Rio de Janeiro's world-famous samba school parades held their grand finale as the five-day-long Carnival celebration came to an end on Tuesday morning. Photo: AP
Last year's champion, Unidos da Tijuca, was the last parade Monday.
Mangueira and Salgueiro were the biggest-name samba schools parading.
Each group required to get their thousands of participants and giant floats across the roughly 730 meter-long runway in under 82 minutes.
Carnival celebrations in smaller cities have even been cancelled because of the drought.
In addition to near-constant reminders of the stalled economy, Brazilians are coping with a snowballing corruption scandal at the state-run oil giant Petrobras as well as the worst drought in 80 years in the southeast, which includes Rio and the
The mesmerising kaleidoscope of glittering costumes, magnificent floats and shimmering dancers saw thousands flock to the Rio Sambadrome to cheer on their favourite samba schools and head on to the parties thereafter.
A one-hour heavy downpour failed to dampen the mood as the annual Carnival in Rio kicked off its parades Sunday.
"Like soccer, Carnival is becoming a party for the rich," said Souza, a 30-year-old history teacher. "And that's a real shame because it's the poor who have always made up the heart of Carnival."
But while about 14,200 tickets are sold for around $4, prices for most seats start at over $75 and rise sharply from there, which is a small fortune in a country where the monthly minimum wage is $278. The most exclusive of the Sambadrome's "
Rio's Carnival has its origins in the streets, and samba schools bear the names of the hillside "favela" slums where they were born.
"Carnival is Brazil's biggest popular party, but the masses are being excluded," said Terreira, a 53-year-old public school teacher whose black slicker helped protect her from driving rains Sunday, the first of two main parade nights at the
The party grew year after year, but revelers eventually were banned from parading in the colonial downtown after shopkeepers complained pristine white walls were stained with the hard-to-remove mud.
In the nearby town of Paraty, people played at the "Mud Block" carnival party. Legend has it the tradition was born in 1986 after local teens hiking in a nearby mangrove forest smeared themselves with mud to discourage mosquitoes and then wandered
Another reveler dressed up as Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff and a group of friends dressed up as nuns. A family in angel and devil costumes peered from their homes' windows to watch a "bloco" street party go by.
Carnival also exploded at hundreds of alcohol-soaked street parties, where one reveler brought two costume-clad dogs that watched the party from a baby stroller.
The samba schools were competing for the best performance, which will be announced later in the week.
On Sunday, a tropical deluge soaked feather-clad dancers and wildly costumed musicians, dumping rain on tennis star Rafael Nadal as he made a cameo appearance.
Some members of the schools hung upside down while others flew in giant butterfly costumes.
Samba schools paraded giant floats starting Friday night, singing and dancing past masses of spectators at the city's Sambadrome.