Day 282
Rio, Brasil
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HOT HOT HOT again today!!!!! 35C and HIGH humidity!
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The other MUST in Brasil is to go to a soccer game. Or football as they call it! Football, we~ve noticed is what every little kid is playing in the street, what every big kid is playing in the park, or every man is watching on TV!
Brasil is SOCCER MAD!
So of course we had to go to a soccer game!
This is another place where it is best to go with a local! So. We went with a carioca and about 10 others to Havelange Soccer Stadium!
This stadium which is on Rio's working class north side..was opened on July 13th for the pan american games..and it~s an amazing stadium.
Rio~s most famous stadium is the Maracana stadium which is where the likes of famous soccer hero Ronaldo played! It~s closed at the moment, undergoing an overhaul, which is why they built the Joao Havelange Stadium.
The stadium took about 30 minutes to get there from our hostel..and it wasn~t crowded. Probably about quarter full, but it~s a massive stadium! Holds 45,000 people! There were heaps of guards and guard dogs around tho!
We were to watch the Brasilian Under 23 team play the best of the Brasilian League teams. They are called ~friendly matches~. We were told to keep our eyes out for a young player, Alex, 17 years old when he got signed up....#11, who has just been signed a 30 million dollar deal to play league football.
Of course we all concentrated on watching this kid on the field..and he didn~t disapoint! He came out as #10 for the Under 23 Brasilian side where he is playing until Jan 2008 as he will be 18 then!
I dont know absoultely anything about soccer..but i knew his FOOTWORK was a work of genius! He shone. And we felt privileged to be watching him. We~ll be keeping an eye out for him next season if we ever see Brazil play..and we can know we saw him for real in Brasil..cool hey...gosh, the groupy side of my personality has come out again! haha!
Even the photographers were all over him....filmng and taking photos!! And as soon as they took the pics..they were uploading them to their laptops! I think he~s the next Ronaldo!
You should have heard the crowd. It wasn~t league football..and yet there were going wild..singing their songs..yelling..carrying on!
That was my FIRST soccer game..and like my first trek (machu picchu) I think i was inauguated at the world~s best arena!!!!
To celebrate this momentous occasion i bought a sweat bandana with RIO de JANEIRO, BRASIL on it!!!!
More to carry...
While we were waiting for the bus, near the stadium we saw more shanty houses....two in a small park...two hovels made of tin and blue plastic..places people call home. One even had a fridge..which of course didn~t work but was there, next to the ramshackle shanty home.
And on the way home...in the Favela...we passed more shanty towns...homes that were even worse than those behind the stadium. Row upon row of houses joined together by tin and cardboard...and then the housing estates closeby...that had houses that were mouldy and old....
It really makes a person think doesn~t it. When a country can give a rising star a 30million dollar football contract..and yet, have their people living in slums....
Once we got through the tunnel to the city of Rio....the xmas tree in the pond was there..floating..in all it~s element...
And that, reflected how unequal the world is as well...there were those admiring the view and eating icecreams and drinking tuarania antarctica (local rio drink!) on this very hot,sticky and humid day..and there were kids juggling tennis balls at the oncoming traffic waiting at lights to try and beg a donation.
There was a guy being accosted by police...and ritzy hotels looming over crowded streets.
I guess it all depends on which side of the tunnel a person in rio is born on.
