Day 18 – Wednesday May 26

Futbol or soccer, is absolutely huge here in Brazil. The World Cup Soccer is about to begin and the Brazilians are ready. They have had their team picked which was the talk of the town for about a week. Now, green and yellow ribbons are going up everywhere. Flags, clothing, signs, banners and whatever else can be colored green and yellow is for sale everywhere you look. They tell us that during a WC game when Brazil plays, the streets are empty, people do not work and the bars are full. So, let’s go to Rio and watch the oldest rival in soccer play. When we got into Rio, the traffic got a bit heavy as usual. The interesting part is that people walk through traffic on the highway going car to car selling stuff. I am not just talking one or two, I am talking dozens. Our first stop was at the Maracana stadium for a tour. Outside the stadium they have plaques on the ground commemorating the great soccer players from Brazil. They were imprints of their feet or the hands if they were goalies. From there it was off to the top of the stadium to get an overview of the place. It will seat around 70,000 people. Our tour then took us through the locker room and on to the field, well almost. We were confined to a small area where a former player did some tricks with a soccer ball. As cool as this was, we meet up with a couple from Concord, NC. They spent the day with us. They hosted Alexandra when she came to the US. I was wearing my Ohio State shirt and the lady said, “Hey, Go Bucks!” As it turns out, her brother was a place kicker at Ohio State. Ok, so we leave the stadium and head over to a nearby college to get some lunch and visited the place where the vaccines for malaria and bubonic plague. It was a very neat building built on the water front which is now a kilometer away. After that we had some time to kill, so we decided to do it at a mall and grab some pizza for dinner. Then it was off to the game between the Fluminese and Flamengos. There were only about 15,000 fans there, mostly Fluminese who showed up with flares and sparklers they set off in the stands. I was told that with a large crowd, it was best to leave my camera in the van. I did, and wished I had not. Small crowd, no camera, me bummed. The Fluminese won 2-1 in a good game. It was a great experience thanks to Alexandra and Roberto for taking us. Until the next adventure, SEE YA!!