England Tour of Brazil - January 2005 - Natal, Sao Luis, Rio de Janeiro

Taking advantage of the World Championship in Sao Luis, the UK Footvolley Association organised a trip to Brazil to train with local footvolley players in Natal and Rio de Janeiro, the home of footvolley. We took 2 teams to undertake two weeks intensive training, along with a couple of representatives from the UKFVA to keep them out of trouble.

Left to right: Gary (Santiago) Titley, Chris (Harry Potter) Stow, George (the Kid) Lees,

David (Bambi) Donkin

NATAL - January 20-27th 2005

After spending 1 night in Rio, we flew up to Natal in the state of Rio Grande Norte. Famous for its sand dunes and abundent beaches, Natal is a resort popular with Brazilian tourists. Safe, clean and boasting very warm waters, it was the perfect place for a weeks intensive training for our players. Special thanks go to our good friends Marcelo & Odilon as well as Mario, Gaucho, Jose Luis, Maceio and everyone else who helped us during our stay there. We will be back!

SAO LUIS - January 27-30th 2005

After our weeks intensive training, we flew up to the island of Sao Luis in the state of Maranhao for the FIFV Footvolley World Championship. The Friday night we arrived was the day of the local carnaval, but notwithstanding Paddy's new friend, we managed to grab an early night. For more information and pictures of Sao Luis, see our report here.

RIO DE JANEIRO - January 30th - February 4th 2005

After the highs and lows of the weekend, and with the World Championship safely under their belts, the team headed down for a final few days relaxation and footvolley on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro. This, the home of footvolley, is Brazils most famous and well recognised city: Copacabana, Ipanema, the statue of Christ at Corcovado, Sugar Loaf mountain are just some of the landmarks tourists flock to see. In Rio you can now see hundreds of footvolley enthusiasts at any time of the day or night, and the boys took the opportunity to get stuck into the locals.

Sadly, Nick and Paddy from the UKFVA had to return to England on the Wednesday, 2 days before the start of the world famous Rio Carnival. At the time of writing, the rest of the team were all still there!