Oh Rio Rio hear them shout across the land...
Trip Start
Jan 10, 2008
1
18
95
Trip End
Ongoing
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil
Friday, February 22, 2008
Spent some more time wandering around Ipanema.
Sunday was all about the football! Sunday afternoon we headed to Maracana stadium, the biggest stdium in the world with a current capacity of 110,000 people but at one point the capacity was 180,000 but for saftey's sake they had to reduce the capacity a few years ago. The match was massive as it was the final of the local A grade league for Rio. There were people everywhere, when we arrived at the stadium we arrived in the Flamenco area and there was red and black and white everywhere (the colours for Botofogo were black and white). We decided to support Flamenco and headed off to wards the entry for our area. It took us more tahn an hour to get into the stadium and we managed to get inside the gates just as the game started
Maracana Stadium - Flamenco vs Botofogo
. This caused a quite a frenzy as no one trying ot get into the grounds wanted to miss the start and so there was a bit of a stampede towards the gate in the final minutes which was quite scary. Once inside we managed to find some seats - not htat it was much good sitting down as everyone else was standing p and so we had to too, just to see anything. Brazillians are quite fanatical about theiur football and the atmosphere in the stadium was electric, it was hard not to get caught up in the excitement. there was constant chanting and towards the end od the game it got really crazy with cheering, throwing of beer, flags being rolled down over the crowd and fireworks being set of in the stadium (not professional ones, just ones people had brought in with them!) Flamenco, the team we were supporting won and our part of the crowd went completely mental! Everyone was cheering and dancing and screaming (apparently on the other side of the stadium where the Botofogo fans were sitting htere was quite a bit of crying!) We were not sure if anyone was going to leave the stadium as everyone was busy celebrating, we managed to sneak out before the crowds decided to leave. One the way in and out of the stadium you could buy pretty much everything you could think of in the way of paraphenalia to support your team - T-shirts, babys outfits, hats, flags of all shapes, horns, etc.The following day we took a quick trip into the city for a wander around and to change some of our flight tickets
Maracana Stadium - Flamenco vs Botofogo
. Then we went on a tour of a favela. Favela means literally ghetto, or slum. Rocinha favela is the biggest favela in South America with a population of over 200,000 people. We were driven to the bottom edge of the favela which is perched on the side of a moutain and we all caught motor bike taxi's to the top. There were about 12 of us in our group and so we each hopped on a taxi and were driven to the top of the mountain. I chose a driver who looked nice and sensible and we took off, half way up the hill I realised that everyone from our group had passed us and no one was even in sight, so here I was on the back of a motorbike, hanging onto this guy who didn't speak English and I still can't speak Portugese, Matt has all our money and I'm a gringo (not a local!) in a favela! It was quite a relief when we got to the top and the rest our our group were there. From the top we walked through There are open drains, tiny thin stairways, not many roads, unfinished houses. The tour company we went though uses money from the tours to help support the neighbour hoods. One of the first projects they supported was to pay for the roof on a house that a family with 6 children and pregnant with twins, couldn't afford to complete, since the roof was put on the twins have been born and the father has died. The house is the size of a small living rom in total. We also visited a child care centre that the tour company do a lot to support. The moeny is not given to the people but the supplies are purchased and then given to the people so that the money is sure to go where it is needed.In the favelas there is little police presence, the favelas are pretty much governed by the gangs and as you go through the favelas you see the gangs guards on the look out for the police who occasionally venture into the favelas to try and gain some control over the area. This usually results in a shoot out in shich the inhabitants are stuck in the middle.
