We got up really early to go down to our new favorite bakery/restaurant to pick up breakfast for our wonderful hosts Bernardo and Marilia for hosting us an extra 2 days. Everything would´ve been fine, except we had forgotten to take our anti-malarials the night before (too much Carnival fun!) and had to take them this morning asap. Taking them on empty stomachs is a really bad idea, as we discovered!

Lin and our hosts were setting the breakfast table when a horrible feeling at the back of Lin´s throat and forced a mad dash to a porcelain embrace. It was pretty embarrassing and then we couldn´t even enjoy the tasty breakfast of assorted sweet breads and rolls we had brought!

We left pretty soon after breakfast, making way for two new couchsurfers who had arrived only moments before we left. We headed to an internet cafe to decide where to go next. An hour and 2 buses later ($8 from Rio to Petropolis), we had decided to head to Petropolis, a lovely mountain town about an hour outside of Rio. (For more info, check the wiki link here)

We arrived at the bus station which is pretty far from town and caught a taxi into town about 20 minutes to the center (About $5/person). It didn´t take long to wander around and find a cheap place to stay. There are no hostels in Petropolis but the hotels usually offer breakfast and are around $9-10/person for a double room. (We stayed at Hotel Commercio for $11/person with breakfast and a huge window that opened to a magnificent view of the surrounding mountains! Plus it´s very central and everything is extremely walkable in the center.)

Petropolis is also celebrating Carnival but since it´s not really on the tourist map for partying, there were essentially no other tourists to be found. We are just happy to be out Rio´s Carnival prices for a few days–they´re a real budget killer and Petropolis doesn´t raise prices since no tourists really come for it´s Carnival celebration. After the usual wander around town to see what´s there and where, we went back out after dinner to check out Carnival in a small town. They put on several parades just like a mini-sambadrome but the dancers tend to be just average members of the community–lots of kids, preteen girls, and old ladies.

Carnivale in Petropolis

Carnival in Petropolis

At Carnival in Petropolis

But the biggest difference is that they didn´t look like they were having much fun at all! Barely anyone was smiling and the audience wasn´t too excited either. Barely anyone danced or cheered or did much of anything! But it was still pretty neat to see how a smaller community celebrates the biggest party in the world.