Carnaval no Sambodromo

Matt and I went to the Sambodromo last night/this morning for some good Rio-Carnaval fun! We arrived just as the first school was finishing, made friends with a few of our neighbors (a very international group- Brits, Bulgarians, Italians, and Cariocas), and settled into photo-taking and dancing with the music.

In summary, Ilha (2nd up last night and pictured here) had some great costumes with a British theme- including the queen's guard on "horses" and a history of Britain including an Indian component and a float to honor Sir Isaac Newton and Darwin. It was pretty sweet!

Highlights:
3rd up: Salgueiro (best music, I think)
4th up: Mangueira (awesome heaven/hell themed float)
5th up: Tijuca! (most amazing floats- so many moving parts!)

There'll be another picture for "tomorrow" since most of this happened on the 21st. I just have to sort through all 1600 photos first! How am I supposed to pick just one?