A few years ago my wife Amy and I sent our nephew on a
summer “Where There Be Dragons” trip to Brasil*.
I had always wanted to travel to South America and was especially
intrigued with that country, even though it was the only one in the continent that spoke a language
I didn’t (more on that to come). Through
Bobby, stories of his adventures and the places, people and culture he
experienced, we were both convinced that we must visit this vast country
ourselves. Since the World Cup would be
hosted there in a couple of years in 2014, we said that we were going to go. I
mean where better to see the World Cup than Brasil, and we would check off two
huge boxes on the life travel list. We
actually talked about it often and told others of our ambitious plans, and
since we are DINKs*, as our friend Marta so often reminds us, we just might be
able to pull off this once-in-a-lifetime trip.
Even so, I didn’t know if we actually would, or if it would just be
another grand pipedream plan.
Then, last summer we went to the Gold Cup games in Denver between
Panama and Canada, followed by Mexico vs. Martinique. The first game was a bit of a bore, but when
the Mexican fans started filling the stadium, the atmosphere completely
changed, and the day became one of my favorite sporting memories of my life. It
also served as the catalyst of the change from “we’re planning on going to the
World Cup” to “We ARE going to the World Cup in Braaaaaa-ziiiiillL!” (I will
post the piece I wrote about that day sometime in the near future).
We
started saving money a little more consciously and looking into the details of
the country and the Cup. We devoured the
FIFA site, checked a few books out from the library and sought out anyone who
had been to Brazil, to begin researching the host cities. The tickets wouldn’t go on sale until August, and it would be done in phases, some lottery
and some on a “first come” basis. The
country is SO HUUUUUGE, even bigger than I had ever imagined; what looks so
close on any map ends up being 700 miles by air and 900 driving. We realized we would need to narrow down to a
region or two to visit. We knew that we
wanted to spend some time in Rio, as well as Salvador, where Bobby had spent a
good portion of his trip, and then some time in a beach city-Fortaleza, Natal,
and Recife became the early favorites.
The
FIFA ticket process involves a series of phases of tickets becoming available
at different times, some by lottery, and some on a first come basis. We
actually let the first ticket lottery (August-October) pass by as we weren’t
quite sure what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go yet, and frankly I
just wasn’t on top of it as it was still almost a year in advance. We knew we would have to decide on an
itinerary by the second window, which would be a first come first serve ticket
grab on November 11. We eventually
settled on Rio, Salvador and, after speaking with someone who has a friend
there, Recife, a beautiful beach town up the coast from Salvador.
I will
continue to chronicle our adventure as we prepare for trip, and then while we
live it in Brasil (computer and internet willing), from the ticketing process,
our travel plans and pitfalls, to our support for both Mexico and the USofA, as
well as my struggles with learning the Portuguese language, our introduction to
Brazilian culture and even some sharks.
Also follow me on twitter @unicodavidsmith as much of my (re)tweeting will be World Cup related moving forward (with a healthy dose of CU Buffs, football in general and a little poker), plus I will try to post a lot of pictures and updates from Brasil and the games.
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