The Carnival

Rio's samba schools are organised into six competitive leagues which compete over four days. The winning school of each league parades on the fifth day.

The biggest samba schools have up to 5,000 participants and take up to two hours to parade down the Sambodromo runway in Rio de Janeiro.

Each school is judged on a range of criteria from the school's central theme to the drumming section and, of course, the dancing, the floats and the costumes.

Carla is the 'porta-bandeira' - flag bearer - of her local samba school, Vila Isabel, and worked all year round preparing for the parade, which kicked off the Carnival. She had to hold the school flag during an elaborate dance routine with her consort. The samba school followed on behind with an army of percussionists known as the 'bateria'. The school's theme for this year's parade was the work of Oscar Niemeyer, the famous architect of Brazil's capital city, Brasilia.

• CARLA'S CARNIVAL DIARY - DAY 3 - AFTER THE PARADE
  
  The parade was great, the school was fantastic, the costumes were magnificent and we gave such a good presentation to the judges.
  
  There were 270 people in the drumming section. Everybody arrived on time and everything was perfect.
  
  I think we scored ten out of ten. There are ten criteria: spirit of the school, flag-carrier and dance master, harmony, vanguard dancers, singing, drumming, costumes, coordination, theme and floats. If we get ten points in each category, the school will be champions. We can lose a small point here and there, but we could still win. We won't know the result until Wednesday.
  
  We're in Group A; there are 12 schools parading. Our biggest rival is Uniao da Ilha, they were also part of the Special Group. It will be between the two of us. They paraded well but they were weaker as a whole.

Carnival Time in Rio: Carla's Diary - The Results