This morning as I booked another night at the hostel it occurred to me I’ve now been in Rio for almost a week, and have more or less seen all the major sights. Therefore I’ve decided that after a relaxing weekend by the beach I’m going to head south to Sao Paulo, and then do a mini three day driving tour to Florianopolis and Curitiba. More to come on that next week…

As for today, my afternoon started with the best pizza of the trip so far. The only problem was that halfway through eating it a tramp came up to me and started begging for money. Feeling slightly uncomfortable I instead gave him a bit of pizza, to which he gave me an ‘obrigado’ and promptly departed. I then headed to the beach, which had really come alive for the weekend. Rather than just a few people dotted here and there, the whole place was bustling, with the sloped shoreline full of sunbathers, and the upper flat part full of people playing sports.

The primary sport being played was football, with all the local teams having matches on the sand. The atmosphere was great, with people stopping to watch as they went past. When there was a goal everyone would go crazy, and the standard of play was really high, fulfilling the Brazilian stereotype of living and breathing football. In fact, all along the beach there were groups of guys kicking around footballs and playing games to see how long they could keep the ball off the ground.

After a couple of hours at the beach the sun was beginning to go down behind the nearby mountains. I therefore headed back to the hostel for dinner. I decided to make some pesto pasta thinking it wouldn’t cost very much. On getting to the till in the supermarket the pesto came up as £7.50 for a small glass jar! In my state of shock I was unable to say no, and ended up buying it anyway. Luckily the pasta was great – though I think I’ll be waiting until I get home before I have more pesto.

Photo of the day: no photos today for the same reasons of safety. It seems I could do with a compact here in Rio.