The real reason for being in Brazil happended on Saturday afternoon, quite simply football! The housekeeper got us tickets for the game early on saturday for the white section at the Maracana, the white section is for the tourists although it was full of Flamengo nutters.

The Maracana holds 90,000 thousand and was about half full. The game finished 3-1 to the away team Resende who are a lower division team so it was a bit of a semi final cup upset. Pretty lively match with 3 red cards and a disallowed goal. Still have no idea how they managed to play in that heat, we sat in the sun for the first half and had to move into the shade for the 2nd half.

On Saturday evening we went with some of the people we met in the hotel to Lappa, we had all heard that Lappa was a pretty good place for a party. The party completely takes over the streets with everyone spilling over from the bars. As we walked down the street we kept meeting Aussies, Irish and other Brits. There was a really good atmoshpere and felt really safe with the locals trying to talk away to us.

We got back in just before 1am saving our energy for the Carnaval parade on Sunday night.

Love from sunny Rio! That never gets old ;)

Grant & Jill