Revelers took the
party back to Rio's feather- and sequin-littered
streets on Tuesday, after the Beija Flor group wrapped up
city's two-day-long carnival parade with an opulent
predawn pageant.
Transvestites put
the finishing touches on over-the-top getups for the
popular Gala Gay Tuesday -- the last big bash of a carnival
that has been marked by scandals involving everything
from the Holocaust to a samba queen's quest to set a
world record for the most plastic surgeries.
With the parades
finished for the year, revelers sought to extend the
carnival's festivities by heading to the city's beaches or
falling in behind the street bands that were still
playing.
''You can show
the pictures and tell people what's going on, but you have
to feel it, the music and the atmosphere. It is impossible
to just describe it; you have live it,'' said
Alexander Milikan, a 30-year-old bank worker from
Holland, as he recovered from four days of celebrations
on Ipanema beach.
Meanwhile, locals
argued over which group would be declared champion in
this year's carnival parade, a fierce competition between
Rio's top 12 samba groups.
The judges who
grade the groups' performances don't vote until Wednesday,
but early favorites include Unidos de Tijuca, Grande Rio,
and Beija Flor, which has won the championship four
out of the past five years.
Beija Flor's
reputation been marred by accusations that directors
conspired to steal last year's championship by intimidating
judges. An investigation into the accusations yielded
an inconclusive report.
''They tried to
disqualify our parade in 2007, but we have shown that we
have won in the most dignified manner possible,'' Laila, who
goes by one name, told a booing crowd, before the
group's parade got started early Tuesday.
Jeers gave way to
applause, however, as the group impressed the crowd
with its opulent floats, ornate costumes, and topless beauty
queen. Its dancers were encrusted in gold and wore
masks and wings, in an allusion to ancient legends of
the Amazon rain forest.
Actresses Lucy
Liu and Monica Bellucci were among the international
celebrities attending this year's parade.
In Sao Paulo,
which holds a parade similar to Rio's on Friday and
Saturday night, the samba group Vai-vai, or Go-go, snagged
its 13th championship title in its 78-year history
Tuesday.
In the
northeastern cities of Olinda and Recife, revelers crowded
the streets dancing to the rhythms of music styles
such as frevo and maracatu. And in the coastal city of
Salvador, supermodel Naomi Campbell appeared with
Ile Aiye, a bloco afro, or traditional
samba-reggae group.
On Sunday night,
all the buzz was over the Rio samba group Viradouro,
which had a float featuring naked Holocaust victims and a
dancing Hitler vetoed by a local judge. The group
instead paraded with a float (covered with people
wearing gags) devoted to free expression.
And beauty Queen
Angela Bismarchi also caused a stir, inserting nylon
wires into her eyes in order to look more oriental for a
parade honoring 100 years of Japanese immigration to
Brazil.
It was the 42nd
plastic surgery for Bismarchi, who is seeking to set the
world's record for most surgeries, which currently stands at
47. (AP)
