When my baby smiles at me .... I go to Rio!

The culmination of our Brasil experience ends in Rio. Home of Christos, Sugarloaf mountain, samba and lazy beach life.

Tyler and team USA did an amazing job with accommodation, scoring a spacious 3 bedroom apartment only a few blocks from Ipanema and Cocacabana beach. We arrived with the wrong address however and it looked like it was going to be a long day waiting for someone to come home, get online, give us the right address and let us in. In another amazing co-incidence I walked outside, looked to my right and randomly there is Roxy standing right beside me, who not only was staying with us but had a key to get in. It's crazy how many odd encounters have happened this trip and I have no doubt the forces of the universe play a role to make things work out well.

Rio is an amazing city - beautiful views, a party atmosphere, great beaches and lots to do. A lazy 28-32 degree winter helps too.

Aside from the tourist trail the highlight in Rio was being on Copacabana beach watching locals samba to the sunset and getting merry supporting Brazil vs Costa Rica with at least 500,000 locals. Not only was it a great vibe, it was even better when they won ensuring the city partied all night.

Rio was also a great way to finish up the group of 7. Tyler and Eddie were heading back to England while Roxy, Brandon and Shaw were winging their way back to New York and LA. Luckily there were plenty of nice restaurants and bars to ensure we were well fed, watered and socialised.

And so our world cup journey ends..... Up next Bolivia, a country which will be much easier on the wallet.

Ipanema beach. Just in front of our apartment. Boo Argentina!

Apparently they film the equivalent of Bondi Rescue on Ipanema beach too! With shorter swimwear, more posing and less surf life saving.

Nina getting the brilliant view of Rio from Cristos - big, boring Jesus (nothing on disco Jesus)

You gotta get the photo.....just like every other Gringo.

The Rocinha favela in Rio. To me it seemed nothing like the favela's in South Africa. This was just like a cheaper suburb with all sorts of local people. The rule of the criminals outweighs the rule of law however.

Some happy street art in Rocinha.

There was definitely some anti-Brazil / anti-World Cup flavour to some of the artwork.

Kids of the world? Something like that right.

Certainly makes street lights more interesting when they are decorated.

The Fanfest on Copacabana. Always busy!

It was a tiring 4th of July for Shaw.

Seemed almost too perfect to have a homeless guy sleeping in front of the graffiti. Very banksi-ish!

One of the many sandcastles built for tourist's entertainment and dollars. This one is of the Maracana stadium in Rio. Some were much more raunchy!

The true king of the North

Well it's not Rob Stark, that's for sure. The Lannisters rewarded us well however, as our time in the north (of Brazil) was very good.

Netherlands vs Mexico in Fortaleza was a great match and the Mexicans certainly know how to chant. It was the best atmosphere of any World Cup game I've been to. However for such a great game Robben's dive in the 89th minute, that was rewarded with a penalty and ultimately the winning goal, left a sour taste for most non-dutch fans.

From Fortaleza it was 2 back to back night buses (totaling 24hr) to get to Salvador where we were to see our final game, the round of 16 matchup between Belgium and the USA.

We had a brief stopover in Recife between our buses and to be honest there was not much to say. Skip it if you're in Brazil. Salvador on the other hand is awesome; dangerous, lively, african influenced and to boot it has good food!

Salvador certainly came across as the most sketchy place in all of brazil -dark alleys, wandering weird people and lots of poorer folk. But it was one of those places you go that has a great vibe. Lots of locals partying, playing music, socialising ... all in a city with colonial architecture, cobble stone laneways and great street art.

Unfortunately we only had 2 days jn Salvador and that was definitely not enough! Sadly the USA vs Belgium game was a bit of a dud too and Belgium went through leaving a lot of unhappy Americans to commiserate their exit from Copa de Mondial.

Prepping for the Mexico vs Netherlands game with some trusty Cococuts!

Pretty cool stadium in Fortaleza! Although miles away from the main town.

My neighbour was a sombrero. He was having a siesta for most of the match.

A sad Mexican fan rues the loss among the empty seats at the end of the game.

Post loss photos of Brandon, Tyler and Roxy.

Some cool street art.

More cool street art.

One of the many chapel's in Recife.

Guess where we were?

Having a few Brahma's and getting prepped to support the Yanks.

The favela, the stadium and the giant USA hat.

A delicious Salvadorian specialty all for about $15 I think.

The day after the game in Salvador was a big city festival for independence or something. These kids are celebrating somehow.

The big ladies guarding the main square? Your guess is as good as mine.

Street art splashed over construction barriers in Salvador

Jerry Jerry Jerry!

Boy was it great to get out of Curitiba the same night of the game. I couldn't bear hanging around with all the Aussies commiserating and congratulating. The perfect place to go was a beach town with nice weather and luckily that's what we had booked!

Jericoacoara (jerry-kwah-kwahra) is an old hippy town about 4 hours west of Fortaleza, right on the north side of Brazil. These days it's a bit like Byron - hippy pretenders, a handful of weed dealers and city slickers who've decided the city is no longer for them.

It's a nice place though - beautiful beaches and minimal development while still having the nicest shopfronts outside of the malls in the bigger cities. The streets are just sand too, so you have to get a 4wd to get you the last 10km.

Aside from some relaxing R&R we joined up with Tyler and the USA crew. Nina and I met Tyler in South Africa at the last world cup and I travelled along the garden route with him for the best part of a week....so it is good to catch up 4 years later!

Jeri is best known for it's sand dunes, beaches and wind sports and it definitely didn't disappoint! If it wasn't so far from Australia, I'd definitely recommend spending a few weeks there for a holiday.

The only downside to our Jeri experience was on the way back to Fortaleza and seeing possibly my first dead guy. He'd been hit on his motorbike and judging by the lack of activity by the onlookers and police, there didn't seem much likliehood he was getting up anytime soon. Definitely brings you back to reality as to how fragile life is.

The beachside town of Jericoacora in Brazil's far north. A 4 hour trip from Fortaleza, including a jeep over the sand dunes just to get there.

All the tourists make a dash for the dune close to Jeri at dusk to watch the sunset directly in front over the ocean.

We stayed at a hostel for the first 2 nights before moving to a Pousada to meet up with Tyler and company. Our hostel dog followed us after we left for the best part of the day to make sure we arrived at our new accommodation safely.

The constant winds at Jeri mean that it is a great location for kiteboarding.....so I took my first lesson with Eddie and Tyler!

My 14 year old kiteboarding instructor who could only speak Portugese managed to get me up on the board successfully!

Nina sipping away on one of her first Caipirinha's as we watch the sunset. This was followed by many, many, many more over the coming weeks until we realised it is comprised of about 1/3 cup of sugar for each drink

Tyler and Eddie enjoying the sunset.

A good night out dancing to a Samba band.

Dinner with live tunes. Jeri had lots of little restaurants with good food and good tunes.

Hi Nina! Notice the crocodile with boobs in the background.

The Chee

We'd heard not so good things about Curitiba (coora-chee-bah) - particulary that it was colder than PA and that the people aren't friendly.

I take my hat off though, we thought it was awesome. It definitely makes the coveted list of places I recommend! Again we were unlucky to only have 1 1/2 days there but we packed in a city hop-on/hop-off bus tour, a visit to a modern art museum, the botanical gardens as well as the Aussie game.

Curitiba was very Melbournish. It has lots of nice parks, a lot of foreign influence, great food, a cool Brunswick st type area in the historical part of town and it was very well organised for the Cup. 

We also experienced local hospitality when we found ourselves arrive at our accommodation after dark in a somewhat sketchy part of town, only to believe this wasn't houses at all but rather closed shop fronts. We went into the chemist to regroup and get some help, which drew a small crowd of generous locals williing to help. One guy went off to see if he could find the place and the residents, while a lovely mum/daughter combo offered up their phone .... Not to mention their place to stay at if all else failed! In the end it all worked out and mum drove us all for dinner at the local mall with Rachaela - the daughter. Thanks again!

The Aussie game was one to forget. I'm not sure what happened with the team, but up front nobody took Tim Cahill's mantle to be the guy wanting to score, the midfield were to timid to push forward or deliver passes that the forwards could run onto and the defensive marking was woeful. The Spanish did not play well, but they were able to cruise like a training run, make some nice passes and put the Aussies to the sword. It was absolutely a bizzare performance as the loss of Cahill and Bresc (well as a starter) seemingly stole the mental confidence from the rest of the team. It was this game where I would have loved to see Archie Thompson and Mark Schwarzer make cameo appearances off the bench to help steady the side. My analysis is that perhaps a few of the old heads being reserves wouldn't have been such a bad idea.

Cocks beyond the Rocks

Winding our way up to Curitiba, we stopped at the beachside town of Balneario Camboriu.....the Vancouver of Brazil.

A nice surprise was that it was much warmer than we expected, as Porto Alegre and Curitiba are pretty much like Melbourne in terms of winter weather. So once the shorts were dug out of the pack, it was an opportunity to take it easy for a few days, see the baby 'disco jesus' - surely Rio's baby brother, plus explore the rainforest along the coast.

One surprise as we were wandering along the park boardwalk a few km's from town, was an odd number of individual blokes or those with a 'mate' loitering beyond a rocky outcrop along the beach....close to dusk.

Nina pointed out that it was unusual for so many dudes to be interested in nature or contemplating life, and that perhaps this was a similar meeting place to that in Stanley Park, Vancouver where dude love in a park is all the rage.

Either that or we just wandered into an outdoor drug lab. Either way I wasn't that keen to see what the night awakened.....

Disco Jesus! Younger brother of Rio Jesus.

Vancouver's brother from another mother.

A nice place in summer I'm sure.

Look they have utes here too! I saw a more typical aussie type ute as well.....we aren't the only ones!