The Sambodromo,

 in which the Carnival parades of the samba schools of Rio have been held since 1984, was designed by Oscar Niemeyer. With a total area of 85,000sq.m/102,000sq.yds, it has seating for up to 50,000 spectators. The associated Carnival Museum displays the trophies of the samba schools, which are brought up to date every six months. Just like New Orleans' Mardi Gras (also a Cranival itself), the Carnival preparation starts not long after the new year, and approaches its climax the weekend before the Lent starts (Wednesday). Tuesday ("Mardi" in Ferench) is the climax of all activities. For Brazilians, starting from Friday afternoon and extends all the way to Wednesday morning, the whole period is a national holiday.

There are a lot parades all over Rio de Janeiro (and other Brazilian cities) in that period. The main parade takes place in the Sambodromo on Sunday and Monday nights. Only after watching the parade at Sambodromo, you can feel what an extravaganza it is. Fourteen "samba schools" are selected for the final parade on those two nights (7 of them each night). Each of the schools has thousands of custumed marchers, dancers and singers. And each school has 80 minutes to march through the length of Sambodromo to dazzle the audience of more than 30,000 (and TV audience of more than one hundred million).

Thinking about it, 80 minutes for each team and 7 teams per night, one night's event lasts longer than 10 hours! Since our seats were the cheapest, they are at the end of Sambodromo and next to the parade finish line. We pretty much did not see the heads of each samba school until 30 to 40 minutes after they marched into the Sambodromo. The music (each school has an original theme song, which they have to sing over and over again for 80 minutes!) is loud and infectious, the customs are colorful and lavish, and dancing numbers are dazzling and mesmerizing.