry's first time in [Brazil](/countries/brazil.md), 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](/people/kieran.md) 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 🇧🇷](/videos/Rat94OD4lz0.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rat94OD4lz0