It should take just under 2 hours to get from Ouro Preto to Belo Horizonte. We left Ouro Preto at 2pm allowing plenty of time to make our connection for the 7pm night bus (booked 2 months previously) from Belo Horizonte and to catch USA v Ghana at the bus terminal. However, disaster struck as the road into BH was gridlocked due to an accident, meaning the journey took over 5 hours. No chance of getting to the bus terminal in time, we caught a taxi and tried to catch up the bus to Brasilia. The taxi driver must have been related to Ayrton Senna and did his utmost to help us. Unfortunately, this plan failed and with no availability on buses to Brasilia for the next 2 days (not helped by the 1000s of Colombians trying to do the same journey), we spent a night at BH airport and booked on to the next day's flight with a hefty blow to the bank account.

It was a fairly stressful 12 hours, but when we were met by our friendly host Maria Paulina at Brasilia airport, we were only 2 hours behind our original arrival time . We were made to feel very welcome in our modern, comfortable Airbnb apartment and enjoyed lunch with the hosts after settling in. Later that day, we watched Brazil v Mexico at a very local bar and witnessed the growing frustration of the natives as Brazil failed to score.

Built from nothing in the middle of nowhere in about three years, Brasilia replaced Rio de Janeiro as Brazil's centre of government in 1960. The architect, Oscar Niemeyer, was responsible for many of the city's unique buildings, all of which display his iconic use of abstract forms and curves. Brasilia's central area is shaped like an aeroplane. Ministries and monuments are concentrated in the 'fuselage'. Further south, in the 'cockpit', are the most interesting government buildings, including the Congresso Nacional. We enjoyed the city sights, although it was a challenge to get a photo without a Colombian in the picture!

Brasilia was swarming with 40,000 Colombians, as we made our way to Estadio Nacional for the Colombia v Ivory Coast match, which finished 2-1. The atmosphere was terrific, the game entertaining and we supported Howard Webb... We made a swift exit from the stadium to watch Luis Suarez knock England out of the World Cup in a reasonably unsympathetic bar.

Onward bus to Salvador, 22 hours (after another night in an airport to cut costs).