'Brasiiiiil!'

Brazil is bursting out all over this evening as Carnival fever takes root and the samba beat fills the night air. The sheer chaotic exuberance of samba is breathtaking with its cries and colliding rhythms. But with ring side seats we have a chance to make some sense of it and see how the energy of the banjos guide the intricate footwork of the dancers, the deep currents of the drums make the famous Brazilian 'bundas' or behinds bounce, and the whooping yells that ring out so purely cause heads to be thrown back and arms raised in joyful abandon.

The square in the old centre of Rio fills up in no time with groups of besuited young professionals, ties loosened, standing round slatted wooden tables sharing big bottles of beer. And also with older people with straw hats and linen shirts and moccasins or floral dresses and glitzy sandals sitting around similar tables. Then, in the midst of a thousand colliding conversations, a song reaches its chorus and everyone seamlessly joins in, right in the middle of whatever sentence they are saying or listening to and their bodies bend and swoop as they voice the lyric and their feet move to that wired-in samba beat. Oh, the power of popular song to unite people in the absolute certainty of what comes next!

The ring side seats come with a price, however, and before I know it the shimmering Samba Queen drags me up (and she most definitely is not a drag queen) to partner her in a 10 minute dance. One can only do one's best in these situations and try to keep the worst body angles from public view! I was delighted to learn that Dd had not hit the record button on the video correctly, so those excruciating moments have been lost to you and posterity. I do have one of her dancing, before we left, with the King of the Samba night!

Later on, several young men in wheelchairs appeared handing out literature for the new No Drink Driving campaign. They had a photographer minder who posed one of them with us and then moved him on quickly. I tracked him down later in the crowd and got his story; name Thiago, 21 years old, a passenger two years ago in a car his drunk dad was driving when it went off the road at 120 km per hour, father killed outright, Thiago never to walk again. My knees nearly didn't lift me to my feet after hunkering down to listen to him, but his incredibly strong handshake took the strain and all but lifted me up.

The dancing took over again and all heads turned to the improvised stage. I noticed that Thiago didn't stay but pushed himself quickly up the ramp and away into the night.

Dancing Queen here in Dd's blip...