A crowd lies the street outside the "Castelo dos Democraticos" samba house in the Lapa district of Rio de Janeiro. Once a forgotten part of the city near downtown, Lapa, samba music and show houses are experiencing a renaissance uncommmon to Brazil, which does not tend to value anything old.(Australfoto/Douglas Engle)

A crowd lies the street outside the "Castelo dos Democraticos" samba house in the Lapa district of Rio de Janeiro. Once a forgotten part of the city near downtown, Lapa, samba music and show houses are experiencing a renaissance uncommmon to Brazil, which does not tend to value anything old.(Australfoto/Douglas Engle)