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We arrived in Rio at around 7pm and within an hour were on our way out to see a Brazilian football match at Rio´s main stadium, the Maracana. It was a great introduction to the city and we got to know other people from the hostel very quickly. The game was great fun (even Ashley enjoyed it!) but the atmosphere was amazing with the stadium being just short of its 120,000 capacity! We watched the majority of the game from just behind the advertising boards among a crowd of locals who went crazy when the home team scored singing, dancing and making a right old racket with their drums.
The next day (like the majority) was spent relaxing on one of Rio´s famous beaches as our hostel was brilliantly located in between the Copacobana and Ipanema beaches. Both were gorgeous with golden sand and warm water but Ipanema was our favourite as it seemed a bit cleaner and quieter and the waves were much more fun for playing in. As well as sun bathing and swimming we drank milk from coconuts and ate some local delicacies on the beach in the gorgeous weather - it was perfectly clear most days and it rained only twice during our 3 week stay! We made plenty of friends at our first hostel who we hope to meet up with further north in Brazil.
In between our hard days on the beach we went to a street party in a district called Lapa which was great fun with thousands of people singing, dancing, playing music and chatting all over the place. As we wanted to immerse ourselves in the local culture we thought it best to have a few Caipriniahs, Brazils signature alcoholic drink. The night was great fun and went on early into the morning as we got chatting to plenty of locals about all things Brazilian and English. We also took a small city tour where we got to visit the Sambadrome where the main carnival procession is, a conical cathedral, a football museum and the statue of Christ that looks over the city. When we arrived at the statue it was dark and the panoramic views over Rio´s nightscene were incredible. The other tourist attraction that we visited was the famous Sugurloaf mountain which we went up in the afternoon to watch the sun set. The view over Rio was brilliant with the city below and the statue of Christ in the background with the sun setting behind, we took loads of pictures and will hopefully have them uploaded soon.
Our final week in Rio was spent catching up with some friends we had made in Ecuador and travelled with for a couple of weeks. Once again we went to the Lapa street party for one of our friends´ birthday and we had a greattime partying once again. With our friends flying back home we decided to head east to a small town called Buzios not far from Rio before flying north to Salvador to avoid a 30 hour bus trip!
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