Lapa dancing to the sound of the Maracana...

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Evening all, 9pm Sunday evening here and a lots happened since we mailed you last.

Before getting into it, a quick bit of admin. If any of you don´t want to receive these regular updates feel free to unsubscribe yourself. We won´t be upset I promise!! Anyway, rest assured things will be a bit quieter for a while once we leave Rio on Thursday.

Anyway, Friday night was something of a write off after Thursday night´s shenanigans so nothing much to report.

We woke up on Saturday really excited about the trip to the Maracana stadium to see the Rio derby between Fluminense and Flamengo. The bus picked us up at about 2pm for the 4pm kick off.

Before we go any further, a few quick facts about the Maracana. It´s record attendance is about 180,000 but health and safety regulations now leave the maximum at something around 90,000. 4 teams use the stadium as their home ground - Fluminense, Flamengo, Botafogo and Vasco de Gama. With this in mind you can imagine that it was a pretty awesome sight. It´s a huge round stadium, with the pitch dwarfed by huge stands on every side and surrounded by a moat to prevent pitch invasions.

Kick off time approached and we were amazed at the noise, the colours and the sheer passion that everyone seemed to posess. We were in the Fluminense end, surrounded by at least 4 people with massive flags. The game started well for our side, with an early goal and a very dominant performance in the first half. Brazilian football is as skillful as you´d expect - all flicks and tricks. However, it´s pretty slow and constantly interrupted by the referee´s whistle.

Anyway, Flamengo equalized straight after half-time and scored again pretty soon after. It seemed as if Fluminense wouldn´t get back into it but a late equalizer saw the honours even. On the way back we found out more about some of the chants that we´d joined in with. One accused the officials of acting in an untoward manner with their own mothers and one mocked Flamengo for being a team traditionally linked to the Favelas (really poor settlements). Very much like English chants to be honest. There are also vendors parading the stadium all game with sweets, popcorn, hot dogs, beer and soft drinks so we weren´t short of refreshment.

It´s hard to do the whole thing justice to be honest, a problem I think we´ll experience on a regular basis for the next few months.

A quick change back at the hostel and we were ready to go looking for a few ´blocos´, which are the street parties which accompany Carnaval. You´d think from reading books etc that you can´t turn a corner in Rio without walking into some sort of impromptu gathering, but trying to find something was like looking for a blonde haired blue eyed guy on the beach - damn near impossible!

We decided to recharge our batteries and replan our strategy, which involved a bite to eat, a few drinking games back at the hostel and a few conversations with fellow travellers to get some tips. It seemed that Lapa was the place to go, so the four of us, our English friend Raf and our two Swedish friends Marie and Tobias hopped in cabs with a sure idea of where we are going.

Another tip about Rio - taxi drivers have a terrible knowledge of the cities streets but a good knowledge of Brazilian footballers. Despite Joff´s best attempts at reeling off the entire 1970 Brazilian team we ended up nowhere near where we wanted to go and with no idea where we were going. Jamie, Steve and Raf had apparently found the club in the taxi they were in but the other four of us were pitched into the unknown.

Andy, Joff and the Swedes wandered around for a bit before chancing upon some fellow Brits and following them into a funny looking club. Well, I say club, it was a stone walled courtyard with massive speakers at the front and lots of dark dangerous looking corners. Whilst Joff found himself a Brazilian girl who spoke English (they do exist), Andy and the Swedes kept a lookout on all the surly looking clientelle. After reconsidering the venue choice, Joff and the Swedes went in search of another club in the slightly more upmarket area of Leblon, whilst Andy went home ill. Aparently they had a good time, though Joff was somewhat sketchy about the details.

Meanwhile Steve, Jamie and Raf were wandering the streets of Lapa too, after getting to the club to find that it had recently been closed down. They did find some street parties and danced their way around the streets of Lapa until the early hours.

The almost continual rain finally subsided today (sunday) and the four of us took the opportunity to see what all the fuss was about by going to the beach in Ipanema. Imagine Bournemouth beach on a hot day with all the fat people removed and you´d still be nowhere near!! It was absoutely rammed full of people, so much so that you couldn´t even see the sea. We pitched camp towards the back of Posto 9, a funky and cool bit of the Ipanema beach, and had to leave a trail of breadcrumbs whilst weaving through tanned and half naked bodies to the sea. Despite Steve almost drowning (the waves are pretty huge out here) we all had a great time and the weather held all afternoon. Steve made friends with this little Brazilian kid who couldn´t have been much older than 5 and was helping him to practice his footy. Despite his age this kid could volley a ball with both feet pretty well and head the ball back to you with little effort.

We´d heard rumours that there was due to be a street party in Ipanema later on, and came off the beach at about 5pm to be surrounded my masses of people in all sorts of extravagant costumes. All along the beach front little bands were playing and people were dancing around and drinking beer and caiprinhas. It all got a bit too much to be honest, and we sneaked off the main drag to get some food - pizza. If anyone ever tells you to try a chocolate pizza be brave - they are LOVELY!!!

Off out tonight to get another taste of Carnaval - we are considering going over to the Sambodrome to watch the main parades, but it´s pretty expensive. We may just go to a few clubs and try the Sambodrome tomorrow.

Still waiting to go to Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf on a clear day, and we´re hoping it will stay rain free for a couple of days so we can do so.

Only a few more days in Rio then off down the coast for some much needed rest and relaxation on a tropical island. Bliss...

AC

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