Day 2 on the Road

6/18-19/14

We arrived in the picturesque beach town of Pipa in the evening, just in time to catch the tail end of the day’s second game. That’s the one bad thing about the Cup: it’s so hard to catch all 3 games every day – there’s just too much going on. But we made it into town with about an hour to spare before the next game. So while the guys were watching the end of the second game, Fe and I took a walk around town in search of a laundromat (no luck). Pipa very much resembles stereotypical beach bum towns in Costa Rica, the kind young, dirty hippy gringos flock to for months on end, living off a dollar a day, surfing, doing yoga, and selling handmade jewelry to tourists. And it was nestled in the shade of a tropical rainforest, so that resembled Costa Rica too ;o) In all honesty, it was a very cute town – definitely aimed at tourists, filled with row after row of shops and cafes – but we didn’t really have time to explore much of it, as we were only stopping over for the night. Just enough time to grab a bite to eat in front of a large screen tv (of course) to watch the last game of the day and to try my first caipirinha – Brazil’s “national” drink made from sugar cane alcohol, lime and sugar. Essentially the Brazilian version of a margarita or mojito. In other words, delicious and in need of further investigations.

Local Game

Local Girl

Caipirinha

The one drawback to Pipa, we discovered too late, was the endless population of mosquitoes. After dousing ourselves in what we thought was an adequate amount of DEET before going to bed, Nick and I spent a sleepless night tossing and turning as we attempted to fight off the relentless bastards. We woke the next morning to find that they had left trails of bites across our faces (the one place where we didn’t put DEET, go figure), my hands, and Nick’s entire back. Ugh, at least they don’t itch as bad as those in TX but, needless to say, we were glad we only had to spend one night there. [Nick: Stupid mosquitoes, I just can’t believe that the hotel cannot think of putting up screens on the windows that don’t fully close!] We left Pipa after a delicious breakfast of fruits and sweets – apparently it’s very common to have cakes (yes, plural) for breakfast in Brazil (nice!) and headed to our destination of Recife. [Nick: Brazil is great, it feeds me chocolate cake!] 

Pipa Coastline

Common Marmoset

Cute Little Guys

On the Move

6/18/14

Time to leave Fortaleza and head to the next town, to the next game. No sleeping in and being lazy at the beach today (boo). We got up early, 5am, and piled in the car, where Nick, Fe, and I immediately fell asleep and Filipe, thankfully, took the first shift. He and Nick traded off driving and comparing iTunes playlists. (I just slept most of the time, as is my habit.) It’s no surprise that music is one of the U.S.’s most successful exports – we may live thousands of miles away but still have the same taste in music. What was surprising was that Latin music has not really taken off in Brazil – surprising because the country is surrounded by Spanish-speaking countries – although we learned that Juan Luis Guerra’s “Burbujas de Amor” translates in any language ;o)  [Nick: There does not seem to be much cross-over between Brazil and Spanish-speaking Latinos in terms of music. Our friends had heard of the Mexican band Maná, but not much else. And yes, it’s common to take a song popular in one language, translate it and re-release in another market.]

Road to Natal

We stopped in Natal to grab lunch and get a view of the new stadium – not one that we’ll go to this trip, but still cool to see. South of Natal, we learned of a shortcut to get to the town of Pipa, where we would be staying the night.  The shortcut entailed driving the car over the beach at low tide and then taking a ferry across an inlet before heading over the hills and down into the forest to Pipa. Hell yes, we were gonna do that (it’s only a rental car after all)!

Cat as Luiz & Nick as Oscar

Natal Stadium

[Nick: When you get to the beach there are guides there that offer to drive your car through the sand. They cost R$80 if you hire them right away or R$120 if you decide to attempt it and get stuck and they have to save you. They say they will keep an eye on you.] Filipe tried to take the sand route on his own but the car didn’t have enough momentum and we got stuck in the sand within seconds. The guides who were hanging out at the beach (charging $40 to drive us across themselves) just laughed as they sauntered over to help push us out of the sand. And now that we needed their help, of course their price went up to $60, easy money. So, with an “experienced” driver behind the wheel, we sped across the sand, going up and down the beach, and it was awesome! But the fun didn’t stop there as we arrived at the most un-seaworthy-looking ferry I’ve ever seen. It was essentially a wooden barge made of old planks, run aground in the sand that tilted dangerously toward starboard, as the guide drove our full-size rental car (considered a rather large car in Brazil – most are small and compact) onto the platform. But it remained afloat (thank goodness!) as we headed across the small inlet, laughing the entire way. The scene was beautiful – our first glimpse of Brazil’s Atlantic rain forest (after driving all day through one of the country’s driest regions) – and at sunset, no less! Once ashore, our “experienced” driver sped off the boat at top speed (to avoid getting stuck in the sand) only to get stuck on the cement bricks where the road started. So once again, the guys had to muscle the car out of a jam. Several guys at the local bar [Nick: Friendly Australians who kindly took time from futebol to help, but seemed to be enjoying themselves anyway], who had been enjoying the “show” up to this point, helped the guys tilt the car sideways to dislodge the bricks from underneath the car. Did I mention this was a rental car? Fe and I just enjoyed a beer together to watch the scene unfold. The short-cut definitely turned out to be worth the detour ;o)

Stuck in Sand

Cat Headed to Tidepools

Zooming Across the Sand

Beautiful Ride

Destination Ahead

Our Ferry

Headed Across the Inlet

Fisherman

Kid on Ferry

Stuck Again

Fan Fest

6/17/14

After many unsuccessful attempts to finagle some Mexico v. Brazil tickets, we decided to check out the FIFA Fan Fest and watch the much anticipated match-off from the boardwalk in Fortaleza. We were warned by our Brazilian friends to be very careful of pick pockets at the festival. (Another entertaining language lesson: it’s apparently very hard to say “pick pocketing” with a Brazilian accent.) So we locked down all of our belongings and headed downtown to check out the town and all the festivities that FIFA and Fortaleza had set up for everyone. The crowds were crazy but it was great – you really felt the celebratory feeling of everyone congregating in the streets which were decorated in festive green and yellow. Traditionally, Brazilians decorate the street pavement when the national team plays. We only saw a few street paintings, however; Fe thinks this might be because there’s been so much protest against the games, people don’t want to draw to much attention to it or their little neighborhoods. We bought Brazilian window flags from one of the many street vendors to hang off the rental car but sadly they were no match for the crazy strong Fortaleza winds; they broke off within hours. [Nick: For $2 each I was expecting titanium. J] There was no getting around the Fan Fest in a car – the crowds and traffic were just too thick – so we decided to rent a cab to drive us around the city and see the main historic sights before the match started. The nice thing in Brazil, for Brazilians, is that when the team plays, it’s a national holiday. So many businesses and cultural sites were closed for most of the day, but we did get a chance to check out an old church and historical theater under renovation. [Nick: The theater in particular was very beautiful with stained glass windows, maybe one day we can come back to see the completed restoration and take in some music.]

Decorated Street

Our Decorated Car

Street Vendors Before the Game

Downtown Fortaleza

Soccer Volleyball

The day had gone off without a hitch until we exited the cab and within seconds of the car driving off, Filipe realized he had accidentally left his phone in the car. I’ll spare you the details of our many attempts at calling the phone, tracking its GPS location, going back to the taxi stand to try and meet up with the cab driver, showing his picture around to get in touch with him, calling his friends to get his number, finally getting a hold of him and him blowing us off, and then hours later finding him back at the taxi stand where he insisted that it must have been the gringos he picked up after us that stole Filipe’s phone. Needless to say, it was a huge bummer that this cab driver potentially stole Filipe’s phone (which is no small thing, since due to import taxes and configurations, an iPhone in Brazil can cost over three times what you would pay in the US!), but it’s highly unlikely that some American tourists who found a cell phone in a car would think “oh yeah, I can sell this in Brazil real quickly.” So that sucked, but we didn’t let it ruin the rest of our day because BRAZIL WAS ABOUT TO PLAY MEXICO! And we had paid for good seats (really standing room only) to see it at the Fan Fest. [Nick: Fan Fest is free to all, but they sell tickets for booths that are on the sides. We decided to dip our toes into the madness, instead of going straight into the general admission area, to see what it was like. The general area was very crowded but everyone seemed respectful of each other and there seemed to be no incidents. The organization of events is going off very well and the Brazilian fans have been great.]

Brazil Fan Car

Cultural Center Plaza

Pretty Building

More Pretty Buiildings

Cathedral

100 Year Old Theater

Inside Theater

So after a crazy delicious meal of fresh caught shrimp (at least for me, since no one else I’m traveling with eats seafood – their loss!), we arrived at the notorious Fan Fest – people have been talking about crazy crowds and pick pocketing, etc. It really wasn't that bad – at least for us, since we bought tickets to view the big screen from a balcony rather than the free general admission SRO area below, which did seem like it would be hard to move or breathe in, at least if you’re short like me. But it was still pretty crowded, and why wouldn't it be? It was a Brazil game! And the crowds come to cheer: both Mexicans and Brazilians, alike – it was awesome! The excitement and nationalism was infectious. Everyone would cheer and chant for their respective team and we were along for the ride. We’re definitely rooting for Brazil – it would be awesome to see them in the final! – but part of me definitely enjoyed seeing Mexico do so well! Ochoa did an AMAZING job as goal keeper – so impressive against the Brazilian attackers! It’ll be great to watch both teams going forward. This is definitely “the best World Cup” ever – so many exciting moments in the games, high scores, impressive turnarounds, we couldn't ask for a more thrilling Cup!! [Nick: And Ticos are the darlings of the tournament!]

Fe is ready for the game!

Mexico & Brazil Fans

Fan Fest

And the crowd goes wild!

We finished the night at a Brazilian fast-food chain restaurant, Habib's, which is more or less like a Lebanese Taco Bell, if you will. And the quality was about the same, as my stomach was super pissed at me after eating there. [Nick: Fe and Filipe said the quality was worse than they were used to at Habib's, and yeah it was not great, but I wanted to try this fun Brazilian invention.] But they had good milkshakes – which seems to be a fairly constant theme here. Lots of restaurants promote signature milkshakes. The most interesting thing about the restaurant was its logo – a very non-PC stereotype of a Middle Eastern merchant. Something that would never fly in the U.S.

Habib's

Beach Days

6/15-16/14

What to do on a rainy day with no futebol games to go to? Well, if you’re hanging out at Praia do Japão outside of Fortaleza, you go to the beach. Albeit a rather windy beach. Brazil is certainly nothing if not beautiful. We spent the morning strolling along the beach outside of the resort in search of a barraca (‘ba-ha-ka’) – open air restaurants on the beach – that had both wifi and a tv. A more challenging request than one might realize, coming from the US. Almost all restaurants here have tvs (many of which were probably purchased and installed just for La Copa) but the wifi is still a bit tricky to find. But find it we did and, oddly enough, it was a barraca owned by a Dutch family that still had all of its orange decorations up in celebration of their recent win over Spain (bye bye Spain!).

Cat, Fe, & Filipe

Fortaleza in the distance

Jangadas, traditional fishing boats

Barraca

We walked along the beach but soon realized it was too windy to hang out by the water - you could see (and feel the impact of) the shifting sands blowing across the beach [Nick: Oh, but the patterns the wind-blown sand were making on the ground were really mysterious and beautiful.] – plus it started to rain, so we spent the better part of the day drinking, eating (fresh crab – YUM!) and watching the matches at the barraca. (Which is now Nick’s new retirement plan. [Nick: I’m thinking a Brazilian barraca with a place to take naps called Siesta Fiesta and Fe said she would invest to have a laundry service as well. Everything the traveler needs.]) Our traveling companions, Fe and Filipe, had some friends, Bagi and Claudia, who were also in town, having scored tickets to the Mexico v. Brazil game in Fortaleza (so envious!), so we met up with them that night to watch the Argentina v. Bosnia and Herzegovina game. I, of course, was rooting for Argentina because how can you NOT root for Lionel Messi?! He plays such a beautiful game and has real talent and control of the ball – no diving or drama. But I did not realize the extent of the rivalry between Brazil and Argentina. We may have been the only ones in the restaurant that cheered for Messi’s goal. Brazilians like Messi when he plays for Barcelona but they will unfailingly cheer for anyone who plays AGAINST Argentina. The entire place exploded with cheers for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s one goal – nothing like your enemy’s current enemy to bring people together. [Nick: However even our Brazilian friends admit that it is hard not to root for Messi due to his combination of skill, honest play, off-court humility, and decency. His goal typified what is good about him: as he dribbled, a defender stuck out his leg in a tackle. Most players would have let themselves be hit, writhed on the ground like they had a lost a limb, and hoped the ref called a penalty. Not Messi. He flicked the ball, jumped over the leg, came back down with superb command, and drilled the shot to the corner of the net. It was beautiful.]

As you will no doubt realize while reading this, our days have a very predictable pattern: wake up, find a place for lunch with a tv, watch the day’s first game; move to a new location with tv and watch the second game (or travel time); find a place for dinner with a tv to watch the last game of the day. The bigger the screen, the better; wifi is a bonus. Seriously, our days revolve around eating and watching tv. Quite different from any of our previous travel itineraries. ;o)

Nick on Vacation

After very little sleep (also a pattern on this trip) we decided to indulge in a lazy morning at the resort’s jacuzzi…completely forgetting that this place has no hot water. And let me tell you, a cold water jacuzzi is a very underwhelming thing. But not to worry, the beautiful beach was just a short walk away! So we hung out at the beach all day, sipping fresh coconut water, lounging in hammocks, and enjoying our good fortune of being in Brazil right now. Bagi and Claudia came out to join us and watch the day’s games. We had a bit of a foreign language lesson, as we learned there are quite a few words in English that are very hard for Brazilians to pronounce properly. Due to the Portuguese pronunciation of the English “I” as a long “E” sound, we had a hysterical time trying to teach them how to pronounce bitch from beach, live from leave, and sheet from shit. Sharing of idioms and homonyms is rather entertaining when traveling.  [Nick: Portuguese speakers also have a hard time saying a hard “T” sound; they pronounce it as a “Ch” sound instead. So at the games, when we chant “Ticos, Ticos” they have a hard time understanding what we are saying. The Brazilians have been cheering for the Ticos (as you can imagine, seeing an underdog do so well) but they cheer “Chicos, Chicos.” It is endearing and just so nice to feel the Brazilian support for our little “zebra” team (the equivalent Brazilian saying for “underdog” is “zebra”). Of course, I have a hard time pronouncing most words in Portuguese, particularly when “r” is the first letter and sounds like an “h”: as in “Costa Hica”.]

We spent the break in between games taking a buggy ride across the sand dunes – SO MUCH FUN!! – and bruising the hell out of my ass by going down the largest improvised slip-and-slide I've ever been on. Worst wedgie of my life for sure, but still a lot of fun! This region of Brazil is known for its lace makers, so we also stopped by a handy crafts market to check out the women weaving lace. It’s amazing how fast their hands work with such fine threads! It sounds cheesy, but the intricate designs almost appear by magic, they work so fast. The lacework was beautiful. [Nick: They even had lace place mats resembling the Brazilian flag, perfect feminine touch for your Man Cave.]

Our Dune Buggy

Burrowing Owls!

Nick Holding Cat

Filipe Holding Fe

Nick;s Sand Angel

Local Soccer Game

Lace Making

We ended the night in front of the largest tv screen yet (it took up an entire wall) to watch the U.S. v. Ghana game. I wasn't sure how the U.S. team would do without Donovan – I’m sure no one did – but they clearly came to play and Dempsey (aside from the broken nose) seems like he might be the U.S.’s next soccer star. Ya veremos.  [Nick: Go USA!]

Vamos, vamos Ticos...

6/14/14

Esta noche, tenemos que ganar!!

Once we got on the road and were traveling to the stadium, we tried to avoid a huge traffic jam by taking back streets and thinking we were really smart to find a less traveled, alternate route. But obviously there was a reason it was less traveled: it was closed off to anyone without proper credentials. We were hoping they would just let us slide through but sadly no. A military police escort took us back to the traffic jammed highway, right where we had tried to get off and find a better route – Ha! We resigned ourselves to be stuck on the highway for quite a while but little did we know, in Brazil, they call their traffic cops “traffic cops” not because they monitor traffic but rather because they CREATE the traffic. And that’s exactly what was happening – the cops had lined the three-lane highway with cones (why this was needed in addition to the painted lines separating the lanes, I have no idea) and everyone was confused about the cones, switching lanes back and forth, thinking one of the lanes must be closed or it was a check point, so they slowed to a stop. But no. There was nothing, just a couple cops standing at the end of the cones, checking no one, doing nothing, just literally CREATING traffic where none was needed. So we now understand the Brazilian term “traffic” cops. [Nick: Well, they weren’t actually doing NOTHING; they did stop a big bus which completely stopped two lanes. So they were busy.]    

Military police escort

Nick waving his CR flag

But not to worry – we got to the stadium in plenty of time and it was AWESOME. SOO many people from all over the world, not just Costa Rica or Uruguay or Brazil, but the US, Australia, Netherlands, Scotland…any and all soccer fans that were able to get a ticket to the game. [Nick: And Costa Rica, being the underdog, everyone professed they were rooting for Costa Rica. We even met a Scot who was wearing a Costa Rica jersey, he was no longer bitter about CR beating them in Italy 1990 and said after that he made CR his team J] 

Costa Rican Scotsman

Ticos!

Aussies dubbed themselves the "lost kangaroos"

The Fortaleza stadium was impressive – a beautiful, almost lotus flower shape – it appears that this is one of the stadiums that Brazil was able to complete on time (or at least enough of it was completed on time).  There were tons of people but I was surprised at the lack of insanity and crowds hanging around outside the arena – there weren’t as many FIFA booths and interactives as I thought there would be around the stadium. No big deal; the real action was inside the stadium. We had to split up from our friends Fe and Filipe, as our two sets of tickets weren’t seated together. But we had really nice seats: just a few rows up from the field and right next to the goal. 

Crowd headed to the stadium

Filipe, Fernanda, Cat & Nick

In front of the Fortaleza stadium

Vamos Ticos!

Inside the stadium

Costa Rica's players warming up

Costa Rican huddle

Which of course was very fortuitous, as Costa Rica scored THREE AMAZING GOALS right in front of us!! We couldn’t believe it! You can only imagine how overwhelmed with joy and happiness Nick was – it was unbelievable. [Nick: I have not felt that futbol joy since Italy 1990; it was magical; definitely one of the happiest moments of my life, after my wedding of course ;-)] None of us expected Costa Rica to do THAT well and especially not against a soccer superpower like Uruguay. You could tell the Uruguayans didn’t expect it either. The stadium was mostly filled with Uruguay fans – being so close to home, this made sense – and at the start of the match, they were all pumped up, chanting and cheering for their team. But during the second half, they were pretty much silent as the smaller crowd of Ticos (though there was definitely a decent showing of them) dominated the cheering for their “little” hometown team. The Costa Rican team was impressive; I have never seen them play so well. [Nick: Come on, CR is good; remember the Aztecazo!] All but the Uruguay fans started taking up the chant and cheering for the Ticos by the end of the match – the Brazilians, the Dutch, the Australians, and the Israelis around us – everyone was supporting our guys. It was a beautiful feeling. We were over the moon and Nick had lost his voice well before the end of the game. [Nick: It was a magical moment, even if we still do not qualify for the next round I will be very proud of our little Ticolandia. After the 3^rd goal, La Seleccion came right to our section of the stadium and waved thanks to the fans and celebrated right in front of us.]

Tico section

Even bigger Tico section

Fortaleza stadium

Forlan (Uruguay)

Ticos cheering!!

Celebration right in front of us!

If Nick could have jumped down on the field to join them, he would have!

Sadly, the night would have been perfect had I not accidentally set down our sunglasses to stand up and cheer with another group of Ticos, when somebody stole both our sunglasses and our souvenir game cups. My f’ing Kaenons! And me unable to function without sunglasses. [Nick: Giving benefit of the doubt, someone could have taken the sunglasses by mistake. At the end, people were taking souvenir glasses that others were leaving behind, so it is possible someone thought they were just grabbing souvenir cups and didn’t realize out sunglasses were there till too late.] Ugh. I know in the grand scheme of things it’s a very small inconvenience but I was pissed – more at myself for not being smarter; I should have known better than to lay something down in a crowded area filled with tourists. But we were so swept up in the moment! [Nick: At the end of the game, we went to the railing and joined a larger group of Ticos and chanted and danced and slapped each other in congratulations.] Ugh, it’s a bummer, but we weren’t going to let is ruin our night – we still had two more games to go watch! So we found a great outdoor restaurant with local Brazilian food and beer. It was delicious and we watched the next two games listening to the equivalent of Brazilian country music and having a great time with some really great friends. A great end to an amazing day – and it’s just the beginning!!  As Nick would put it, truly a dream come true ;o) [Nick: Beyond my wildest dreams.]

The next four pictures speak for themselves:

Brazilian cowboy band

A great day with friends!