In case you haven't heard of Rio Carnival (where have you been?) it is a festival centered around the samba schools of Rio de Janeiro. Over five party-filled days, the schools compete for the carnival title. This involves colourful floats, costumes, props and some serious dancing!
The samba parades are amazing but the most fun is had at the blocos. Huge street parties (organised or spontaneous), the blocos attract thousands of revellers decked out in every kind of fancy dress imaginable. They usually involve little more than a truck with some speakers and a load of cheap beer, but the largest bloco in 2012 attracted over a million people.
Our first fancy dress effort was smurftastic. After several beers, 15 cans of body paint and some Jagermeister; 28 smurfs hit the streets. A trail of blue carnage was left in our wake and anyone foolish enough to touch us spent the rest of the day trying to de-blue themselves!
Another great one was the Sergeant Pepper bloco, featuring a Beatles tribute band. There is something special about singing "Hey Jude" with a million people dressed as pirates, superheros, mythical creatures and other wacky stuff.
I was staying with my good friend Jonny in his flat right next to Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. These beautiful beaches are packed during the day and claiming a piece of sand for your towel can be tough. On the upside, you are never more than five meters away from a guy selling cold beer. The beaches are almost as busy during the night - it's just that the guy selling beer is replaced with a prostitute selling...well you get the idea.
Jonny and his friends took me up a huge hill overlooking the city. To get there we had to walk through the Vidigal favela, an experience in itself. The favelas came into existence when huge numbers of people left the rural areas of the country and flocked to Brazil's large cities looking for work. The majority of these people had nowhere to live and no way of paying for accommodation so they just built basic huts on unused land. This was often the steep land on the side of the hills in the city which ironically has some of the best views in town.
The climb involved walking through people's porches, steps and even along a wall at one point but the view on the top was worth it.
I also trekked it up to the top of the Corcovado to see the Christ The Redeemer statue. The walk seemed like a good idea from the bottom but after losing half my body weight in sweat over the 90 minute climb, I began to see the merit of the extortionately priced air conditioned train.
There was a sign at the top that described the statue as the "largest art deco statue" and the "5th largest statue of Christ" in the world. I'm not sure who researches this kind of stuff but I was in no position to argue.
One thing that is certain, its a spectacular sight to see. Not just because of the statue, which towers above the hordes in 30 meters of solid concrete; but also because of the location. This is probably the best view of Rio, and what a magical view it is.
And that's all folks!
I am sad to say that Rio was the last port of call before I jumped on a plane back to London. Sun & sand have been swapped for snow & sleet and it is so cold that I am wearing all my clothes.
What a year it has been. I have stood at the furthest point from the centre of the earth, swam with pink dolphins in the amazon jungle, changed a flat tyre on the salt planes of Bolivia, picked coconuts in exchange for a hammock, fought muggers in the streets of Quito with a Lonely Planet guide, seen more glaciers than I can count, paraglided over a lake ringed with volcanoes and done a million and one other amazing things that I thought I'd never do.
My father has been keeping track of my movements on this map. I might not have taken the most direct route but a lot of ground has been covered this year!
But none of that compares to the people I've met along the way, which is the main reason I love to travel. I have spent time with some of the kindest, funniest and craziest people on this planet over the last 12 months! They are too many to mention but that is what has made it so special.
So that's the end of my travels (for now). I hope you've enjoyed reading the blog as much as I've enjoyed writing it. Until next time...
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