“Huh. According to Bloco da Rua, there aren’t many blocos on Monday,” Feng noted on Sunday night.

“No way! What are we supposed to do? Go to the beach in freaking Rio de Janeiro? I want a refund on my free Carnival parties!”

“There’s still Sargento Pimenta in the morning. Then there’s a whole bunch in Copa…”

“… but they are small. I remember. Well, we’ll start with The Beatles and figure it out.”

We love the Bloco do Sargento Pimenta. It’s basically a band mixing songs from The Beatles with Brazilian rhythms. For once, we know the lyrics and can sing along, plus it’s a very “peace & love” bloco. It’s huge, though, and there’s almost no shade in the large Aterro do Flamengo park.

“Alright, I’m gonna sleep. Oh, and you may want to clean your ears… I’ve just cleaned Mark’s and mine, they were full of glitter.”

“Let’s see… What are you guys doing with your ears? Mine are just fine!”

“You still have glitter around your eyes, Mommy.”

“Shit. Mark, can you ask Daddy if he wants me to wash his skirt? I’m doing another load of laundry…”

And so, on Monday morning, we got up and went straight to party mode at 11 a.m. It’s weird at first but you do get used to it—wake up, put on glitter, Carnival outfit, take the subway with guys wearing fairy wings and butt-naked girls, join a huge crowd, forget about the world and what people dare to call “normal life.”

After the final—and awfully relevant—“give peace a chance,” we went back to the apartment to change into our swimsuits, then we walked three blocks to Praia de Copacabana.

It’s stunning, really. I’ve rarely seen such a long and wide strip of sand. I’ve rarely seen it this packed as well—apparently, we weren’t the only one to tick “beach” on a hot and sunny Monday without major blocos.

Now, the dirty secret about Copacabana is that the water is cold, the sea is rough and the water is questionably clean, especially during Carnival (remember these rows of portable toilets you must have seen in my pictures? Yeah, they aren’t far from the water…).

I took Mark for a long walk all the way to Leme, the far end of Copacabana, for the best views of the neighbourhood. This is one of my favourite spots in Rio de Janeiro—the light is gorgeous, it’s free, and no climbing is required!