We didn’t do much during the day yesterday. We had a little mooch around the shops close to the hotel but we didn’t buy anything. We were looking for accessories for carnival but couldn’t find anything we liked.

In the afternoon we just sat out by one of the restaurants with a couple of beers and watched all the people go by. I got a lovely neck and shoulder massage – he clicked my neck and it felt really good.

And then in the evening we went to celebrate carnival with the thousands of other people. We had tickets for Harem Camarote which was down near the end of the carnival route so we had to walk through the crowds to get there. A camarote is like a massive secure area with a restaurant, a mixture of bars, their own DJs and a whole other area where live bands play – it’s like a mini festival within the carnival. You can also watch the trucks go past and go out onto the streets to join in the fun.

This time I took my phone with me (secure in my flipbelt) but the photos don’t really show the immense size of the trucks and just how busy carnival actually is.

This photo is looking out onto the streets from the camarote – as always there is a large police presence which makes you feel really safe.

This one is looking across the camarote out into the streets

And this is of one of the trucks going by

And the carnival route we were on (Barra/Odina) is just one of three different routes in Salvador.

I absolutely loved carnival – the music, the friendly people and the whole atmosphere.

The one bad thing is that a lot of people pee in the streets so the aroma isn’t great and you end up walking through puddles of piss. But the walk home yesterday was not as busy as the other night as all the trucks had got to the end of the route.