Maracana stadium! Ronaldo et al!

Arrived to Rio; wise, more confident and speaking a lot more Spanish than I had when I was here previously (although again, most people I meet don't understand Spanish OR English... only Portuguese)

Checked into my hostel: Lagoa Guest House, which is only open 2 months and so the rooms are pristine and even the bed mattresses smell new! Makes a change!

Wrecked after having gotten up at 3am this morning to pack for my flight to Rio from Foz do Iguacu at 6am (need lots of time to pack my bags now that I have purchased so much!), so spent most of day sleeping as the weather is pretty bad at the moment so I wouldn't see much anyway!

Went to Kilo restaurant. Again totally confused... plus it was so expensive for relatively little. To be honest I don't see the appeal of kilo restaurants... I had to buy a Pizza afterward as I was still hungry!

As I was planning on hitting the sack, one of the staff in the hostel mentioned that was a huge match taking place in the Maracana stadium between Flamengo (from Rio) and Corinthians (from Sao Paulo). I'm not a footie fan, but I had always wanted to visit this stadium - especially during a match - plus I'd get to see famous Brazillian players like Ronaldo (playing for Corinthians). I'd be stupid to refuse!

Heavy tropical rainstorm made getting there a chore, but it didn't stop play... excellent game and atmos, plus our Rio side won! (a good thing as the rivalry between the two teams could have meant there'd be violence otherwise)

Got back to hostel at 1.30 am... wrecked.. fell asleep until 11am next day