Rio is insane. From my early evening viewpoint at the peak of Sugar Loaf Mountain, it appeared as though someone had dumped a load of concrete and lights in the middle of a forest and then ran off, leaving the inhabitants to sort the mess.

I've never been to a place with so many stark contradictions, a graffiti covered city bang next to an amazing natural habitat, where poverty is literally minutes behind shows of wealth and the destitute live cheek by jowl with the designer sunglasses set.

We have all seen images of favelas, the shantytowns made infamous by the film City of God, climbing up hillsides directly behind rows of swish apartment blocks, but this does not prepare you for the sight up close. Or, for that matter, the sight of 70 year-old men and women in thongs. It all makes for a unique, and sometimes unsettling, urban experience.

What you need to take the edge off this culture shock is a fabulous night out – and Rio offers plenty of opportunities for this. It becomes very clear, very quickly, why this city hosts one of the largest carnivals in the world. They love to throw a party.

Where to samba in Rio

Stanley Stewart heads to Lapa, the old quarter of Brazil’s ultimate party town, for caipirinhas and twirls

Pure shores of Brazil's Bahia

Virgin sands, sexy sounds, pretty towns – Bahia blends the best of Brazil. Get there before it’s fashionable

Brazil's wild wetland

You won’t find many tourists in the Pantanal. What you will find are more than 35 million inquisitive alligators

• The weird and wonderful Pantanal

• Getting swampy in Brazil

• How to organise a honeymoon in Brazil

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• Where to samba in Rio

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The traditional music of Rio’s clubs and bars is samba, forro or chorinho and the best area to hear this is in Lapa. All the guidebooks will point you in the direction of Lapa, and yes it is a popular tourist area, but for good reason.

Renovated heritage buildings line the streets around a huge aqueduct and people spill out of the bars from midnight onwards. I was told the live music started around 8.30pm, but my Brazilian friend Anna and I headed into Lapa far later, Rio’s nightlife really starts to get going around 1am or 2am and it sounds obvious, but I really do recommend a siesta if you want to keep up.

One of the most popular places in Lapa is Rio Scenarium. Again, people will tell you it’s a tourist thing to go there but just ignore their snobbism, it is well worth checking out not only for the music and atmosphere but also for the eccentric interior. I’ve not been in a club with a working lift taking you between floors since my days attending Birmingham’s Steering Wheel nightclub.

There are three upper floors of eclectic furniture and curiosities, but it’s on the ground floor that you will see the truly amazing sight of couples dancing so well it’s enough to send judges on Strictly Come Dancing into a delightful flush.

The night I was there, the couples were dancing to forro, a genre of music based on the themes of love and romance, passion and jealousy. The dancing is very sensual, with the guy placing his knee and thigh between his partner’s legs as they move around. It takes skill to look good, and not sleazy, doing this so I was full of admiration for the people moving seductively around the room.

As you make your way through each floor, the decor becomes more bizarre but the same scene greets you of people dancing and enjoying caipirinhas. I'm sure it's not a standard part of a night out in Rio to be introduced to the Miss Transsexual Brazil winner, but I amusingly found myself in front of a heavily made-up beauty queen with a towering tiara congratulating her on her victory.

She glided past to re-join her entourage and a waiter popped into view to replenish our beers. It was here, and in other Lapa clubs, that I experienced a rather fiendish drinks system involving what looks like a scorecard, but is in fact a personal menu listing all the different drinks on offer.

Each time you order a drink from the waiters or from the bar, your card is marked. The danger is that it can feel like a free bar, inducing much generosity, but at the end of the night you have to pay up and the club's entrance fee is also marked on this card so make sure you have plenty of cash on you.