New Zealand 4 - Brazil 3

Our hostel is in a favela 10 minutes walk from Copa Cobana beach. This place is well-known for its beach football - Neymar probably played here. Our hostel had a ball in the corner so we headed down.

The waves are big here so, after a thorough buffeting, we had a kick around on one of the beach football pitches (see last post photo). As happens to us all over the world when a ball comes out, a few other guys soon come up and want a game. Brazilians vs kiwis. They thought they were in for an easy win vs a couple of jet-lagged gringos but we gave them a lesson in physicality and won 4-3. There's no ref to whine to in street football.

Rest of day was spent on a celebratory parade/walk down the beach with some guy from Liverpool.

Not much else happened actually. We played some Argentinians later. They won but were cheats and kept pushing us in the back. Was tempted to launch a few jibes regarding the Falklands (their government insists on calling them the malvinas or something) but decided not to.

Later had a barbacue on hostel balcony. Had to go inside halfway through due to some possible gunfire we could hear (no joke).

No pics sorry as we decided to leave our phones locked at the hostel.Read more