As I walk to my metro station each day, there seems to be a juice bar (sucos) on every third block of my street,  their glass counters crammed with stunning displays of fruit and their menus listing countless varieties of sucos, freshly squeezed juices and juice blends, and vitaminas, juice-based smoothies and juices with supplements. And drinking a juice seems to be a daily ritual for Cariocas. 

Most sucos are served straight or with a little mineral water, if it’s an especially fibrous fruit. As Cariocas are very health conscious, they also love their supplements and vitaminas are hugely popular – the healthiest and most popular drink is the vibrant purple-coloured açaí (pronounced ah-sai-eeh), made from Amazon palm fruit that is blended with honey or sugar, banana, and sometimes nuts, and you will see everyone drinking this.

The orange people were out in force to support their women’s team. A raucous couple behind me…Exciting to see the women’s playoff for the Bronze medal this afternoon, USA vs NETHERLANDS.  It was a good match but neither of the teams were totally firing on all cylinders, so there were quite a few unforced errors, serves out or into the net. Both coaches looked exasperated at times. I thought no 4 for Netherlands, Celeste Plak,  played the most consistent game out of all the players on court. But USA won the Bronze!

Scary getting into Maracanazihno stadium later tonight…there was a huge football crowd leaving the larger stadium next door following a football match and there was no separation of people flow coming/going to the metro station…lots of police, militia, but no-one taking responsibility for sorting out the crowd. Was glad there was no issue on the 40m scaffold stairway!! 

My first ever experience of watching volleyball teams playing for gold..woo hoo..here’s a copy of the expensive ticket that gave me that opportunity.

Huge contingent of Chinese supporters evident tonight for their women’s team game with Serbia to establish silver and gold medals.

It started at 22.15!  Serbia won the first set convincingly and then lost its mojo somehow…serves and spikes out of court; little communication so the ball embarrassingly fell on the court or 2 players bumped into each other going for the same ball. My fave player Brankica wasn’t firing on all pistons either. Disappointing overall given their previous superlative matches. China won GOLD deservedly. And the crowd went wild!!!