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! 

Saying goodbye to Rio

We enjoyed a fabulous last day in Rio, with beautiful sunny skies and perfect temps.  Got to spend the morning at Ipanema Beach, with perfect brown-sugar sand.  The people watching was excellent.  Brazilians are really, really fit - and love to show off those amazing bodies in teeny tiny swimsuits.  A bit of culture shock for us prudish Americans who aren't comfortable with wearing thongs and speedos to the beach.  Brazilians also love to be very active on the beach - from running to footvolley (a hybrid of volleyball and soccer that is fascinating to watch but I would be terrible at playing) to beach tennis to volleyball to soccer to slacklining - there was always a fun sport to watch from our perch on Ipanema beach.  There were seemingly a million beach vendors too, peddling everything from food/water to hats/sarongs to sunscreen (IMO the smartest vendor out there).  Those folks were working hard, for sure.

After lunch we headed on a jeep tour of nearby Tijuaca National Park, a rejuvenated rainforest located in the middle of Rio.  The other tour group members didn't show so we ended up with a private tour.  Win! According to our friendly tour guide, the area used to be tobacco, coffee, sugarcane and tea farms, but after Rio ran out of water due to the rivers being used for irrigation, the government turned the farmland into second growth rainforest.  The area is beautiful, with yet another amazing overlook of Rio (major kudos to Rio for making so many of its overlooks so easily accessible to us tourists without having to rock climb or hike).  Our favorite part of the tour may have been when our tour guide started singing Sugar Ray and Sublime for us, and getting us all singing along. Gotta love bonding over cheesy 90s music.  Sadly, no monkey sightings, but hopefully we will see some in the Amazon rainforest.  We also got a tour of some Rio neighborhoods that we hadn't yet seen, from the swanky (Leblon and Jardin Botanico) to the outskirts of a militarized favela (David Beckham has supposedly just bought a home in the favela for $1 million dollars, due to its amazing sea views).  The Argentina team is staying at the Sheraton across from this favela, so it must be fairly safe.  I was content to view it from our coastal road though.  No desire for a favela tour for this group. We all agree it just doesn't feel quite right.

Dinner our last night in Rio was delicious and authentic.  We went to a restaurant that Erin's Brazilian friend had recommended called Casa da Feijoada, and that's all they served.  No menus, other than a wine list.  As soon we sat down, they started bringing us courses of food: bean soup, followed by random sausage, then finally the feijoada itself: various cuts of pork and lamb cooked in rich sauce, black beans, rice, sautéed greens of some sort, pork rinds, cassava, and orange slices.  We still aren't exactly sure what everything was (or the proper way to eat it) since our waiter didn't speak english and we most definitely don't speak portuguese.  Didn't matter since everything was absolutely delicious and we could eat until we were full (they'd keep refilling any dish that was empty).  It felt like we were eating at a brazilian friend's house instead of a restaurant. Two thumbs up for the food and the experience.

Sad to say goodbye to Rio but excited for the next stage of our adventures: USA matches!

Checking off the Rio "must do's"

Woke up yesterday to an unexpected overcast sky, which changed our plans from a beach day on Ipanema.  Instead, we checked off a few more items on our Rio must do list.  Beth, Erin and Nancy went for a run around Lagoa Rodrigo de Freites (7.2 km - Beth's longest run ever).  I opted to hang out on our hotel rooftop instead, watching Christ the Redeemer go in and out of the clouds across the Lagoa.

The skies started clearing after their run, so we decided we should take advantage of the nicer weather by heading up Sugar Loaf mountain.  Erin conquered her fear of trams, and off we went for more amazing views of the city. Halfway up is another mountain peak you stop at, which happened to have a restaurant/bar showing the Mexico-Cameroon game.  We joined a ton of other soccer fans to watch the second half of that game, while enjoying food and delicious beer atop a craggy mountain peak above Copacabana beach.  As Erin said, sometimes we make good life choices.

Reveled in soccer madness the rest of the day, watching Spain get embarrassed by Netherlands and Chile beating Australia (we watched that match with several Socceroo fans, so they were bummed with the loss).  Less soccer is on our agenda today, with a trip to Ipanema Beach and then a jungle jeep tour planned instead.

Brasil! Brasil! Brasil!

Brasil is a pretty happy country tonight after an opening match victory over Croatia.  I don't think I've ever seen so many people wearing yellow and green as I did today. Most people we saw during the day were Brazilians showing their national pride, but tonight on Copacabana Beach at the FIFA fan fest, thousands of Brazilians intermingled with thousands of fans from all over the globe (and many of these international fans adopted the Brazil team, at least in terms of their outfits for tonight...).  Yellow abounds!  This beach scene was ridiculously fun people watching, both for fans as well as what street vendors would try to sell us: beer, Brazil gear, homemade food, grilled prawns, premixed caipirinhas, shots of tequila, popcorn, food being heated by charcoal as they walked, shwarma, cigarettes, jewelry, etc.  None of this would ever fly in the US at a similar fan fest.  Apparently no open alcohol laws here we need to worry about!

Today Rio was as beautiful as advertised.  Weather was sunny and perfect.  Headed up to Corcovado to see the Christ the Redeemer statue.  It was insanely packed at the top, with football fans from all over the globe.  Nancy thought we were a bit nuts telling her to bring a USA shirt for the games, but after seeing all of these international fans wearing their jerseys as they tour around town, I think she's understanding the national pride thing a bit more now (and people here aren't anti-American which she was slightly concerned about too).  I've been pleasantly surprised how many USA shirts I've seen and American fans we've run into.  I remember that in South Africa many American fans didn't start wearing their USA jerseys while touring until after we won our group, but this year we aren't waiting for team success before showing our USA love.  I think it shows great growth for soccer fandom in the US in just 4 short years.  

We also explored the Santa Theresa neighborhood this afternoon, which is bohemian/artsy part of town with beautiful vistas.  Beth got to enjoy some "cookie beans" for lunch (how could she not order something with that English translation?).  I'll let you use your imagination about what they tasted/looked like.  They were nothing like what we imagined they'd be (but tasty!).

Have run into a lot more people who speak at least some English that I thought we would (I'd read thatEnglish wasn't widely spoken here in Brazil).  Our taxi driver today didn't speak much English but had a translation app on his phone that made it much easier to chat with him that would have otherwise.  He and Nancy bonded over Mr. Myagi in 'Karate Kid.' 'Daniel-San' is apparently internationally understood and loved, no matter what language you watch it in.

Our feet are now tired from insane amounts of walking, and our bellies are full of Brazilian beer and caipirinhas.  Boa noite!

Ola Rio!

Arrived in Rio safe and sound.  The airport and city are awash in soccer fans from all over the world.  Have been pleasantly surprised with how many proud US fans are roaming around Rio.

A bit foggy/overcast today (below us a view of Rio's famous mountain peaks above the low-lying clouds), but sunshine is forecasted for the next three days we are here.

Games kick off tomorrow (literally) with Brazil v Croatia.  Brazilians are very excited.

Thanks, US Soccer

Came home yesterday to find an amazing new scarf for Brazil, thanks to US Soccer.

One nation. One team.  

Let's do this!

We Are Going To Brazil! We Are Going To Brazil!

After the US Men's National Team clinched its berth to the FIFA World Cup Finals last year, the happy US fans sang/chanted "We are going to Brazil! We are going to Brazil!  We are going, we are going, we are going to Brazil!"  It's a catchy little song, and one we're happy to be living right now.

Luck came through for us again this year and we were awarded tickets to all three US group games (against Ghana, Portugal and Germany) in the crazy FIFA lottery system.  Our travel plans are very much dictated by the matches' locations and times, so we're spending more time in the northeast part of Brazil than perhaps we would have otherwise chosen.  I'm sure it will be beautiful and charming, though I do regret we don't have as much time to explore the southern part of Brazil.  Ah well - that's what our next trip is for, right?

Some US fans (and the US team) have grumbled about the match in the middle of the rainforest in Manaus.  It's a 4-5 hour flight from the coast and incredible hot/humid.  But we can't imagine visiting Brazil and not going to the Amazon, so we're excited to head into the jungle for our rainforest adventure. We're fully immunized and have our anti-malarial pills, but still keeping our fingers crossed that the mosquitoes don't make a meal of us as we head up the Amazon for 3 days in the heart of the rainforest before the US match.

We leave the US on Tuesday, June 10th, and arrive in Rio just a few hours after Erin flies in from Africa on June 11th.  We'll try our best to keep the blog updated, as wifi and time allow.  Wish us luck with our collective lack of Portuguese knowledge as we get ready to explore Brazil!