Natal = USA South

Our 6am flight to Natal wasn't listed on the departure board at the airport this morning, leaving us a tiny bit worried until we spotted tons of other travelers sporting their USA gear. We knew we were at the right gate when surrounded by Stars and Stripes (and a few Ghanian Black Stars too). Clearly they had added in this special flight to accommodate travelers trying to get to Natal for the USA-Ghana match tomorrow.

Natal is a beach town about 3 hours (flight time) northeast of Rio.  The tourist area is called Ponta Negra, and it's saturated with American fans.  The restaurant we ate lunch at today was completely full of fellow Yanks (and our poor waiter didn't speak any English).  In addition to the locals playing futbol on the beach, we saw three separate groups of people playing American football on the beach too.  The Americans have clearly taken over Natal.  There are a few lingering Mexico fans (they played here a few days ago), but for the most part, welcome to USA South.

Last time we went to the World Cup in South Africa, the US group games we went to were in Joberg and Pretoria.  We certainly ran into a American fans while out and about, but since the cities were so large, it didn't feel like we had taken them over like we have here in Natal.  It's really fun to see USA soccer fever so loud and proud (in fact, we can't even get into the official US Soccer fan club party tonight since we waited too long to register so it sold out).

Keep your fingers crossed that the rains hold off tomorrow like they did today (rain was forecasted all day but it cleared up around noon and was a beautiful day).  It poured during the Mexico-Cameroon game a few days ago, so we are really hoping not to repeat that soaked experience (the fans looked really wet).  Plus all of this rain has flooded the roads, making transport to/from the arena more challenging (in addition to a transportation strike the other night necessitating school bus drivers to take over the public bus routes).  

We are all getting very excited for tomorrow's match!  USA, USA!