Turns out that keeping a daily blog is quite a lot of work!

Normal service will resume tomorrow, as we head to Ilha Grande – a tropical island off the coast of Brazil, a couple of hours south of Rio.

 

We’re settling into a rhythm, revolving around the beat of the games, and a west coast inner clock we can’t seem to shake loose.

Every day we’re waking up around 11, watching the first game of the day, and then setting off after lunch.

[su_note]Did you know its 100x harder to wake up earlier than the day before – compared to later? Years ago they stuck people in a windowless sleep lab, deprived them of knowing what time it was, and people settled into a 25.5 hour day. It turns out our bodies naturally want to sleep for 1.5 hours longer each day. So all we need to do… is slow down the rotation of the earth about six percent.[/su_note]

After watching Switzerland’s thrilling last minute win over Ecuador, we hit the streets, which in our case means the beach, as it’s a 50m walk from our apartment.

Perhaps because it was Sunday, perhaps because its the World Cup, they restricted traffic to just one lane.

The streets were teaming with people, and an insane amount of Argentina fans, who it turns out have arrived in Brazil en masse. By the large numbers of Argentinian license plates, it seems most have made the journey by car.

For a change, we decided to hop on the bus to Ipanema, to speed our journey along the promenade, to an area of the beach known as Post 9.

In Rio, the beaches are labelled by the number of the nearest lifeguard tower, and each area has its own personality.

Post 9 is known as where the young and beautiful hang out. Part of this may have to do with it being in the middle of Ipanema, which so far seems the trendiest and liveliest area we’ve found, and part of it may have to do with the police apparently turning a blind eye at this location to people smoking dope.

We weren’t planning on stopping at Post 9, our destination was up the hill, but the sight of.. so many people on the beach, in glorious sunshine, was something we couldn’t ignore.

Eli wanted to play volley-football, Semma went off on an errand.

We hung out waiting for Semma

A gratuitous shot of my… face

Feeling a little over dressed, and with Semma back from her errand, we decided to continue on our original mission… inland and up the hill to Cantagalo. You can just about make out the favela on the hill in the background.

Cantagalo is one of several so-called pacified comunidades (communities), where the police have kicked out the drug dealers and gangs, leaving a relatively peaceful community behind. The operation has not been without controversy – in some cases entire communities have been moved for dubious reasons, but I’ve no doubt the residents who’ve not been relocated prefer their new situation.

We decided to skip any kind of formal favela ‘tour’ (the thought of being in a group didn’t appeal), and decided to head in solo. We walked towards the Cantagalo elevator, that takes you 210 feet into the air, from the edge of Ipanema to Cantagalo hill.

We had no idea what to expect, and nor did we have much of a plan. We checked with a couple of police officers near the entrance whether it was safe to go up, and they suggested it was. We’re generally pretty comfortable in poorer neighbourhoods, but nonetheless we were still a tad nervous following all the news reports, as we joined the Cantagalo residents in the elevator that has made their lives easier.

You walk a tunnel at the top which takes you from the elevator tower to the hill.

I instinctively turned off my camera and we entered the rabbit warren that is Cantagalo favela.

The first thing that hit us was a loud wall of Brazilian reggae music.

There were two small alleyways, going off in different directions. At first we followed the people who had been in our elevator, but after about 100 feet they were splitting in all directions and we suddenly didn’t feel particularly confident, or comfortable, about where we were going, or what we were doing.

We were watching the faces of the residents, to see if anyone looked at us strangely – like we were out of place. We didn’t pick up on anything, but our problem was that we didn’t know where we were going.

We circled back towards the elevator, retracing our steps, so we could re-evaluate. I remembered reading that there was a bar near the top of the elevator, but that and the presence of a Pousada (a small BnB)… somewhere… were the only details I’d got.

It turned out that the loud music was coming from the bar, and we walked up a couple of steps in its direction. The proprietor came towards us and welcomed us in, and we instantly felt comfortable in our surroundings, and settled down for a drink.

The bar consisted of a small wooden platform, perched on the edge of a cliff. The elevator tower is to the right.

Guys were setting up sound and lights.

A woman, who we would later get to know, had the cutest kid…

Before long we had chatted up the bar proprietor – Carlos, and the mother of the girl – Jennifer, who offered to take us on a private tour of the favela.

We set off up the hill, and into Cantagalo proper…

We approached a party in the alleyway…

I didn’t feel comfortable filming, so I turned off the camera until we’d walked past

We saw lots of kids playing in the alleyways

And stopped briefly at a second bar

We had a great view of the favela from here, which up until this point had been hidden from us.

Carlos, who spoke only a small amount of English, had somewhere he wanted to take us.

He motioned for us to clamber up some rocks, and we turned around to be greeted by a crazy view

Eli was impressed

And we stayed there taking it in

Getting back down required steady nerve and foot

Another coolio view on the way down

There’s one road in Cantagalo it seems

It was starting to get dark

And DJ’s were springing up everywhere!

Actually there were a few discos

But no raving for us…. It was time to head home…

Altogether a pretty thrilling and enlightening day out.

The sun came out today and so did Rio.

Cariocas, as Rio’s natives are known, like the beach, and who could blame them in a city that is blessed with the most incredible beaches and backdrop in the world. It is truly, mind-blowing, stunning, and today we got to see Rio at its finest.

I have a Smörgåsbord of photos to share, so here goes…

We set off by foot at Ipanema beach.

Eli had got himself a new horn, and was using it.

Our destination was Sugarloaf Mountain, which is at the other end of the city. After a decent stroll, we jumped in a cab.

It was Saturday so there were lots of people about.

Our cab driver was insane and literally drove like the singing madman he is.

We were lucky to make it out alive, and relieved to get out of his vehicle with all limbs intact.

Eli seemed to be amusing the locals.

And we were contemplating our journey to the summit.

To get to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain you take two cable cars. Semma was a little afraid!

It’s not cheap ($25 for each adult), and the cable car was full of tourists.

Before long we were whizzing up the mountain…

The Sugarloaf Mountain is basically two peaks for the price of one – the first (Morro da Urca) represents the half-way point to the actual Sugarloaf Mountain (Pão de Açúcar). At the top of the first peak there is a large area to walk around and take pictures. There is a delightful statue of one of the former cable car conductors who died in 2002. I think it’s a lovely idea to memorialize a staff member like this.

Everyone was of course taking photos, of the mind blowing views

So we did the same

At one point we came across some… puppeteers

Strange occupation.

With the boats in the harbour, the view reminded us of the south of France. On the left, and in the distance, you can just about make out the famous Christ the Redeemer (Cristo Redentor) statue. God knows (literally) how you get to that peak. (We’ll find out soon enough).

We took a cool panorama with the iphone.

We could easily have stayed, staring at the view for hours, but there was literally another mountain to climb… and another cable car ride to ascend. It was all beginning to feel very James Bond. (Actually that is a James Bond movie).

At the top we treated ourselves to an ice cream and Eli found a small friend.

The lizard seemed to enjoy the view…

The sun was about to set, and I tried (like everyone else in the free world) to get the perfect Facebook selfie.

And if you look very carefully, just above and to the right of my… hair, you can see what looks like a paraglider, only it’s not actually a paraglider, it’s a gigantic TV screen set up on Copacabana beach for people to watch the World Cup games. This just happened to be our next port of call… for the England v Italy game that was soon to start.

On the cable car journey down, and despite an errant… finger, we were treated to a wowzer of a sunset.

With the cable car ride done, and our feet back on the ground, we jumped a cab (about the only cheap thing in this city so far) and bonus – the cab driver was showing the Uruguay Costa Rica game in his cab! Take that Uber.

Basically I’ve watched football games on TV all around the world, and had nightmares trying to find places to watch games. Nowhere has it been so easy as in Brazil. 🙂

Before long we were at Copacabana beach, along with bazillions of other football fans of all nationalities and colours

We had a bit of trouble getting in to watch the game. FIFA has banned ‘noisemakers’ because of Vuvuzelas drowning out games at the last World Cup, and the security wanted to take Eli’s new horn away. He was devastated, I was a bit annoyed, and we tried several attempts to get the horn past security.

In the end, with a security guard holding Semma and the horn literally, I leaned across, grabbed the horn, and made a run for it. I was convinced someone would come after Eli and I, or hold Semma hostage until we returned, but they didn’t. Semma ambled over to us soon after.

Inside it was a like a festival…

Eli wanted his face painted as an England flag.

And was pleased with the result!

We found a huge crowd of other Brits, who took to Eli in a second

The place was raucous, in particular the “crazy” England fans (as everyone here keeps calling them/us). Here’s a quick video to get a flavour of the event…

Unfortunately nobody was sitting down in the sand, and after holding Eli aloft in my arms for 45 mins, we escaped to a cafe across the street to watch the second half, and for me to order some new arms.

It was not a good result unfortunately – England lost 2-1.

I was more depressed than Eli, as we set off for home…

Now England has a mountain to climb…

The place where we’re staying in Rio is Leblon, a well-to-do and generally safe neighbourhood on the western end of the beaches and city. Right next door is Ipanema – the eponymous neighbourhood where in 1962 a real life woman named Helô Pinheiro, aged 19, inspired a song writer to create what would ultimately become the second most recorded song in history. Pinheiro became famous as a result of the song and when she opened a boutique called ‘The Girl from Ipanema’, she was sued by the composer’s family for copyright infringement. In a victory for common sense, and with public support behind her, the composers lost the case.

After watching the Mexico v Cameroon game at our apartment, and with Eli sporting a new hairdo and sunglasses, we set off to explore Ipanema… by foot!

First up, the beach…

Locals were on the boardwalk (and some Argentine fans)…

We came across the hotel where the Holland team is staying… (bit of a dumpy looking place)

Eli practiced… jumping

And it wasn’t hard to find a place to watch the Holland v Spain game…

Arjen was the star of the show, in the thriller of the tournament so far

And after the game we headed inland to check out Ipanema proper

Ipanema was lively and we instantly liked it a lot

We checked out some shops

And we tried to buy an England shirt for EliBut they didn’t have his size 🙁I saw a shop logo I haven’t seen in 20 yearsThe locals were coming out of church

For us it was dinner, and we came across an amazing restaurant called Zaza Bistro

The food was straight up superb (I had a wicked steak)

And the ambience was just fab

Semma confided that having watched the Holland game today, she now actually wants to watch the England game tomorrow!

I hope it’s as exciting as today’s game…

Let’s go England!

 

After our first day’s fairly astonishing events, everything else was destined to be an anti-climax.

We did however wake up IN the England hotel – apparently at some point I had taken a room – and we were consequently treated to a genuinely stunning view at wakeup.

The only thing missing was the England bus… which had seemingly departed (along with the England team) for Manaus. At least we’d be able to get access to the…er, gym.

While we contemplated how we’d managed to sleep until noon, and why we so rarely ever visit a gym, we negotiated a 2pm checkout and went looking for lunch instead.

After a quick bite, and despite the dicey weather, we ventured out to the pool area. Eli set to work practising his penalty kicks on the custom England training ground.

Frolicks in the pool followed…

… and before long it was time to leave the hotel… but not before a quick family selfie.

We jumped in a cab back to the city – just as traffic was building for the first World Cup game…

And retraced our steps from the day before…

Before long we were back at our apartment and it was time to find a bar to watch the opening game. We decided upon our neighbourhood drinking hole – a friendly little establishment called Escobar.

Here’s a quick video I slapped together of the evening’s festivities.

Our first full day in Brazil and I was conscious that the England team would soon be jetting away from their base in Rio, to Manaus, for the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ – as the media in England are inevitably calling it.

We’d worked out what hotel the team were staying at, and my wife Semma called to see if we could get a dinner reservation. No problem it seemed, we booked a table for 7. This was going too smoothly.

The Royal Tulip Hotel is about 6km south of where we’re staying in Leblon – a family friendly neighbourhood near Ipanema – along the beach and over a headland. We fancied a walk so we thought we’d try to make it there on foot. The weather was overcast but it was still pretty awesome to find ourselves… in fucking Rio.

There were a surprising number of people on the beach, mainly volleyballers, who seemed to be using their feet as well as their hands, in a kind of keepy-uppy meets volleyball mashup.

As we ventured over the headland, and despite the ominous clouds, we were treated to some pretty stunning views…

The other side of the headland and we found ourselves… alongside a favella.

Before long the pavement came to an end and we were literally balancing along a wall, with a sheer drop on one side and cars rushing by the other. Not quite so fun as before… we lost our bottle and jumped in a taxi. We were glad we did…

It was only 4.30 when we got to the hotel, far too early for our dinner reservation, but we got the driver to take us as close as possible to the hotel (it was surrounded by barriers), and then used the cover of an arriving bus to walk past the first ring of security. We were now on the grounds and strolled through the hotel entrance like we owned the place.

Nobody challenged us and there didn’t seem to be many people about, so we headed for the bar, sat down and ordered some drinks.

With our base established, my son Eli and I started going on reconnaissance missions – the toilet, the shop, the toilet again, any excuse to walk through the lobby. On our 3rd outing we walked straight into Wayne Rooney, who was heading towards us. I politely asked for a photo and he obliged.

On our next outing we walked past the entire England team walking somewhere for dinner. We had to think quick but it was an easy choice… our favourite player in the world – Frank Lampard.

He was extremely gracious, I ended up telling him how much we loved him (“…but not in a gay way”) and we got the second photo of a lifetime in half an hour.

(If you look closely, you can see other members of the team behind them)

After this, Eli really got into it! He began seeking autographs in earnest for his football, which we’d picked up in the hotel shop. I nearly succeeded in getting England’s Equipment Manager to lend us a pump to blow it up, but “they were all at the training ground”. We shared a cigarette instead, despite me having given up, and he told me the difficulties he was having getting equipment into the van. This van to be precise…

Eli’s efforts to get autographs meanwhile were proving successful. First up Steven Gerrard…

… Jordan Henderson, Danny Welbeck and Raheem Sterling…

And last but not least the England Manager Roy Hodgson

In the end, Eli got 11 autographs out of 22, an entire team!

Quite a lot of excitement for our first day.