I am planning to visit Carnaval next February as someone posted a really good deal on AA flights from SFO-GRU... obviously I'll have to get myself over to Rio.
I have read through several of the Carnaval websites and none of them actually tell me what I want to know, what are the dates I actually need to be there for? The start dates? the end dates? the middle? The whole damn thing? I can't seem to distinguish the different days. I want to see the most unique elements as well as the big or epic moments, and any LGBT moments if there are any... I'll then spend the rest of my time doing non-Carnaval things or checking out Sao Paolo plus a Hyatt mattress run in Macae... thanks in advance to anyone from Rio or with prior experience. Also, are there any smaller Carnavals outside of Rio in Brazil? I know there's some other South American cities like Baranquilla in Colombia.