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Carnival blasts off in Rio amid heat wave

Saturday, February 13, 2010
RIO DE JANEIRO: Carnival erupted Friday in Rio with raucous street parties that brought together cheering, drum-beating locals with sweaty foreigners escaping snowbound cities.

Thousands of Carnival revelers flooded the cobbled streets of the bohemian Santa Teresa neighborhood in skimpy costumes bordering on blasphemous.

At the "Carmelitas" party — named after a nearby convent — groups of young women dressed as sexy police in cutoffs and tank tops, while grown men who donned baby outfits, sucked on pacifiers and showered themselves with talcum powder.

The drum line, whose powerful samba beat kept the crowd dancing in the sweltering heat, was made up of young men dressed as nuns, as were many in the crowd.

Friday marked the start of dozens of the eccentric, pulsating street parties that are the heart and soul of Rio's pre-Lent festival.

The seaside city is opening its arms to more than 700,000 visitors this year, according to tourism officials, and the hottest weather in five decades has done nothing to slow down the madness.

Carly Oboudiyat, a 25-year-old medical student from New York, left mountains of snow to enjoy white sand beaches and raucous "blocos" — as Rio's Carnival street parties are known.

"I'm loving it, it's fantastic going from freezing winds to 111-degree weather," Oboudiyat said as she took in the surroundings near Ipanema beach, a cold beer in hand and beads of sweat on her forehead.

Samba dancers still were rehearsing Friday for the start of competition in dazzling parades of scantily clad revelers and towering floats.

This year, a spunky 7-year-old girl has been promoted to the coveted role of Carnival drum corps queen — something normally reserved for sultry models.

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