Relaxing in Rio...

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SO day 5 has been and gone, along with days 6, 7, 8 and 9!! But we haven’t had phone reception or internet since day 6, so there is a lot to catch up on!! We are LOVING it in Brazil, and have found weather much like Mount Isa, but let’s start with day 5.
Day 5 consisted of not much. Relaxing, which was nice after being non-stop for a few days!! We got to sleep in (9am at least), made it to breakfast and then headed down for a stroll on the beach. Now, when we say stroll, we mean walking but being harassed by locals every minute asking us to buy a sarong, beach towel, bikini, hat, dress, shirt, photo, painting, bracelet, bag etc or “a chair to sit on in their slice of paradise.” They are very good though, as soon as you say nao (no), they move on. Mischa went for a dip (Jess thought the water was too cold) in the rolling waves, body surfing (getting dumped) for about 30mins. After a quick change, tried to organise a Bonito hotel with a local tourism agency, but to no avail. Jess now understands how foreign tourists feel trying to explain what they want!! We ate lunch under the palm trees on the beach after ordering successfully some pastries from a local corner store!! Very proud of ourselves we were!  The afternoon brought about a search for a surfboard/ boogie board hire shop (we gave up after walking 5 blocks), another dip in the ocean (both of us this time), a quick swim in the hotel pool and sauna sit (Jess’s first time), and then got ready for the soccer match.
We were picked up at 5:30pm by Robert and drove for 2 hours in traffic to get to the stadium for the game. All the while Robert and Mischa had lengthy discussions about soccer, cricket, and many other sports and sportsmen. We had experienced crazy Brazilian traffic, but this was crazy! It is a little more comforting when you are in a bus, but when you are in a taxi and the driver gets too close to the next car that he knocks off his mirror in the 4 lane wide traffic, then he just stops and bangs it back on, we were starting to think that it wasn’t the first time it had happened to him. We finally made it safe and sound to the stadium, and as we had missed the kick off by about 5 mins, the roar from the crowd inside was incredible. Once inside, it was even more so!! The stadium holds a capacity of 45,000 but due to a few factors there was only about 14,000 spectators tonight, but thank goodness as it was ear piercing inside. The Fluminese (1 of 4 RIO teams) were playing Santos (a team from the South). The final score was 3 - 0, in favour of Santos, which was both unexpected and amusing for us as Fluminese were the no. 1 team on the national ladder. Made it a little scary being surrounded by Fluminese supporters in the midst of their defeat… Great experience though. The Eugente stadium is planned to be the main arena for the 2016 Olympics in RIO. The trip back to the hotel only took ¼ of the time to get there which was good ‘cos we had to re-pack our bags for our early departure to Pantanal.

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