Carnival time in Rio

It looks like the pre-lenten Carnival in Rio was its usual flashy, showy self. I'd love to attend the celebrations one day, to see what they're like in person.

The Daily Mail reports:

Brazil's Carnival added a mature twist to its symbolic parade today by giving two women in their 40s a chance to dance at the head of their samba parades.

Some of Brazil's most beautiful women battle it out each year to become their school's drum queen in the carnival renowned for being a symbol for youth, beauty and sex.




Drum queens lead their parades by furiously dancing samba in little more than glittery body paint, an enormous headdress and tall heels.




The role usually goes to young starlets or beautiful women plucked from the downtrodden areas where the samba schools are based.




But two leading samba schools taking part in last night's final night of the top-tier parades surprised Brazilians by choosing women aged 46 and 44 - though one is a former model and the other was once a Playboy cover girl.

'It's a huge change,' Luiza Brunet, 46, said as she prepared for her showcase role in the Imperatiz samba school's parade.




'It shows that women who are more mature are gaining space in a country with so much machismo, where we give more value to youth and beauty.'




Psychologist Enaile Ortiz - 48 - agreed and said she would be helping to break the impression that youth equated to beauty.

'This shows you can be in a beautiful state, no matter what stage of life you are in,' she said.

Looking at those ladies, I couldn't agree more!



Peter