Brazilians cast off cares as joys hit top gear

Dancers on stilts, bare-chested cowboys, Carmelite nuns in miniskirts and plenty of bare flesh flooded Rio's streets on Saturday as revelers cranked up the volume at Brazil's intoxicating Carnival festival.

Crowds of residents and tourists drank and partied during the joyous carnival, considered the greatest show on Earth by many who live in the "Marvelous City".

Despite sweltering heat, millions of people joined multiple street parades in Rio, an annual celebration for almost a century.