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quiggsy on tour
So we arrived in Rio on Monday night and had our final group meal together. We did try to go out dancing afterwards but apparently Monday night is not the most happening in Rio.
The next day myself and Reiko went on a bit of a mission to try to find somewhere to live for the next few days. We ended up walking all around Copacobana and Ipanema (a very nice area near Copacobana, according to the guidebooks it is the place to be....!) in search of hostels which weren't where they were supposed to be.... The first we looked for was not where the rough guide said. The second wasn't either but luckily a nice lady who spoke perfect English happened to be passing and told us that it had moved. She told us where the new one was and we eventually found it after much wandering around looking lost. Thank God they had space for us......!
We moved in the next day and took advantage of our beach proximity to improve the old tan (our hostel is a block away from Ipanema beach which is lovely). That evening we managed to get prized tickets for a football game at the Maracena stadium. The game was the final of the Copa do Brasil, and both the teams were from Rio (Flamengo and Vasco) so it was absolutely crazy! It seemed like the whole of Rio had gathered outside the stadium. Armed with all the necessary for a footie match (beer and hot dog) we went into the stadium. Apparently the Maracena can hold about 110,000 but they were refurbishing the bottom levels so there were only about 45,000 - still, they managed to make soooooooooo much noise! Although it was seated everyone stood up for the whole game, and the fans were chanting and singing for the entireity as well. As we weren't really supporting either side the football was kind of irrelevant, it was more fun to watch the crowd! There were loads of flags and flares, as well as some kind of bomb things which made lots of noise and smoke. In the end Flamengo won 1 - 0 (3 - 0 on aggregate), and by the end of the match all the Vasco fans had already left the stadium, apparently because if they had waited it would have got violent.....
By the time we got back to the hostel it was about 1.30am but as it was quite a few peoples last night we went to meet everyone in a club in Botafoga. The night ended with a morning swim and in bed around 9am!
So thats about it for now. I still havent done the whole touristy thing yet, but am planning to make it up Sugarloaf and to the statue of Christ in the next few days. Reiko left this morning to go to Buenos Aires which is sad for me - we've been tent buddies since the beginning!
Anyway, when I get around to taking some pictures I will upload them!
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