Some of the world's most spectacular slums smudge the green mountainsides above Rio's crescent beaches, mosaic sidewalks and balconied hotels. Cariocas call them favelas, and there are 251 such slums in Rio with a population of 900,000. All year long the favelas are the city's blight; cops venture through some of them in cautious pairs by day, clear out altogether at night. But one night a year—the second night of pre-Lenten Carnival—the poverty-ridden, hungry world of shacks brings Rio a matchless show of gaudy costumes, music, dancing and gaiety unrestrained.
Satins & Silks. This week the night of glory rolls...
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