Copacabana lives up to its name

Today we decided to splurge on breakfast and head to one of the nicer hotels along the beach called the Othon. With only a small amount of Brazilian money left we needed to save as much as possible for the taxi ride to the airport later on in the day, so we ate until we couldnt eat anymore with all great intentions of not eating until we got to the airport.

What an amazing beach this is

We slipped into our swimmers and took the back entrance of the apartment complex and swung back around to the beach, for some reason the door man won't let us out the front when we are dressed in towels and bathers...

Straight away we were offered some loungers to lay on and an umbrella to keep the sun off our faces, then he asked us if we needed any food or drinks to just call him over, he would even go and get us McDonalds if we wanted it, talk about amazing service! 

The beach was to die for, the sand as soft as pillows and the water was warm and inviting, until you got in too deep and it chucked out back out again, but Adam had the time of his life catching wave after wave, body surfing back onto the sand at great speeds, there really is no beach like it.

Saying goodbye to our room

We sat like this until about 2:30pm when we hesitantly had to leave so we could get to the airport in time, we could have stayed there all day. We called for our bill which we were 7 Real short for so the guy sent his little boy with us to collect the shortfall, a very trusting father considering he would have to get back through a 6 laned very busy road.

All packed up we left our little apartment, wheeled our luggage up the road and cheekily used the Othons concierge to book us a taxi, this worked out well as I didn't fancy standing on the side of the road hailing taxis like muppets.

These are two people we will NOT miss

Considering the roads were insanly busy the driver must have decided to take us on the back roads because we didn't remember seeing any of the old, graffitied and poverish scenery. We even drove past a favela which is the equivilent to a massive housing estate but for the very poor.

It took about an hour to get to the airport which was all in vein considering our flight had been moved from 7:10pm to 9:00pm... Not too happy as we could have spent a few more hours lounging on the beach.. So we set up camp at the airport and watched some tv whilst charging our devices.

Finally we boarded the plane which ended up taking off at about 9:45pm, this was Brazils final up yours to the public transport system, everything we have been on has been slow, delayed or terrible.. I hope they sort their shit out before the Olympic Games! 

Not what you want to see at an airport...

If I could sum up Brazil in a sentence it would be, An amazing counrty that ozzes potential, but is unfortunately run by idiots.

A few Zzz's later we find ourselves back in Santiago where it all started. With the time difference we got to our hotel at about 2am.. Happy to return to a spanish speaking country we were back to conversing with the staff and knowing what's going on. 

Our room was a very welcome sight, and even though we couldn't see much out the window of the taxi, Santiago looks to be a nice, clean, organised and friendly city that we can't wait to explore!

    

Day tour of Rio

This was one day we had been looking forward to for the entire trip. We had organised a full day tour of Rio, where a guide would take us to all the main attractions by car and give us a rundown on the history of the town.

Great way to kick things off

The tour did not disappoint. We were up nice and early to meet our guide Matilde at 7am. First off the ranks was a visit to the Christ The Redeemer statue. Matilde was amazing, she got us to the front of the queue and on to the very first train ride up to the top of the mountain, which was about a 20 min trip.

At the top of the mountain the first thing we saw was the massive Christ statue which was truly impressive. We also got 360 degree views of Rio which you can see in the photos. It was a fabulous start to the day.

An amazing view

By getting up there so early we missed the big queues of people and the waiting in lines for photos, plus not to mention the long queue to get back down the mountain. Booking this tour with Matilde was already paying off!

Next up was a trip to Sugar Loaf Mountain which was just as impressive as the Christ mountain, maybe even more so. Again Matilde got us to the front of the line, literally cutting in front of over 100 people and probably saving over an hour of waiting.

Sugar Loaf Mountain is famous for the trolley carts that take you to the top, and was the spot where the Portuguese first came when they discovered Rio. It took two trolleys to get us to the top, with the first stop including a heap of shops and food outlets.

Sugar Loaf Mountain

They had a "create your own fruit salad" bar which was epic and needs to be opened in Ballarat! Next stop was to the top of Sugar Loaf and we again got amazing views of Rio from a different angle. This is one amazing city and we had only just begun.

Next we went downtown to see some beaches and the city centre which included some old buildings dated hundreds of years old. There was also a protest going on with some dude dressed as Batman, something you don't see every day.

The Buddy-Bears

We also got to see a huge church in the middle of the city which was shaped like a massive cylinder. Neither of us are religious people, not even in the slightest, but it was hard to not be amazed by the sheer size and design of this place. It would be amazing to be in a service at this place.

It was then on to the Selaron Stairs, another famous landmark of Rio. They were created by artist Jorge Selaron who over 20 years transformed a huge staircase in one of the rundown suburbs into a staircase of colours and tiles, which are now world famous. It was pretty amazing to see.

Who is this cheeky bugger?

Ipanema Beach was next. This is the beach where the luxury houses and rich people live and it was pretty impressive. It was beautiful scenery and what looked like big waves and warm water, certainly a beach we hope to swim at.

After a long but fun day, we were dropped back at the hotel. We decided to go for a walk on Copacabana beach and head down to the fan fest to watch the Russia vs Algeria match. Both teams were fighting for a second round berth, but it was Alegeria that prevailed.

Algeria vs Russia at Rio Fan Fest

We then went for tea at a pretty cool italian restaurant, which eventually turned out to be packed with Australians, surprise surprise. We then went back to the restaurant we had tea at the night before and had an awesome desert and coffee, then went back to the hotel to catch some zzz's.

Cycle and the Maracanà

Today was our first full day in Rio and it felt good not having to follow around a group of Aussies and do our own thing again.

Sipping on a coconut at Sugar Loaf

First on the cards was a bike ride around Rio, our guide Philip was a nice Dutchie who took us to all the main sights starting with the Copacabana Beach, then onto the Sugar Loaf Mountian area and then through some back streets where we stopped at a bar, or a dirty foot as they call them, for some drinks and snacks.

We then cruised to the famous Lagoon which is an impressive fresh/salt water lake that will hold the rowing events for the next Olympics, we could also see the Christ the Redeemer statue which overlooks this huge Lake. 

Linnie riding with Christ The Redeemer in the horizon

Then we made the round trip to Ipanema beach which lead us back to Copacabana, a quick 3 and a 1/2 hours and 24kms of information overload.

By this time it was getting pretty warm, about 30 degrees, so we changed into our swimmers and hit the beach. The water was beautiful but at the same time it was so rough and strong, after getting wiped out a few times by some huge waves we decided it was best to just chill on the sand and lay in the sun.

France vs Ecuador at the Maracana Stadium

Next stop was the very much anticipated trip to the Maracanà stadium for our last taste of World Cup action to see France Vs Ecuador, the most famous football ground in the world. It was famous for holding 199,856 people for the 1950 World Cup Final.

After a trip on the subway which dragged on for about an hour we arrived a tad late, but we managed to get there just in time for the national anthems and the players walking out. This stadium was nothing short of incredible and certainly lived up to expectations.

A packed house

The game ended 0-0 which was our first goalless match of the trip. However despite the lack of goals, it was a very entertaining match with plenty of attempts on the Ecuador goal with their superstar keeper making some miraculous saves.

One thing that stood out was the amount of police and military outside the ground. We passed through at least 200+ authorities just near the gate, all wielding weapons and full body armour  a far cry from what we are used to back home.

A view of the stadium from outside

With the match now finished we had a 30 minute walk back to the subway, another hour on the train and then arrived back to Copacabana pretty tired. The subway was heaving and you could barely move on the train, so it was a bit of a nightmare.

We decided to hit the sack as we had another early start tomorrow for a full day tour of Rio. All in all, another awesome day.

Back in the air, goodbye Fanatics :(

It was a sad day today, to be leaving The Fanatics felt like our holiday was at an end, no more Aussie games or massive parties and most of all no more seeing all our new friends everyday. It was like leaving school all over again.

Copacabana beach is stunning

We pop in for our last breakfast and on the way out have a quick goodbye to our friends from Melton, Con and Ray, super top guys who we have shared many a meal with.. Sure they're probably in their late 50's but they were a pleasure to be around and gave us lots of laughs.

All checked out we head for the taxi only to find an airport bus dropping someone off next door.. Hmm.. I go up and ask the driver if he is going to the airport and sure enough he was, we scored a bus! $12 for 2 compared to about $60 sounds pretty good to me!

Get away from our food ya cheeky bugger

We check in at the airport, which is a bit of a process, you have to do it yourself on the self serve check ins now which would be ok but some of the info they want off you is just totally irreverent! We had to get the attendant to help us as our reservation wasn't showing up, one panic attack later and she finds us on the manifest.. Phew!

The flight only took about an hour and we had touchdown in Rio, it felt good to be back, even if we were only there for a total of 6 hours on our first day in Brazil. 

Driving into Copacabana our heads were going back and forth to each mountain looking for the redeemer statue, Adam spotted him high up on the hill, it's going to be great to go up there and see first hand how huge and domineering it really is.

Chilling out during the Colombia vs Japan match

We get dropped off out the front of our apartment which was in an awesome sport right on the beach, the hotels were stupidly expensive so we ended up booking an apartment off airbnb.com which is pretty much a place for people to rent out their own private residences. 

It wasn't too bad inside considering it cost the same as one night would have in a 12 dorm hostel.. No kidding the hotel prices were that ridiculous, some people are even sleeping out on the beach at night because they can't afford the accomodation. 

So we drop our bags, strip off to short and singlets and make a bee line for the beach, even the water was warm, Rio is going to be amazing!

Copacabana looks even better at night time

The fan site was on the beach so we walk on over and watch the Uruguay V Italy match with the water lapping our toes the entire time, it reminded us very much of the last World Cup where we would watch games while we swam at Durban beach, I'm sure we will be doing this again very soon here.

Starving hungry after our big morning we grab some lunch at a nice little cafe literally on the beach, whilst waiting for our food we were approached by a number of people and offered to buy a nice little coin purse, key rings, soccer tops, sarongs, peanuts and then necklaces... Honestly people, bugger off! 

We head back to a spot near our apartment and watch the next double header match Greece Vs Ivory Coast and Columbia V Japan, both were cps heaping up to be cracking games as this group was wide open for qualifying. 

Buying some artwork for our house

After we finish our drinks it's half time and we decide to go for a wander. We trapse up and down the streets, popping into shops until we are running on empty. We spot a Pizza Hut and decide to go in and see what it would be like. All was normal until we saw the prices, $30 au for one pizza!

Wtf! It was daylight robbery but we were hungry and tired so we got stuck in anyway and found that the pizzas are pretty much the same as home, just more expensive.. You learn something new everyday ;)

We have a bit of a rest before we head out on the town to check out the night life, soccer fans still everywhere and a lot of cops, there was a very cool night market and an art display set up in the middle of the road so we go over and have a sticky beak at the local talent.

We weren't disappointed, we ended up finding this amazing abstract painting of a beach in California, it was love at first sight so we get it rolled up, bagged and mark a spot in our house to hang it.

Off to bed but not before a big scoop of Brazilian gelati to curb that nasty sweet tooth, a great way to end any night.

Australia vs Spain matchday

The big day had finally arrived and we were pretty excited. It was the last match for Australia, but given we were playing against Spain it meant we got to see some of the greatest players in the world, as they had won the previous World Cup and the past two European Cups.

Kicking off the day at Batel Castle with everyone

We kicked the day off with a buffet breakfast, then we all met up as a group and walked to this huge castle setting in the middle of the city which included free food and drinks, plus guest speakers.

This castle was huge, we're not sure the history of it but it was pretty lavish. We enjoyed a few beers and mini hamburgers, listened to some of the guest speakers and caught up with a heap of friends we had made on the trip so far.

Early morning beers, food and guest speakers

It was the last time we'd see most of these people as we were leaving the tour in the morning for Rio, while they kick on to Sao Paulo. We had met some good people and had good times and made memories for life.

There were about 2000 people at this place, but the best bit was yet to come. We all walked as a group for 2km to the stadium, everyone chanting and making noise. The locals absolutely loved it as they looked out on their balconies, or beeped their car horns or gave us high fives as we walked past.

2000+ Aussie fans walking to the game

The match was played Arena da Baixada, it was the stadium that they had barely finished building in the lead up to the Cup. We weren't expecting big things, but it was absolutely fantastic.

Inside the stadium the atmosphere was electric. Australia easily outnumbered the Spanish with yellow everywhere, and it was loud, real loud.

Australia started well and held their own in defence, but that was about as good as it got. A-League bound David Villa broke the deadlock in the 36' minute with a nice back heel as Spain went into the break with a 1-0 lead.

Arena da Baixada is one impressive stadium

It was much of the same in the second half as Fernando Torres and Juan Mata scored in the 69' and 82' minute to round out a convincing 3-0 victory. But it was good to know that every goal scored by one of their stars would have been more of a dagger for them than us, given they were already eliminated.

Despite the loss, everyone was still in pretty good spirits about a pretty good World Cup campaign. We lost all three games, but we proved we have a pretty good future with some exciting players coming through.

After the match we had an hour or so to find somewhere to watch the final Brazil group match, they were playing Cameroon.

Fuleco enjoying his last Australian match

We managed to find a group of about twenty Aussies and found a pretty cool Sports Bar / Nightclub called the Santa Marta. It was jam packed full of 800+ mad football fans, so we really got to experience what a Brazil match was like.

Brazil had taken a 2-1 lead by half time and by that stage we were almost deaf. These guys like to cheer, and I mean seriously cheer. They were jumping around, dancing and absolutely loving it.

At about 70' we decided to leave and check out some festivities at another place to experience somewhere else before it ended. One of the main busy streets was literally a ghost town, not a single car in site bar a couple here and there.

The Brazil streets literally shutdown on match day

People were huddled around shop windows scrambling to find a television to watch the game, while others were huddled around radios trying to listen to the game. The vibe was great and something Australian's wouldn't understand.

Not long later we heard fireworks going off (or maybe gun shots, who knows!) plus cheers around the city and car horns beeping. So we could only assume Brazil had scored another goal. When the match ended people were everywhere cheering on the streets. They had won 4-1 and topped the group.

We grabbed a few more drinks, then headed out for some desert and then headed back to the hotel. It was another awesome day and one we'll never forget.

Party town to The Big City

We head to the buffet breakfast (seriously, how are we not getting fat?!) have our fill and then await the bus to Curitiba. The fanatics staff assured us that it would only be around 4 hours so we check the not so reliable google maps and from our hotel to the next it said 4.5 hours.. Someone's pulling our leg here..

Curitiba is one beautiful city

Being burnt by the last bus trip we prepared for about 6 hours and it wasn't too far off. Our bus collectively decided that we didn't want to stop for lunch (such a waste of time!) so we burned on through and after only one breakdown that lasted about 20 minutes we arrive at Curitiba after 5 hours of high speed, death defying bus driving.

We jump off the bus and within about 5 minutes, without even having the old long trip stretch, a Channel 9 reporter had a mic in our face asking us about the next Aussie game against Spain... Shit, stage fright kicking in... So I miraculously pull an answer from god knows where and it ends up on tv back home, hell yeah!

View of our hotel room

Our hotel was quite swanky, it looked like something out of an old movie with attempts to modernise it gone wrong, everywhere you looked there was redwood, in the floors, beds, walls, bathrooms and all the doors.

We put on our walking shoes and head for Parque Barigui which is a HUGE lake with a running, walking and cycling track going all the way around it. 

The official FIFA fan site was meant to be here but they decided to change it to an old quarry that's about 1.5 hours away on foot.. Smart... This park would have been perfect, think Lake Wendouree x 10.

Curitiba streets at night

We weren't sure what was going on there but every second person had a Van Halen tshirt on and had about 10 piercings on their face and wore all black. Not judging but why would hundreds of emos be hanging out at a park.. It was odd.. 

So we do a lap, take it all in and then head out for some lunch/tea, we end up at a place called Subs which is an 80's American type place that has all the usual burgers and subs so we settle for a baked potato stuffed with beans and corn chips, we get a nacho and a potato in one, it was delicious!

Checking out some night market

After bumping into some Aussies on the street we find out that there is a Parque de Espanà where it was all happening in terms of the World Cup, so we head on down there and it was heaving!

The USA Portugal game was about to start and safe to say every place we tried that had a tv was so packed that there wasn't any room to even stand. 

We end up leaving and head in the direction of the hotel to find somewhere but it was the same everywhere we went, packed house, so we dropped into a supermarket, stocked up on snacks and shaked up in our hotel room to watch the end, who needs other people to enjoy football and sugary foods!

Pool, sun baking and an epic cake!

After a nice sleep in we head off to our buffet breakfast and have a feast for the ages and then head out to the beach, towels in hand to lay in the sun and watch the world go by.

Nice morning for a lie on the beach

It isn't the warmest of weather so we didn't swim but we head back to the hotel and jump back in the heated pool instead. Turns out a few of our fanatics friends Az and Raz were in there too.

So we hung out there for a good two hours playing around with a soccer ball, a football and watching the slightly drunk Raz do back flips into the pool, we even made a whirlpool in the spa which got us all laughing.

Perhaps the nicest cakes of all time

After this we headed into town to watch the Germany V Ghana game and found a cute little cake shop that had a mouth watering selection of delicacies, so we ordered out usual hot chocolate and cappuccino and picked out a strawberry/custard tart topped with a thick layer of soft chocolate ganache, talk about scrummy!  

While we were eating we had extremely good live playing music in the background, what sounded like an entire band turned out to be one very talented guy that could play the shit out of an electric guitar.

This guy was a wizard on the guitar

A quick stroll around town saw us back at our hotel getting stuck into the buffet for the last time, Brazils food is a bit like ours, a mixture of everyone else's cuisine all mixed up. 

We watch the last game of the day and have a few drinks with the rest of the fanatics before we head off to bed, Florianopolis has been the perfect in between city to recharge our batteries and catch some sun before we head off to Curitiba tomorrow where it's been close to 0 degrees!

Beach, markets and a huge rave

The sun was up and out this morning to we got up bright and early and went for a walk along the beach.

The weird things you see on a Brazilian beach

The tide was up so there wasn't too much beach to walk on but the sand was white and sparkly and the ocean calm, it was quite peaceful. 

We spotted a guy that had dogs pulling a cart with more dogs in it, all off the dogs were tiny which made it look so bizarre. The owner just followed along side with a giant whip to make sure they're all keeping in line, I couldnt help but stop and stare, crazy Brazilians..

One of the Florianpolis islands

We strolled back to our hotel and jumped on a bus for a tour of Florianopolis and it's surrounds.

The first stop was an amazing beach where we climbed up onto some rocks and were treated with an amazing view of the entire coast line. 

We then went on to our lunch spot where we visited a huge shop that just sold Havanias and then ducked into the Black Swan pub to watch the first half of the Costa Rica v Italy match.

A packed Black Swan for the Italy v Costa Rica match

As usual it only took about 15 minutes for the pub to be filled with Aussies and the long wait for food starts, out bus was due to move on at 2pm and we only got our food at 10 to, so we had to scoff it down and then speed off to the bus, we made it... Just!

Next and last stop was to the city center where we went to a market and hit the shops which weren't overly impressive for a rich part of Brazil so we found a cafe after a lot of searching and had some coffee and a very tasty banana/apple pie. 

Linnie enjoying the bus trip

After some more exploring we headed back to the busses and arrived back at our hotel to get ready for the huge party that the Fanatics were throwing for not just us, but all the locals as well.

10pm and it was time to hit this rave, the bus we went on was awesome, it was more like a limo than a bus and we got to sprawl out on a sofa and weirdly enough play dominoes with some other guys that were on there.

The epic Fat Boy Slim gig

The venue was insane, we walked in thought the VIP entrance and were surrounded by a white curved room filled with lights, pumping music and disco balls, this was pretty cool until we stepped outside and found a huge outdoor structure rigged with hundreds and hundreds of lights and it was going off already!

We had our own area for the fanatics and the rest was pretty much filled with thousands of locals, with Fatboy Slim DJing later on I think he brought out half the city, the place was buzzing.

As we were waking out there was still hundreds of people piling in, it was going to be a big night in Florianopolis! 

Back on the busses.. Hello Florianopolis!

The alarm goes off and for the first time it felt very early and we didn't want to move, but breakfast had to be eaten and we had to be on the busses to Florianopolis by 8:30am so we couldn't sleep in too much.

Pretty cool seats at front of the bus

We packed all our stuff up again, we are becoming pros, and boarded the busses which were quite nice. They were half double deckers and quite luxiourious for a bus. Adam nabbed the very front seat on the top level so we had a great view and plenty of leg room.

The bus ride was said to go for 7 hours... Said to go... We ended up leaving at about 9:20am after a lot of stuffing around waiting for one guy who turned out to be on the bus the whole time!

Lunch in the middle of no where

We drove for about 2 hours and then we had to pass through a weight station which I'm assuming we failed as we had to pull into a parking spot for a good 20 minutes.

Driving for about another hour and we stopped at a buffet lunch spot which wasn't too bad, you had to pay by how much your plate weighed which I thought was pretty funny, I guess it's good for us as we don't eat a whole lot compared to some of the boys here. 

We sat down with our favourite American/Aussie couple again and had a good old chat about USA and awesome stuff we got up to back in 2012, we got some great advice on places to check out next time we are over there to which was handy.

Our Florianapolis room

After getting a few snacks we boarded the bus again, about 2 hours later the driver pulls over.. Fan belt snapped or some shit, I didn't really care as I was over being in the bus and just wanted to get there. So another HOUR later we took off and what was meant to be a 7 hour trip blew out to a 9 hour trip! Stitched up! 

The hotel looked amazing from the outside and the inside didn't disappoint either, the room didn't quite best our Argentienan room but it comes real close, it has a lounge, seperate bedroom and a big bathroom all tastefully decorated with chic beachy furniture.

We had a wander around after a delicious dinner, the place is huge! There are four different sections of hotel rooms and a massive pool area with a bar, shops and outdoor dining.

Lovely night for a swim

It didn't tale us long to find an indoor heated pool and we couldn't resist, we were in our bathers and jumping in the pool within 5 minutes of finding it, it was heaven!

A couple of hours we hopped out and after a hot chocolate and a coffe we retired to bed to watch the last ever episode of Man Men.

Tomorrow we explore the city and then head to a massive party with all the locals, they even have Fatboy Slim playing again, should be huge.

Socceroos in Porto Alegre

After a nice rest day yesterday, today began with a lovely 5am wakeup call as we got up extra early to catch a rugby league match live telecast. That's right, rugby league!

Enjoying the State Of Origin at 7am

Normally we aren't rugby fans, but you can't help but be fascinated by State Of Origin. In the most anticipated Origin match ever, NSW were looking to break the QLD eight year stranglehold. In fact the last time NSW won a series, words like Facebook and Blog didn't even exist.

But anyway, we were up nice and early for breakfast, then caught a bus to a site The Fanatics had setup with a big screen and a special live telecast. There were about 1000 people here with 80% of them die hard and loud NSW fans, so the atmosphere was buzzing.

A sea of yellow departs for the game against Netherlands

NSW went on to win a low scoring thriller 6-4 and their first series since 2005. The atmosphere was electric, with everyone cheering all in unison for every play, there were even fans crying with joy at the result. Yes, literally crying!

Now it was time for the main event. We enjoyed a local live band and exotic dancers to get us all in the mood for the upcoming Socceroos game at 1pm, then we all marched to the ground about 1km away again creating a sea of yellow.

The locals absolutely loved it adopting Australia as their second team. There were television cameras and helicopters every where, as we walked past a sea of orange that were the Dutch fans. They were a friendly bunch and we were giving each other high fives as we walked past each other, and wished each other luck.

Stuck with the Dutch fans

Australia pretty much came into this game with no hope. To set the scene, the Netherlands are a powerhouse of world football who have reached The Final on three occasions, including four years ago when they lost in extra time. They were coming offer a 5-1 win over reigning champions Spain, who had also won the past two Euro Cups.

On the other hand Australia are minnows. They are made up of A-League players as well as players from the second and third tier of European football leagues. We were riddled with injuries and have just had a new coach taking over. So to say we were underdogs is an understatement.

Tim Cahill celebrating one of the great goals

Anyway we took our seats, excited about the match, only to find out we were sitting in the midst of all the Dutch fans. We had awesome seats though so that made up for it. We started well controlling the ball for large parts, but Arjen Robben scored on a counter attack to put the Dutch up 1-0 early.

The best was yet to come. Only seconds later Tim Cahill scored one of the greatest World Cup goals in history, a volley out of nothing. The crowd went nuts, strangers were hugging each other and beers were flying through the air.

Fuleco enjoying another action packed day

Then in the second half the unthinkable happened, Australia took the lead with a Mile Jedinak penalty. The stadium was absolutely bonkers and we were starting to believe. However the Netherlands found an equaliser not long after to make it 2-2.

Australia then almost went ahead 3-2 with Matthew Leckie trying to chest down a goal but falling agonisingly short. The Netherlands then went up on a counter attack and made it 3-2. We had plenty of chances, but we just lacked the polish.

Watching Chile bundle Spain out of the World Cup

It was a superb day and everyone walked away feeling like winners despite the scoreline. We then went back to the FIFA Fan Fest live site to watch the Spain vs Chile game, which Chile amazingly won and sent Spain packing out of the tournament.

This means that Chile are guaranteed a spot in the second round and we will actually be in Chile for the match, which will likely be agains Brazil. Bingo!!

Our last trip to the Porto Alegre Fan Fest

It was then back to the hotel for tea and we watched the Croatia vs Cameroon match while we ate, then headed back to the room for an early night, after what had been a long but exciting day.

Porto Alegre has been a blast and we will be sad to leave, but next stop is Florianapolis, a beach paradise and we are staying in a beautiful resort. Tomorrow is another early start with a 7 hour bus trip to endure, but Florianpolis promises to be one of the highlights of the trip.

Brazil fan fest

Today we were 2 very lazy tourists. After a big night out we slept through until about 11am and headed straight for the fan fest which is an area for the public to go and watch games together on a huge screen.

Being Brazil vs Mexico all the locals had swarmed to the site and the lace was packed and buzzing.

Pretty epic scenery for the Brazil match with the locals

Even though the game ended 0-0 we still got to hang with all the brazillians and there were a lot of close calls at goal which really got the crowd going.

After the game we walked back to the hotel which is about 40 mins away, not entirely central to everything FIFA related but still, it's a nice walk through the city even if we do get lost every time! Our little map gets a fair workout.

We head inside and after missing dinner the night before, then breakfast and only having a slice of pizza at the Fan Fest we were feeling pretty ravenous so we thought we would ask the reception at the hotel for some good steak restaurant recommendations. He pointed us in the direction of a supposed nice place so we jumped in a taxi not knowing what to expect.

A meat feast in Porto Alegre

But damn! This place was amazing! A little different to the steakhouses we have at home, this one you get a tasting menu with all sorts of meats and cuts.

The waiter will bring over a tray with a giant slab of meat and he cuts bits off for you, then another one would come and another and another, it was mouth-wateringly delicious and never ending, just what our stomachs were craving.

I think all in all we tried about 8 different cuts, pork, beef, sausage and lamb and we left feeling VERY satisfied.... Until we got back to our hotel and finished ourselves off with a banana split each, yum!

Bring on tomorrow!