Today I conquered the Sao Paulo subway system. It’s not much different than any other city, just very hard to ask directions. This morning I went on the subway to a market in Republic Square. A lot of very interesting things there, food, stones, clothing, jewelry, leather and much more. When I left there I went to the Sambradome, bought a ticket for tonight and got acquainted on how to get there.  Met a fellow from Malta while I was buying my ticket, all English speakers are so happy to get someone they can talk to.  This evening I went to the Sambrodome on the subway and then took a taxi the rest of the way. It is a huge structure, 530 m long and 14 m wide, with lighting that make night into day. There are two sets of bleachers/seating on either side of a large thoroughfare that passes between the bleachers. It is open air but the Carnival goes on rain or not , the feathers just get droopy and wet if it rains.  
Carnival is awesome. It is like the Chestico days parade times 100,000. There are HUGE floats and hundreds of costumed people with each float. The floats are entered by various districts of the city. The participants are not all young pretty girls, it looks as if whole neighborhoods (mom, dad, grandma and grandpa) get costumed in the most beautiful and imaginative costumes you can imagine.  So much flash, feathers and glitter on the dancers, lots of birds gave up their feathers for the parades. The huge parade passes between the two sets of bleachers. The whole length of the bleachers (one side) must be ½ a km.
Now there are beautiful girls, some are in very intricate costumes and some are barely in costumes at all. Each float has many dancers on it and preceding it and following it as well. The floats are pushed by a large group of ‘pushers’ and one person steers it.  These floats are very high and there are dancers on all levels. It would be a long way to fall. Then there is so much music, on speaker systems and from the dancers singing.
Met a lovely couple, Renaldo and Martha, he is Brazilian and she is Polish. They speak English so it was so nice to have a guide to explain the parade to me. So instead of having to leave early and catch a cab and a subway, I was able to share a cab back to my hotel and they continued on down to where they live.
Pictures will be posted when I get a better connection.