Mas é Carnaval...

Don't tell me who you are, it's Carnival....today I'm whoever you want...

The first of our Carnival guests was due early this morning, but was a bit behind schedule, leaving me with time to put more finishing touches to the rooms. When she arrived, we sat down for some breakfast and a long chat (well, HH had retreated to the computer, as usual). She's a delightful girl and unusually, I would think, for a Brazilian, took two years off from university, aged 20, to go to Germany as an au pair. She spent two years there and in the second year, once her charge started nursery school, had plenty of free time to study German. She also speaks and writes good English, is learning French and has some Italian.

The other three arrived later, two from Sao Paulo and one from Brasília and stayed upstairs for quite a while. We could hear snatches of talk and laughter and just as we were about to leave for the hills, we discovered the cause of the merriment. They came downstairs all dressed and made up for the street Carnival . Out in the road, there were thousands more like them,  streaming in all directions (short tulle skirts a favourite for both men and women). Street Carnival has really taken off in recent years, but we hadn't realised to quite what an extent.

I almost regretting leaving all the merriment behind, but now we're at home in the hills, it's cool and the quiet and so good to be able to relax. It has been an exhausting few days.