If there's one country that is consistently at the top of the many adventurers' lists, it's Brazil. Not only is it exotic and gorgeous, but from hosting the 2014 World Cup; to the summer 2016 Summer Olympic Games; to some of the craziest festivals in the world, Brazil is one big party after another.

For the ultimate Brazilian party experience, Rio Carnival is a truly a festival of a lifetime, with music and dancing filling the streets of this enormous city for days on end. Held every year, the carnival in Rio de Janeiro is one of the biggest in the world, with two million people per day on the streets. At the very least, it is the world's most famous dance party.

A group of ten international friends – from Australia, Canada, Russia and the United States – and I planned a vacation centered around Rio Carnival, with side visits to Ilha Grande, Paraty and Iguazu Falls. The cornerstone of our Carnival experience was to attend – and hopefully participate in – the parade at the Sambodromo . In front of hordes of thousands upon thousands of people (with millions more watching on TV), dancers from numerous samba schools shimmy their butts off and sing at the top of their lungs in a massive parade of costumed performances, giant floats, drummers and colorful samba dancers. It's serious business in Brazil – thousands of people are in the grandstands, and the samba schools compete under the watchful eye of renowned judges for the top prize.

Not everyone realizes this, but tourists can dance in the Carnival as part of a samba school – and that's exactly what we did. About six months before flying to Brazil, I looked up samba schools in Rio and found that there were at least a dozen anyone can join; prices vary based on the ranking of the school and how elaborate the costumes are. Our group picked Alegria da Zona Sul (meaning "South Zone of Joy"), whose costumes were mostly blue and white. I paid $160, which included a custom-fit costume (though many of our measurements turned out to be a little off), a metro ticket to get to the Sambodromo, and a chance participation in the parade. Our immersive experience in Rio Carnival was off to a great start already.

The city already buzzing around us, we picked up our costumes on the day of the parade and were ushered up to a room filled with stacks upon stacks of costumes – feathers mingled with glittery face masks, while fake rhinestones overlapped meters of synthetic material. My costume consisted of blue pants with gold hemming, a grass-style skirt, a huge and ornate piece to be hoisted over one's shoulders, and a funky, feathered headpiece. Girls wore white tube tops under their shoulder pieces, while guys went shirtless. 

Taking the metro was a struggle because our shoulder pads were so wide and so, so 80s, and our stiff foam headpieces made visible indents on our sweaty foreheads. Did I also mention that it was about almost 90º F outside? My friends and I missed the metro ride with the rest of the samba school, but managed to find our way to a metro and get off at Central Station and got to the Sambodromo just in time.

Here's my advice – if you're performing on the first day of Carnival (Friday), don't sweat it. The advance time period gives everyone time to learn dance moves and lyrics to the theme song, but our teachers decided to skip this step and let a bunch of mostly uncoordinated tourists do their interpretation of the samba. It's apparently also common for there to be significant delays, so our scheduled 9:45 pm performance wound up actually happening nearer to midnight.

Happily, this gave our group a chance to socialize with other performers – both tourists from our school and other schools –  and to take photos of all the mesmerizing and intricate costumes and floats (it's absolutely spellbinding), and of course drink lots of alcohol to muster up the courage to dance in front of hundreds of thousands of seasoned party-goers from all over the world. Just make sure to stay hydrated – nobody wants a sluggish samba dancer once it's your turn to shimmy through the stadium!

Our samba school was organized into neat and straight rows while waiting behind the stadium for our turn to perform. At one point we had been waiting or so long, it felt like we'd never leave. But finally, finally, the sound of fireworks erupted to signal the start of the show. And we were off, shuffling and sashaying as best as we could, under the weight of the heavy and ornate costumes that only compounded my lack of coordination further. Nothing could have prepared me for turning the corner to be under the bright spotlights of the Sambodromo, to be flanked by eager audience members, and to be welcomed by thundering drums and the night's theme song being sung over and over. To say the experience was exhilarating is an understatement.

Here I was, dancing my heart and feet out at the Sambodromo, soaking up the pure adrenaline and energy from the entire event. Everyone shuffles forward and keeps dancing nonstop for about a kilometer and it's certainly tiring – my feet ached from the cloth shoes they'd given us, I was soaked with sweat under the lights and I awkwardly bumped into others in the parade thanks to my huge, unwieldy costume. But as we finally crossed the finish line and everyone broke into applause, I looked at my friends and we all had the same expression on our faces: one of pure amazement, exhilaration and joy at being immersed in such a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The samba school dancers cheered, took selfies and guzzled water.

Getting home was a bit of a trek, as we wound up catching a taxi home, which took a while. But that didn't stop us from joining some impromptu samba dances with the locals outside before heading back to our hotels, sweaty, sticky, and ecstatic.

If you are unable to participate or watch Carnival in the Sambodromo, joining the bandas and the blocos (street parties) that sprawl across the city is one of the best ways to experience the festival in Rio de Janeiro. Whatever you do, be prepared for many sleepless nights, sunkissed, hot days and plenty of caipirinhas, music and dancing with thousands of party-goers for an unforgettable festival experience.