What happens at Carnaval stays at Carnaval.

Right as I was beginning to fall in love with Santiago, I met Rio de Janiero and was immediately swept off my feet. I can’t even fully explain how much I loved Rio, but I’m going to try very hard. Imagine an awesome city with black and white mosaic sidewalks lined with huge, green tropical trees and little restaurants selling all kinds of FRIED FOOD and a delicious smoothie-type drink made from açai berries. Now, visualize this city juxtaposed with white sand beaches gently cradled by blue water and palm trees and filled with fit men wearing speedos [apologies if you’re a guy reading this]. You can actually buy coconuts and drink the milk ON THE BEACH. Oh and, I saw monkeys running on the telephone wires. MONKEYS. That’s right. Are you starting to see now why I am obsessed with Rio? And I haven’t even begun to talk about Carnaval.

All right, so I’m going to lay out what Carnaval basically consisted of. There are these street parties called blocos where a big truck slowly drives down the street blasting music and tons of people follow it while dancing, drinking, and singing. Everyone is dressed up in some way, whether it’s just a mask or a weird hat or going all out as a Trojan warrior or anything really. Me and my friends bought fake tattoos one day and put those on one day and then the other days I just kinda wore whatever I wanted. 


I flew into Rio and took a cab to my best friend Abby’s homestay and I was super freaked out that I wouldn’t be able to find her and wind up sleeping on the street since I had no way of contacting her once I got there. Thankfully she was waiting for me right outside and I literally jumped out of the cab and leapt into her arms for a hug. We were so excited because it had already been over 2 months since we had last seen each other! Once I got my stuff settled in her place and met her best friend from her program, Lorna [who I absolutely love and goes to Berkeley too!], we all set out to look for a bloco. We met up with some of her other friends who are from Mexico City and are studying in Rio as well and it was fun being able to speak Spanish with them because Abby couldn’t understand us jaja. I also found out that I have mutual friends with them from when I modeled in Mexico City’s Fashion Week my senior year of high school. One of the girls I had even modeled with in one of the runway shows was visiting them while I was there! It was such a crazy coincidence.

The rest of that night is kind of a blur in my memory because I was completely exhausted from barely sleeping the previous 48 hours, but I’m pretty sure that we hung out on the beach with a hilarious group of British guys that Abby and Lorna had met in another city in Brazil and with a couple of Brazilians that we met that night. Now that I really think about it, all of Carnaval is kind of a blur of craziness, but I’ll try to lay out a few other key events that happened.

My favorite bloco that we went to was called Sergeant Pepper and featured a Beatles tribute band and the really cool part is that there were about 60,000 people there! They had cannons that shot confetti into the air and I talked with a couple guys wearing sombreros and awesome mustaches for most of the time and we all belted “Yellow Submarine” and other Beatles songs together.

Thanks to Abby I also got to go to DJ Steve Angello’s concert one night and for at least 6 hours we danced and jumped like crazy people and enjoyed getting our eardrums blown out by house/techno music. Before the concert we hung out and pregamed with Abby’s friends from Mexico and then took a cab over to the venue. While at the concert Abby and I befriended a group of New Yorkers and I was literally best friends with one of them that entire night. We had our arms around each other jumping up and down and he rescued me from creepy guys [except from this psycho Norwegian who bit my ear and made it bleed]. The sad part is that I don’t remember any of their names and they left before the concert was over because they had a bus or flight or something to catch. Oh ya, another tragic thing that happened was Abby and I failed to bring enough money with us so we couldn’t buy water and I was dying of thirst. To satisfy my extreme dehydration I actually went around and asked people if I could have their ice from their alcohol cooler buckets. Pretty pathetic, I know. Luckily I didn’t wind up getting sick since I didn’t make the connection that ice comes from water and you aren’t supposed to drink unfiltered water there. Woops.

It was dawn when Abby and I finally got back to her apartment [we had just enough money left for the cab ride home] and our ears and bodies didn’t fully recover until about 24 hours later.

One day later in the week Abby, Lorna, and I went to a bloco literally right outside her apartment complex and we were just walking around checking out the crowd and such when this really attractive guy right in front of me turned and we made eye contact. We started talking and he asked me what I was doing in Rio, where I was from, etc. I’m not sure how he would feel about me using his actual name, and I doubt he’s reading this, but just in case I’m going to say his name was Felipe. I learned that Felipe was from Rio and I can’t remember everything he said to me that day, but I’ll definitely never forget one thing: he looked at me and said, “You have such beautiful eyes. I haven’t even kissed you yet and you are already breaking my heart.” Oh. My. Gosh. I died. Then he asked for my phone number so I had Abby give him hers since I didn’t have a Brazilian phone. I didn’t think he would ever call me, BUT I WAS WRONG! Not only did he call me, he also asked me out to dinner!! I got to go on a real Brazilian date! He came and picked up in his car and we drove somewhere, I think to an area of the city called Leblon, and he treated me to an authentic Brazilian meal of steak, farofas with plantains, French fries [ya, I was surprised too], this yummy tomato salsa fresca type stuff, and a bottle of red wine. It was so perfect. Afterwards we drove over to a lagoon in the city and talked and kissed under the stars before going back to Gavea to meet up with Abby at a bar near her place. We had a couple drinks and then like a gentleman he walked Abby and I home. Am I making you jealous yet? But wait, there’s more!!!

Somehow that night I managed to make him think that I’m really funny and cool because he told me that I needed to come over to his house with my friends a couple days later so that I could experience a real Brazilian barbeque. So, he drove over again and this time he and his friend picked up Abby, Lorna, and I and took us to an incredibly gorgeous beach named Joatinga. We hung out for a few hours at the beach drinking coconut milk and tanning. At one point Felipe and I were swimming and got stuck in a rip current and I practically died and almost flashed the entire beach getting back to shore because I was wearing a strapless bathing suit [sacrificing function for appearance]. 

After the beach we headed back to his house to have the barbeque. Let me preface this by saying that in Brazil, like most South American countries, people live with their parents until they’re married, but Felipe had his own house. Not only that, but it also overlooked the city and part of the jungle. And had an infinity pool. And a soccer court. And a sauna. And a pool table. And was extremely beautiful. I was obsessed with his house, which he said that his mom designed and he grew up in. While his friend cooked pasta, Felipe made steak, sausages, and cinnamon sugar plantains and we all ate so much. It was delicious. Then we sat and watched the sunset from the breathtaking view before heading back to Abby’s apartment. It was the end of one of my favorite days of all time and when Felipe and I said goodbye there was an unspoken feeling that we weren’t going to see each other again. I’m not going to lie—I was definitely sad, but it had been such an amazing experience that leaving it the way it was wound up being totally fine.

The following day Abby, Lorna, and I hiked up to the Christ the Redeemer statue at the top of this giant mountain in Rio. Well, “hike” might not be the right word. We struggled, climbed, struggled, clawed, struggled, and clambered up the mountain. Actually I have to say that Lorna wasn’t struggling at all. She totally kicked Abby and my butts, but thanks to Abby’s asthma and my loathing of any form of exercise, we had a tough time. We eventually made it to the top [praise God] and relished in our victory while scoffing at the tourists taking buses and the train up. Then, being extremely cheap and stingy, we decided not to pay to go to the front of the statue and took pictures behind it instead. We did discover a really awesome viewpoint that I’m pretty sure we weren’t supposed to go to and had a great photoshoot there. The way back down the mountain was definitely a lot easier, but at the end our legs felt like Jell-O and we caved and paid for a cab home because we were too tired and lazy to even walk to the bus stop. After resting for a while we went over to the Mexicans apartment and made pizzas and hung out. Then, the person who I least expected to hear from called Abby’s phone: Felipe! He said that he wanted to see me again, but I couldn’t because I had to catch a plane early the next morning so instead he wished me a safe flight and told me that he had a really great time with me. Seriously, why me?!!

Leaving Abby was incredibly difficult the next day. I just love being around her so much and she is such an amazing friend. And as you can see, she showed me a great time in Brazil and I had a blast in Rio and I seriously need to go back. This isn’t like Buenos Aires where I want to visit again, it’s like I have a physically longing to return to Rio. I’m actually considering changing my major so that I can take Portuguese classes and then teach English there after I finish all my schooling. My dream would be to teach Spanish in Rio though because it shocked me how few Brazilians knew that language even though they are surrounded by Spanish-speaking countries.

I guess that’s all I have to say about my adventures from Carnaval and Brazil so now here is a giant photo montage to further emphasize how much I freaking love that place. 

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