World Cup Adventures

My World Cup adventures began in Rio on the night of Wednesday, June 18^th.   After exiting the plane I immediately heard the “Chi, Chi, Chi….Le, Le, Le!” chants echoing throughout the airport - meaning Chile had just eliminated Spain from the World Cup.  I knew the next week was going to be amazing if fans were celebrating and going crazy at the airport.

I spent the next 8 hours searching out creative ways to pass the time in the airport while waiting for my friend Rakesh to arrive from California.  The airport hotel was full and there weren’t any nice lounges.  Instead I walked the two terminals several times to find the best spot to sleep that also had Wi-Fi connectivity.  Eventually the Chi-Le chants died down and Rakesh arrived to bring our first official day of World Cup madness. 

Other airport sleepers like me

Fuleco the Armadillo (of course)

After picking up our World Cup tickets at the airport ticketing center, we took a taxi to our hotel in the area of Lapa (just a few blocks from central downtown Rio de Janeiro).  We chilled in our neighborhood on the first day, catching some soccer matches and amazing Brazilian food nearby.  It turns out this area of Rio is the place to party and is full of many great bars which are over flooded by thousands and thousands of people at nighttime.  But the long flight combined with some incredible tasting Fejoada (famous rice/beans/sausage slow cooked meal) had us both passed out by 8 p.m.!  

On day two we were ready for some exploring.  We caught a local bus hoping to tour the district of Santa Theresa, which offers neat architecture and great views.  However we quickly realized we did not know what we were doing.  So rather than risk stumbling through the wrong neighborhood, we jumped off the bus when we saw signs up the mountain for the Christ the Redeemer statue.  From there we were able to find a taxi shuttle to deliver us to Paineras station where we could walk the rest of the way up.  There were about 10,000 other people who also had the same idea as us that day, so we spent most of the day in lines and crowds enjoying the views from Jesus high on the mountain. 

Everywhere we went the World Cup spirit was amazing - even our van back down the mountain had an onboard TV to watch the matches!  It took us about 6 hours to see the number one tourist spot in Brazil which meant it was already time to get back and party in Lapa!  We spent the evening enjoying Caipirinhas from street vendors and exploring the party scene around Lapa.   Later we discovered a special Cheetos flavor that was absolutely amazing and had us hooked the rest of our trip - Cheetos Assado Onda Requeijão.  We tried to enter the famous Rio Scenarium club but were greeted instead by at least 1,000 other people (no exaggeration) waiting in line to get in!  We stuck to the madness on the street instead as it filled up with enormous crowds. 

At one point we were peacefully enjoying a beer outdoors at a street bar when the police suddenly swarmed in and caused a lot of commotion.  The bar closed up their tables in a rush and lowered their shutters, which put us in a startled rush back to our hotel while we scoped out what was going on.  Later we heard some demonstrations had turned up a few blocks away and the police were there to squash them out.  Fifteen minutes later it was like nothing happened. 

We spent our third day in Rio at the beaches.  We met Rakesh’s Brazilian friend for breakfast at the Copacabana Fort and enjoyed some great beachside views.  In preparation for the USA match the following day we were waving our USA flag everywhere we went.  His friend works for the city and was even able to catch us on a security camera posing in front of a statue on Copacabana.  We were complete suckers for all the beach souvenirs and within an hour were completely outfitted in Brazil yellow and green and kicking a soccer ball on the beach.  

We watched the day’s soccer matches outside the FIFA fan zone (public viewing area) on the beach and met lots of crazy fans like us.  Even if we weren’t actually making it to any games, the atmosphere along the beach would have made the trip to Brazil worth it.  It was such an awesome time combining the beach atmosphere with a huge celebration and World Cup soccer.  It was always surprising to me how there were thousands of people from all over the world and everyone was just having a good time together.  There was never a moment of violence or fighting that we saw.  

We met some other locals up for dinner and devoured some amazing frozen Acai - it is like the greatest berry smoothie imaginable, though it looks like a pile of poop.  We ended the night there and returned back to our hotel to prepare for our adventure into the jungle starting the next day. 

The following morning we caught an early flight to Manaus in the Amazon - a 4 hour journey northwest across the country.  Our trip got off to a great start when after exiting the plane we were treated to a free cold Budweiser beer and a map of the city.  Talk about customer service.  We arrived smoothly at our hotel and had a few hours to prepare for the USA vs Portugal match.  We enjoyed some views and a quick swim in our rooftop pool before setting out for the game. 

You can see the Amazon River in the background

Our plan to take a taxi was scratched once we heard the announcements of road closures.  So we started walking to the stadium in the hot humid heat with a couple Canadians who decided to tag along with us.  Just by chance, we passed by the hotel where the Portugal team was staying and they were preparing to load up their team bus.  Fans were lined up to get a glimpse of CR7 (Cristiano Ronaldo) himself, but we pushed our way through determined to make it to the stadium.  

We caught a lucky break when a Brazilian family stopped to take a photo with us and offered to drive us closer to the stadium in their pickup truck.  This saved us about 30 minutes of walking in the intense heat.  The atmosphere approaching the stadium was a huge party for the Red, White, and Blue.  USA fans were clearly in the majority and very creatively outfitted.  However, my favorite costume of the day was the kid dressed as CR7’s Panini card. 

His beard was red, white, and blue 

We made it into Arena Amazonas about 30 minutes before the match began and we were seated with a large group of passionate USA fans.  It was an incredible game and we screamed our heads off.  The heat was exhausting and we were witness to the first ever World Cup water break in the second half when players started collapsing on the field.  CR7 was quiet for most of the game, but the second he touched the ball the stadium erupted into an incredible roar of boos and cheers.  Then he made us all cry with the cross to setup the tying goal 30 seconds before match end.  It was a huge disappointment but at least we did not lose.  And as I write this now, I know now a win over Portugal would not have changed the outcome of the group.  The USA match was definitely the highlight of the entire trip for me.  

Last few hours as a 28 year old

The following day (also my 29^th birthday) we went out for an Amazon tour with a group of about 15 other tourists.  We got to hike through the rainforest to different caves and waterfalls while learning about the jungle ecosystem.  It was all quick and short, but an incredible moment to walk through the famous Amazon jungle. 

Walking through the Amazon

After lunch the tour took us to some river waterfalls where you could swim.  The water was a beautiful dark tea color but at the same time very clear.  I took a quick swim but was hesitant to drift to far downstream or stay in the water too long because of all those scary amazon stories you hear (piranhas, anacondas, penis eating bacteria, etc.). 

Lunch in the Amazon

All the wildlife we saw (noise from 15 people probably scared off all other animals)

We arrived back at the hotel for the end of the Brazil vs. Cameroon match.  We watched the city light up in celebration when Brazil won with exploding fireworks, honking horns and vuvuzelas blowing from rooftops.  The city went from silent to party in an instant.  Later that night we went out for a birthday dinner at a Churrascaria (classic fine cuts of beef buffet brought around on skewers).

Sunset from our hotel's roof

The next 48 hours were pretty much a blur and spent mostly traveling between airports.  We checked out of the hotel and enjoyed the rest of the day enjoying the city of Manaus.  We found some cool public viewings for the day’s matches and enjoyed some amazing grilled Tambaqui fish with rice and beans dinner. 

Eventually we made it to the airport for our 4 a.m. flight and slowly made our way back to Rio with a long layover in Brasilia (when we originally booked the flight it was nonstop….).  We locked up our luggage in the Rio airport and set out for our next match: France vs. Ecuador at the famous Maracanã.  It was an amazing atmosphere to watch soccer, although it was a bit of a boring 0-0 result and the match paled in comparison to USA. 

The French fan in the bottom left had a croissant on their hat…. probably stolen from their breakfast.

Afterwards we were back at the airport to fly home.  My schedule flight with TAP was delayed 4 hours, which meant I would definitely miss my connecting flight in Lisbon.  However I really lucked out and was able to switch to a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt.  In the end I arrived an hour earlier than expected in Munich and just in time to watch USA vs Germany battle it out with my dearly missed wife.  It never felt so good to be back home.  

At the airport bar rooting for USA amongst the Germans

All in all it was an exhausting seven days of World Cup soccer full of eating incredible Brazilian food, partying with fans from around the world, and too many hours trying to sleep in airports.  But I had more fun on this trip than I anticipated and got to see a bit of the beautiful land of Brazil.  Perhaps the greatest unexpected part was to have the company of people from around the world who were doing exactly as I and roughing their way around a foreign country for the love of the game.