Carnaval doesn’t officially start in Brazil until March 4th, but the historic town of Olinda (nestled in the 3.5 million person city of Recife) gets it’s Carnaval revved up the weekend prior. It seemed like a good place to wrap up Captain Keywan’s portion of the trip.
Though we missed the massive displays and floats, we also missed the millions of people and the outrageous prices (which is very welcome after two months on the road). It was two nights of following bands around through the cobblestone streets with lots of drunk Brazilians singing their hearts out. The $0.75 tall boys of Skol beer (served up from dozens of cooler buggies following the action) were enjoyed by all.
Speaking of cheap drinks, the daytime Caiparinhas ($1.25) quench the thirst during the crazy hot days in a city with tons of unswimmable beaches due to a rash of shark attacks over the past 30 years.
The big Carnaval floats rolled up on Sunday morning. It was exciting to see all the people rolling in for the big start. It was not exciting to drive the little Fiat (which is pretty well beat to crap by now) out of Olinda in this mess. It included quite a few u-turns and one mildly nerve racking dash in the wrong direction on a one way street while dodging thousands of brightly dressed, already drinking Brazilians. We survived though, and now I am back to the southern beaches for a couple of days to scuba dive before I have to leave Brazil.
I wish the pictures could really do this justice.
Low Waving Through South America 
That’s what i call,”bringin’ beer to the people!”