By ALAN CLENDENNING
Associated Press

SAO PAULO - Throughout the sprawling Brazilian metropolis, they're practicing their samba steps, trying on elaborately plumed costumes and putting the last touches on carnival floats bigger than tractor-trailers.

Carnival in Rio? Not quite. It's carnival in Sao Paulo, Brazil's premier city in just about every category except having fun.

Sao Paulo's carnival pales in comparison to Rio de Janeiro's. But as the countdown begins toward the Feb. 3-8 bash, Paulistanos, as Sao Paulo's hardworking natives are known, are telling laid-back Rio to watch out.

Over the past four decades Sao Paulo has eclipsed Rio to become Brazil's capital of finance, business, industry and soccer. Rio people scoff at the idea that Sao Paulo will ever come close to surpassing it as the global epicenter of carnival. But the very fact that the question arises is testimony to the fierce rivalry between the two cities.

They lie only 250 miles apart but are separated by everything from work ethic to sharply different Portuguese accents.

Sao Paulo's one insuperable drawback is that it lacks a beach. Cariocas in Rio joke that the only place where Paulistanos can surf is the polluted river next to their Sambadrome.