Friday started off with the old-folks on Rio Branco in Centro. Got to keep those artificial hips moving and exercise those pacemakers just a bit I suppose. Then headed up to Santa Teresa on the Largo Dos Guimaraes for the very-fun Bloco Das Carmelitas. Subtitled: Barefoot and on Foot. It is a long story but a Carmelite nun escapes from her convent in Centro, feels barefoot and on foot and heads up to Sant aTeresa. She gets lost on the various ladeiras and only goes back down the hill on Quarta-Cinzas. or Ash Wednesday. Anyway, the bloc starts down the hill, makes a circuitous routing and then there is a token, symbolic trip at the end of the Carnaval to the Carmelite Hospital for Ash Wednesday. In the meantime, it was a fun time with many, many hot guys wearing not much other than wimples. Lots of beer. Also, frozen caipirinha sacoles. Empty, and tossed on the street, looking like nothing other than used condoms oozing the last bits of an enormous load of jizz. Quite gross. Err, quite nice.

After, we hit the Desfiles Dos Mirins at the newly-rehabbed Sambodromo. Free entrance...For the arquebancadas. For TotallyOz, the camarotes entries were not gratis. But they looked very nice. Mirins are the junior/youth wings of the major samba schools. Really cute. Quite fun. With the proud parents hooting and hollering for their young Rainhas da Bateria and very svelte Bahiannas. Seeing them samba with their padded boobies and bundas was really trippy.

Came back home to find a quaint contest for the best fantasia/costume. Very, very down-to-earth. A local asked me for some coke. As I was drinking from a large bottle. However, he was looking for po/powder in exchange for sex. Not going there, even if he was very hot and with his ass hanging out of a tight speedo. Even ignoring the fact that he was wearing a skimpy dress, eye liner, lipstick and a wig.

Yesterday morning's contest was for the best costume made out of toilet paper. Tragic. Quite.

Oops. Saturday's Cordao de Bola Preta had 2.2 million celebrants. I went once. Enough. Last year, I passed through Cinelandia as it was winding down. Just incredible. At 8AM this morning, it looked like a cyclone had recently passed through Centro and Cinelandia. The roaming Huns, Visigoths and hordes of Mongols had nothing on the current crop of hard-partying Cariocas.