A new business idea for a local

6 February: One of our missions while in Olinda has been to find Carnaval masks as a Brazilian souvenir - and there are plenty around. They range from simple hand painted papier-mâché masks to ornate masks decorated with feathers, gems and globs of glitter. We found some pretty cool ones but figured that Australian customs wouldn’t like the feathers – and that was before we found out the price.

Last night Olinda was in full party mode and many shops were open late. Across the road from our hotel was a shop that we’d paid little attention to and saw some masks made from rubber that were hand painted and super lightweight – perfect for the backpackers. The smiley shop keeper was also the artist of the masks and we asked if he could paint two in the colours of the Brazilian flag – a girly one and one for the man. To our delight we arrived the next morning to find he had made many masks in Brazilian colours proudly displayed on his window sill. He seemed very pleased with this new business idea.

Our artist friend had also made me a hair decoration with feathers, flowers and fake gems. We left feeling happy that we had our personally designed masks that will be worn with pride.