Things Got Out of Hand at Rio Carnival 🇧🇷

Harry’s first time in Brazil, landing straight into Carnival in Rio de Janeiro 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
• Country: Brazil
• Person: Kieran
• Tips: Do big festivals at an organised event, Carry a foreign eSIM, Judge a place for yourself