I believe you call it "soccer"

When in Rio, there are some things you just have to do in order to make your trip complete. You have to hit the beach. (Check). You have to go to a Brazilian steak house. (Ok, so we missed the boat on that one). Go hang gliding. (Check). Go to a discotheque. (Ok, so we didn't do that also.) Visit the Jesus Christ Statue. (Oh yes!). Snorkel (Doh!)

Ok, so we didn't do everything that lonelyplanet.com would have advised but we fit lots into one week. And one of the events that we actually did go to was a soccer match at one of the world's largest and most famous stadiums, Maracana. It often has 90,000 plus ravenous fans screaming and yelling for their respective team.

There is a huge statue of Pele near the entrance. Pele scored his 1000th goal at Maracana. Maracana is also the site for multiple World Cups. We truly were walking into a sports cathedral.

As you can probably guess, we went to Maracana via autobus. The wonderful thing abut the bus system is how you always know what neighborhood the last stop is in, as opposed to two random street names you may have never heard of. We arrived about thirty minutes prior to the posted start time. It was amazing. We took pictures of the building, then walked over to the ticket counter where I ordered dois tickets. (It's funny whenever I had to speak to someone. My Portuguese is more broken than all my Thundercats toys.)

It was open seating so Monica and I could've picked where we wanted to sit. There were the fans of Flamengo (red and black) on one side, and Vasco (yellow and black)on the other. We sat close to the Flamengo troop. These fans were amazing. They carried huge 10x12 flags, wore the jerseys, yelled across at the other fans, sang fight songs, and this was all before the opening kickoff!



Soccer is a game that can either be very exciting or very boring. These players are so quick and agile and have the ability to control their bodies and move full speed across a field that is much larger than an American football field. The half ended in a scoreless tie. Moni wanted something to eat/drink, so we went to the concession stand and she got this pudding. She loved it! I wished I could've bought her a box of it to bring home. We went to the bathroom and considering how many people were in the arena, it was relatively clean. There were even recycling bins. America are you listening!!!

Anywho, the game started again and we were watching, but with only somewhat interest as we took pictures and fan watched and plotted the rest of our day. So, all of a sudden, we hear a thunderous roar from the crowd, we turn to the field and see the players jumping. They are chanting unintelligible words. We missed the goal. One score all night, and we missed it. Oh well.



I would fully recommend scheduling a trip to Maracana when in Rio. You wont regret it.

And try the pudding in the orange and purple cup. It's real sweet. You'll love it.