---
type: Video
title: "Things Got Out of Hand at Rio Carnival 🇧🇷"
description: A day at Rio Carnival from a 10am beer — unplanned street blocos, cheese grilled on the sand and paid for by card, an open-door helicopter around Christ the Redeemer, and the Sambadrome at night.
tags: [brazil, rio-de-janeiro, carnival, blocos, sambadrome, beaches, helicopter, safety]
timestamp: 2026-08-05T12:00:00Z
resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rat94OD4lz0
video_id: Rat94OD4lz0
upload_date: 2026-02-17
duration: 1835
---

# Things Got Out of Hand at Rio Carnival 🇧🇷

Harry's first time in [Brazil](/countries/brazil.md), landing straight into
Carnival in [Rio de Janeiro](/places/rio-de-janeiro.md) with a group of other
travel creators, none of whom knew the others were in the city until an hour
beforehand.

The structure of the day is the structure of Carnival: **blocos** — unplanned
street parties that start at 6am and roll over each other until night — then the
**Sambadrome**, the ticketed parade where the samba schools compete in front of
90,000 people until 8am. In between, an open-door helicopter around Christ the
Redeemer that he takes instead of his flight out.

*Obs: the video carries an eSIM sponsor and a camera brand, plugs Harry's own
group-trip business, and credits the helicopter operator. Only what the
activities involve is recorded on these pages.*

## Key moments

- [00:00] 10am, a beer, and no idea what to expect.
- [00:36] The costumes, and his own assessment that he is overdressed.
- [01:07] What Carnival is now: the Sambadrome is the formal event, but people
  come for the blocos.
- [01:38] Blocos aren't planned — you get a message, ask around, and go. They
  start at 6am, they move, and the whole city becomes the party for two weeks.
  Millions of people; he calls it the biggest party in the world.
- [02:08] The warning he passes on: **a powder blown into your face**, used to
  drug people. If you feel a wave, that may be it.
- [02:08] Caipirinhas ordered, and the pours are enormous.
- [02:49] Brazil's reputation — burner phone, hide your bag — against what he's
  looking at, which is people enjoying themselves. He takes the precautions
  anyway.
- [03:21] Caipirinha explained to him by strangers: alcohol, lemon and sugar.
- [04:23] Nobody speaks a word of English, which he says is entirely fine because
  it's their country.
- [06:07] Respect for the cleaners working through it in 35 °C, and what they're
  probably earning.
- [06:40] Brazil as a developing and very unequal country, which he ties directly
  to the crime — and the two weeks a year it lets go completely.
- [07:11] Meeting the other creators under a bridge, and the state of them.
- [08:17] How a bloco actually works: vendors with speakers, and crowds forming
  around whichever one is playing.
- [09:20] The three rules, from a fellow traveller: watch for people trying to rob
  you; enjoy the carnival; talk to as many locals as you can.
- [09:54] And the plan, which is that there is no plan.
- [12:43] This bloco started at 6am and ran to noon; by midday it's dying and the
  next ones are coming alive.
- [13:16] Ipanema, and a second bloco he likes much more — everyone in fancy
  dress, Sugarloaf behind, Copacabana next along.
- [13:54] Thousands on the beach off the party, playing football and doing
  nothing. His words: quintessentially Brazilian.
- [14:28] Water blue enough that he says it looks AI-generated and that he hasn't
  touched the saturation.
- [15:00] Party, swim, jet ski, helicopter — in theory all in one afternoon.
- [15:32] The eSIM plug, and the practical version of it: everyone around him has
  no data and can't book an Uber.
- [16:02] A plug for his own group trips.
- [16:35] The physical diversity of Brazilians, which he can't get over on day
  one.
- [17:07] A viewer who started travelling because of the channel, met his
  girlfriend in Thailand as a result, and is in Rio with her.
- [18:17] Kissing culture explained: hold eye contact for more than a couple of
  seconds and it is normal to go and kiss someone. His comment is that most
  cultures judge this and here nobody does.
- [19:18] A vendor arriving on the sand with a portable oven, grilling cheese on
  skewers with herbs and hot honey.
- [21:03] The same man on favela tourism: people there realised there's more
  money in showing tourists round than in stealing.
- [21:36] **He takes card, on the beach**, from a machine he carries. Harry asks
  why the rest of the world hasn't caught up and names Mauritania as the
  opposite.
- [22:08] 53 reais for three, about £7 — the gringo price, knowingly paid,
  because negotiating isn't worth the afternoon.
- [22:41] The verdict on the cheese: like a pizza topping, and worth every penny.
- [23:44] Armed police in the crowd carrying AK-47s — the reminder of where he is.
- [25:21] An open-door helicopter flight, arranged at short notice, taken instead
  of his flight out.
- [25:51] A Portuguese-speaking friend on language: Rio is the easy case, and
  travelling the north and centre of Brazil without Portuguese would be close to
  impossible.
- [26:27] They're over the weight limit for the first helicopter, which he didn't
  know was a thing, and swap to another.
- [27:36] Thirty minutes over Ipanema, Copacabana and a full circle around Christ
  the Redeemer, which he hadn't otherwise seen. The pilot throws in an
  unannounced acrobatic move.
- [28:07] The Sambadrome, built in 1984 — a samba school competition, thousands
  of performers, up to 90,000 spectators, running until around 8am.
- [29:10] Rio's energy on the metro on the way in.
- [30:20] He stops filming, and says so: the right thing to do is put the camera
  down.

## Extracted pages

- Place: [Rio de Janeiro](/places/rio-de-janeiro.md)
- Country: [Brazil](/countries/brazil.md)
- Person: [Kieran](/people/kieran.md)
- Tips: [Do big festivals at an organised event](/tips/do-big-festivals-at-an-organised-event.md),
  [Carry a foreign eSIM](/tips/carry-a-foreign-esim.md),
  [Judge a place for yourself](/tips/judge-a-place-for-yourself.md)