The Brazilian Carnival

(...)

"Dance!" she exclaimed while taking the beer bottle out of my hand. It’s Carnaval after all - the world-famous Brazilian carnival party, in no better place than Rio de Janeiro. I did try to follow her smooth (and more often than not, very sexy) moves that were beautifully in sync with the latino beats from the band downstairs. That’s more or less what I pictured what the ‘favela’ slums would feel like!

As the night goes on - and Bela gets more excited with her performance - it was impossible not to feel the tension building up. Colleagues have warned me before of how touchy Brazilian people can get, but this was something else.

She grabbed my hand all of sudden and pulled away from the party, towards one of the many alleys that compose the view of the ‘favelas’. A mix of fear and excitement started to grow on me. Can this random girl I found in one of the most dangerous places on Earth be trusted?

(...)