The storm had passed it still felt warm but quite cloudy so we decided to go to the Maracana stadium to do the tour, it is one of the most iconic football stadiums in the world! The stadium opened in 1950 to host the FIFA World Cup, in which Brazil was beaten 2–1 by Uruguay in the deciding game, in front of 199,854 spectators. The stadium has seen plenty of crowds of more than 100,000 until the terraced sections have been replaced with seats over time, its orig...

The thunderstorm was lingering again most of the day but we decided to chance it & walk to Ipanema beach again & visit the area behind towards the big lagoon, the beach was so quite compared to the hustle & bustle of the locals at the weekend! Obviously the weather made a huge difference too. We found a lovely Italian style cafe in Leblon so we stopped for a few beers & a bite to eat! It was the best pasta I’ve ever had! We had a look around the...

We were woken by lots of cheering & loud music from the beach! It was the Rio marathon & part of the course ran along Copacabana beach, we had breakfast then went out to watch the runners & listen to the djs on the beach! It was packed with spectators chanting for the runners & encouraging them along! We walked down the beach & watched some beach football games! The weather was really muggy & starting to change the forecast said a storm wa...

Another red hot day so we decided to go to Ipanema beach, it was only a short walk round from Copacabana! The Dois Irmãos (Two Brothers) are at the west end of the beach & were such a magnificent backdrop. We walked all the way along the beach & couldn’t believe how many footballs were in the air, locals of all ages were playing the Brazil version of keeping the ball up wow it was amazing to watch no wonder they are so good with the ball.....even the g...

It was red hot so we went up to the roof terrace after breakfast to squeeze some sunbathing in, there was a nice breeze & it felt great not having creepy crawlies everywhere ha! We decided to go to sugarloaf mountain whilst the weather was nice as it was going to change later in the week. We got a taxi to the cable cars then bought our tickets for entry from there! There was two set of cable cars to the top, with restaurants shops & bars on the middle sec...