Rio - The highlight of Rio's Carnival celebrations is the parade of the "special group" Samba Schools (escolas de samba) which takes two nights (the parade begins at 9:00 am and usually ends at dawn). It is certainly not easy to foretell who the winners will be, but a longstanding indicator is audience reaction. This year at the Sambódromo do Rio de Janeiro four schools got standing ovations: Mangueira, Portela, Viradouro and Império Serrano.

Império Serrano also got the O Globo newspaper "Gold Standard" award for best parade, best percussion section and best samba. However, a "people poll" at the site found the popular preference was for Portela.

The rain (it has been raining fairly steadily throughout most of Brazil since the beginning of December) practically ruined some of the presentations. Mocidade Independente de Padre Miguel was the last to parade early Tuesday morning and did so for mostly empty grandstands - a torrential downpour drove all but the fanatics away. Ten baianas in the São Gonçalo school had problems with the weight of rainsoaked costumes and needed medical attention. Two floats in the Beija-Flor school broke down during the parade. (AB)