RIO DE JANEIRO: What it lacked in flash, Rio made up for with feeling. With a limited budget, the consequence of a biting recession that roiled preparations for South America's first Olympics, Brazil laced its high-energy opening party for the games of the 31st Olympiad with a sobering message of the dangers of global warming.

Graphic projections of world cities being swamped by rising seas set Rio de Janeiro's otherwise fun and festive gala apart from the more self-congratulatory and lavish celebrations that Beijing and London wowed with in 2008 and 2012. But it wasn't all doom and gloom. After all, nowhere parties quite like Rio.

Dancers, all hips and wobble, grooved to thumping funk and sultry samba. After one of the roughest-ever rides from vote to games by an Olympic host, the city of beaches, carnival, grinding poverty and sun-kissed wealth celebrated Brazil's can-do spirit, biodiversity and melting pot history.