Rochina Favela, Statue, Champions parade and Maracana again

´I used to think that the day would never come
That my life would depend on the morning sun...´ True Faith by New Order

Hello everyone

After a couple of days relaxing the last few days have been pretty busy and sunny until a massive thunderstorm interupted the Flamengo V Fluminese game we went to tonight. It was pretty spectacular and the teams walked off for 15 minutes while the fans did the conga in the rain. Fresh photos are on www.flickr.com/photos/murrayandlynn

Wednesday February 6th
We had a very quiet day. Lynn was a little rough after our night in Lapa and spent most of the day in bed sleeping or reading. I went a little walk around town and watched the England game on satellite, flicking between that and the Ireland v Brazil game. We phoned a pizza for dinner and generally had a quiet night hanging around the hostel chatting to people.

Thursday February 6th
We got up at 11am and managed to have showers before the water in the hostel went off for no apparent reason. We jumped a cab to Ipanema beach and met Fraser. We had a pleasant walk along the beach and round some shops before buying some beers and heading to Frasers new hotel. He checked out of his central hotel the day before to move to the Sheraton 15km outside of town. We sat on Fraser´s plush balcony abd chatted for 6 hours, watching the sun set and the waves crashing on to the beach below. It was a great night, relaxed and lots of good stories from the past and present.

Friday February 8th
I got up at 9.30am and left Lynn in bed. I had to get up as tickets for the Samba Schools Championship Parade on Saturday were being delivered between 9.30am and 10.30am. The tickets arrived at 10am. Lynn got up and we had breakfast and hung around until 1pm when we were picked up by bealocal.com to go on a tour of Rio´s biggest Favela - Rochina. Home to an estimated 250,000 people and with a guestimated drug turnover of $1.5 million per week! The favela rises high up a hill in Rio and houses some of the poorest people in the city, along with some very rich drug barons. We arrived at the foot of the Favela and were quickly transported form our bus on to the back of motorbikes and driven up the winding main street of the Favela, hanging on to the back of a local as we weaved in and out of the traffic. We all got to the top and our tour guide wasted no time in taking us down a narrow lane. The main street was pretty much like a normal high street in a normal town, full of shops and people going about their daily business. Down the lanes was a little different, there was a bit of an edge but everyone smiled and kids seemed desperate to pose for pictures so we could then show them on our digital cameras. We visited an artists studio, a bakery where we had lovely doughnuts and a kids creche where bealocal.com donate some of their profits to. We passed kids playing samba music on makeshift instruments and two young girls each wearing one rollerboot and skating down the lanes. The Favela tour was worth doing. It made me appreciate how lucky I am.

At night we went for dinner in Santa Teresa at a funky little restaurant and enjoyed an alcohol free night.

Saturday February 9th
We got up for breakfats around 11am and hung around until Fraser came over at 2pm. We ordered a cab to take us up to the Cristo de Redeemer statue. The statue of Jesus that stands high on one of Rio´s hills at a height of almost 40 metres. We wound our way up the steep hill and got out at the top to marvellous views of Rio. We managed to get some good photos of the statue, despite cloud coming and going. One minute you had a great view and the next a cloud blew by and the statue mysteriously disappeared, reappearing a minute or so later. It was quite eery.

After that we headed down to Santa Teresa for some food and a couple of beers to prepare for the Champions Parade at the Sambradome that we had tickets for. The 6 best schools from the original 3 nights were performing. After a few more beers at the hostel we headed down and were blown away by the schools, 2 of which (including the champions) we had seen the week before.

We had better seats than the previous Saturday, although you tend to stand most of the time. The crowd was in good form and the energy, enthusiasm and excitement generated by the performers and the crowd has to be seen to be believed. Everyone is so proud to take part and the level of effort that goes into costumes, choreography and float design is nothing short of remarkable.

We headed home just after 3am with Santa Tersa being a convenient walk up the hill for Lynn and I, and Fraser having to jump a cab. We got home exhausted but in a great mood.

Sunday February 10th
My alarm went off at 11am and I was tired and rough, but got up for breakfast to watch the United v City game kicking off at 11.30am. It was great to see United playing in a 1950´s style kit in memory of the Busby Babes, with no sponsors, it looked great. Sadly City won 2-1 and United looked tired and jaded and lacking ideas.

After the game Lynn and I went for a kip until 4pm and then caught the end of the African Nations Cup final, won by Egypt. It was a day of football as after that 9 of us were off to the Maracana for the Flamengo v Fluminese derby. The sun was shining and the temperature outside the stadium registered 36 degrees. We were in the Flamengo end and their fans were all dressed in red and black, with Flamengo´s shirts resembling a Dennis The Menace jersey my Mum knitted for me when I was a kid. The first half was open but finished goal-less. Just before half-time the wind picked up and the high temperatures of the last few days brought in a thunderstorm. At half-time the heavens opened, thunder rumlbled and lightning crashed around us. It was spectacular and everyone ran to the back of the stand to shelter.

Flamengo appeared for the 2nd half in torrential rain, but Fluminese didn´t. Then the floodlights went off and after a couple of minutes the ref signaled everyone to go off. This promoted a part among the Flamengo support. People went back out into the rain, danced, sang and di the conga! It was great fun. After 10 minutes or so the floodlights came back on and the rain died slightly. The players came out and the game resumes with the fans still partying, flares going off and flags being waved. Flamengo took the lead with a volley from inside the box into the top corner. Fluminese equalised shortly after with a great free-kick from the edge of the box, curled in low by someone with a sweet left foot. Flumines then scored again from another free kick in a similar position. The game raged from end to end but Fluminese were in command and scored another after sloppy defending. We left as injury time was played and missed the last goal to leave it 4-1 to Fluminese, but we were glad to escape the main rush and get taxis in the rain. We got back to the hostel and ordered pizza and I think we´ll be having an early night!

We plan to leave Rio on Wednesday to travel to the paradice island of Ihla Grande where there are no cars, stunning beaches and rainforest trekking tracks. I´ll see if I can update the blgo from there, if not it may be a week or so until the next update.

Lots of love
Murray and Lynn
xxx