Today we were up bright and early and grabbed a banana before heading with Janice to Copacabana market. We browsed the beachfront stalls and then headed over to the proper market, we made a few purchases and tried our hardest to barter before making our way back to the hostel for breakfast around 11.00am.

At 12.00pm we were ready and waiting for the mini-bus to pick us up for our afternoon trip to the maracana stadium and the semi-final of the Carioca Cup between Flamengo and Botafogo. We were warned by Hugh that we were all going to be Flamengo fans (or else...!)

The trip to stadium was quite quick and we arrived just after 1.00pm. We waited around outside the stadium, soaking up the atmosphere till around 2.15pm then made our way into the ground with our 3 security men, including Tulio and Rafael ('the door!') Once in the ground we were in awe at the size and before the big game kicked off we watched the under 18's play, whilst trying to learn the words to the songs being enthusiastically sung around us and buying peanuts from the staff walking around your seats (great - no queuing for drinks and snacks!).

At 4.00pm the match kicked off and the atmosphere was awesome, the Flamengo fans never stopped singing and dancing and flares and flags were paraded all over the stadium. The match itself was quite poor and Flamengo lost 3-0 but you would never have guessed from the way the fans were still singing in the ground till well after the game had finished. At one point during the match, Rafael (a Botafogo fan) cheered a goal and was given a bit of grief from a surrounding fan resulting in a punch up - we pooed our pants (!) but it quickly calmed down and Rafael was quiet and reserved for the rest of the game.

We headed back, slightly dejected that we hadnt been able to celebrate a goal, and arrived back at the hostel for the end of happy hour! We enjoyed Feijoada, traditional brazilian meat and bean stew with rice and manioc flour and crispy bacon bits before chilling out and getting ready for our Favela Funk party.

We headed out in the minibus at 11.30pm (well actually nearer 12.00am!) to one of Rio's favelas and were ushered into the VIP area of a local club. It was just like being in the leadmill but with brazilian funk music, amazing bum wiggling dancing, fireworks and a dance off - in which Neil, a Brit from our hostel, tried his luck against the locals - it was seriously car crash tv! At 4.00am the party finished and we headed back to the hostel knackered and ready to flop.