Brazil's famed carnival winds down

Revelers packed Rio de Janeiro's beaches and danced in streets littered with pieces of glittery costumes Tuesday, soaking up the final hours of merriment after the climax of the city's world-famous carnival.

Earlier, as the sun came up, the samba group Beija Flor _ "hummingbird" in English _ wowed a capacity crowd of 60,000 in Rio's Sambadromo stadium with a celebration of Brazil's African roots. Opening with an enormous float featuring a gilded hummingbird and leaping impalas, Beija Flor followed with an army of dancers in various states of plumage and undress.

"It was so elegant and exquisitely put together, and the crowd had so much energy," said Andre Deckrow, a 22-year-old student from Seattle. "I've never seen a parade on that scale."

Beija Flor's performance was the capstone of Rio's samba parade _ the most famous of Brazil's carnival celebrations. Over two consecutive nights in the Sambadromo, the city's 13 premiere groups mount 80-minute parades with hundreds of drummers, thousands of dancers and lavish floats.

Each group spends up to $1 million in an attempt to be declared carnival champion _ a distinction that brings little more than bragging rights.

The last day of carnival, by contrast, is largely a free-for-all with revelers dancing in the streets behind impromptu carnival groups and savoring the last moments of abandon before Ash Wednesday, when the nation of 180 million returns to work.

Many Brazilians spend the day arguing over which samba group put on the best show. The winner is named Wednesday.

Beija Flor, which was heavily favored to win the coveted championship, was declared the popular winner by two local newspapers.

Some said the Porto da Pedra group was almost certain to lose after one of its featured dancers lost her G-string during the parade. Directors promptly provided her with a thong and she kept dancing, but it could harm the group's chances in the competition, which prohibits complete nudity despite the abundance of exposed flesh.

Carnival is celebrated around the world from Europe to Haiti to New Orleans' Mardi Gras and runs to the start of Lent, the period between Ash Wednesday and Easter observed by Christians as a season of fasting and penitence. Excess and revelry are the point of carnival, which culminates on the aptly named Fat Tuesday.

But Brazil is perhaps unique in the world as a nation of continental proportions where nearly everyone drops everything for four days to celebrate.

In the northeastern city of Salvador, crowds dance behind giant sound trucks playing Axe music, a calypso-inflected samba.

The partying in Salvador, which has gained a reputation for having one of Brazil's best carnivals, continues through Ash Wednesday despite protests from the Catholic Church.

Farther up the coast in the cities of Recife and Olinda, revelers dance the Frevo _ a high-speed dance performed while holding a multicolored umbrella _ and the African-inspired Maracatu. Sao Paulo, Brazil's economic center, has its own glittery parade.

The festivities were mostly peaceful, although a singer died in the Amazon state of Para after falling from a sound truck, and local media reported that a director of the Mangueira samba group died of a heart attack during its performance.