Well I finally made it to the feet of Corcovada, the art deco figure of Christ, which seems to be an icon for Rio, but in fact may have little to do with the lives of most people who live in the city as they seem more concerned with their outer, rather than their inner being. The visit to the monument was a bit of charge uphill up in buses followed by an elbowing battle as everyone in Brazil seemed to be there on a Saturday afternoon to take pictures of the statue. We then went to Sugar Loaf which was even worse, to the extent where I decided not to push my way into a cable car for the ride to the top. On the plus side however, I have already survived a two day tour of Copacabana and Ipanema beaches and can only regret that I am not the Brazilian concession holder for string bikinis and/or uplift bras! Nothing seems to deter the average Rio de Janeirean (?) from strutting their stuff along the beaches, paths and streets of the city. It is quite bizarre to see men, who might know better, walking around the streets in nothing but a Speedo swimming suit and a smile. Needless to say, most of the bodies on the beaches are taut, tanned, glistening and hair free ........and that is just the young bucks. (Another good concession must be the depilitory clinic). Anyway........I won't dwell (except in my inner thoughts) on the girls as I have also been to my first football match for over twenty years, and it was at Maracana, the largest capacity stadium in the world, where Brazil once met Uruguay in a game in front of over 200,000 people. Fortunately, the ground is under reconstruction so it only held 45,000 on the day of a local derby between Vasco de Gama and Flamenco. We sat in 35 degrees of direct sun for almost four hours....waiting and watching and saw, flags, smoke bombs, heard drums, saw six yellow cards, two sending offs, a battle on the field between the teams, an aborted attack on the referee (by a player) after the final whistle, chair and water bottle throwing, a purse snatch and chase in front of us, use of Mace by the security staff and a football match ending in a win for Vasco. Nothing that the Premier league can offer me will ever match this lot. In short, a perfect South American football match. I had such a good time I have changed my plans to stay in Rio for a few days more in the hope of seeing a mid week game! Actually my reasons for staying are more pragmatic. The sun the 'girls from Ipanema' and more of a wonderful eating idea where you scoop as much ice cream as you wish and then 'weigh and pay`.