Covering Rio's Carnival: No Day at the Beach...

2005-01-30T10:05:00.000-08:00

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - It's 3 a.m. and a drizzling rain is falling. Your ears hurt from ceaselessly pounding drums, your legs are tired from walking up and down the parade ground. You got the brush-off from supermodel Gisele Bundchen and you last saw your wife dressed in a bikini and feathered head-dress disappearing with a horde of almost naked dancers.
And you still have to check if anyone has been murdered.
Sound like a good time? It's all part of the fun of covering Rio de Janeiro's legendary annual Carnival, arguably one of the most coveted of all Reuters assignments.
Normal life in Brazil comes to a virtual stop over the pre-Lenten extravaganza and other cities, notably Salvador in Bahia state, also have spectacular celebrations.
But it's the Rio bash, with its images of glistening bodies and hedonistic excess, that the world wants to see and hear about.
For the reporter, that means adjusting your body clock and keeping a pair of ear-plugs handy.
The main action takes place overnight in the Sambodromo, a marching ground with viewing stands on each side holding around 70,000 people. Here, over two nights, Rio's top 14 samba schools parade hoping to capture the champion's crown.
It starts round about nine in the evening and wraps up about dawn. Each samba school's display lasts more than an hour.
As well as the fantastically decorated floats, up to 4,000 dancers and musicians take part for each school, including a drum corps of up to 300 percussionists. all trying to impress the judges with their choreography, costumes, music and all-round enthusiasm.
And of course there's that magnet for the photographers - the Carnival Queens clad in little more than a clutch of feathers and a handful of glitter.
The schools all have a theme for their presentation - Grande Rio, with whom my wife Keiko paraded last year, chose to promote safe sex under the theme "Let's Wear a Condom."

maturerif

Covering Rio's Carnival: No Day at the Beach...