Covered in golden glitter, Brazilian domestic worker Vera Lucia da Silva is bursting to be back parading through Rio de Janeiro in a carnival street party, after a three-year hiatus for Covid-19.
This year marks the full comeback of the world's biggest carnival, after Rio hosted a watered-down version in 2022—postponed by two months because of the pandemic, and held without the epic street parties known as "blocos" that usually swarm the iconic beach city this time of year.
"To people from Rio, street carnival is everything that's good in life," beamed Da Silva, as she paraded through the hillside neighborhood of Santa Teresa in a bloco known as "Ceu na Terra"—Heaven on Earth.