Five days of 24-hour music, hundreds of thousands of revellers in minuscule, feathery outfits, dancingfeetsofastyoucantkeepup

and huge smiles.

A heart-warming relief when most locals seem to have their ‘I hate Mondays’ faces on till Friday.

Once the ‘Marvellous City’, now ‘Hell De Janeiro’ according to some, it’s not surprising. The state is in so much debt that workers aren’t being paid enough (if at all in sometimes) and pensions have been put on hold until… In a country of approx. 200 million where the majority earn less than the minimum wage (roughly £200), that’s brutal.

The changes have been fascinating to see:

• Aged seven, I remember hundreds of sleeping bodies in the streets, children begging us to buy them food when we ate out. Yet people were so friendly and eager to talk
• At eighteen, it was great to see how much the city had improved: it felt much safer and there were…