The games have begun. Madness is upon us. Gringos have
descended upon the country, worsening the traffic, but enhancing the party
atmosphere. Patriotism is everywhere and Copacabana beach
smells far more of sun cream than it ever did when occupied mostly by locals.
It has been 10 days since I last wrote, and a phenomenal lot has happened in
that time, not least the first week of the world’s greatest sporting event.
Here is a brief summary.
My birthday celebrations were lovely. After four hours
working in the morning, there was plenty of time for a long-awaited lazy
afternoon on the beach with swimming, football and Pimms, something I had been
saving for a couple of months. I even overcame a linguistic hurdle in managing
to successfully exchange the crate of non-alcoholic lager that I had mistakenly
bought in preparation for the festivities, for something slightly more
flavoursome. An evening at Pedra do Sal, a street-samba party was the icing on
the cake.
The majority of the week was spent up in the northeast of
Brazil, in the Bahia region. Its capital, Salvador (incidentally Brazil’s first
capital city many years ago), was playing host to several juicy World Cup games
that had not escaped my notice when the draw was made last year. But first up
was a visit to Salvador’s Fan Fest, a specific place for fans to convene and
watch the match together on the big screen, surrounded by the many-headed beast
that is FIFA and its sponsors. However, the beers and multitude of people gave
it all a ‘carnaval’ feel and Brazil’s victory meant for an enjoyable evening.
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| Holland 5-1 Spain |
The two games I saw were Spain vs Holland and Germany vs
Portugal; four European powerhouses going hammer and tongs; 10 goals in 2 games
and a royal spanking for the Iberian Peninsula. Naturally, I was hoping to see
the Spaniards lose, but 5-1 was beyond my wildest dreams. The second game was
somewhat harder to choose sides as England doesn’t have a particularly good history
against either of them, but I chose Portugal partly so that I could join in the
chants and pretend to the foreigners that I was Portuguese, but mainly because
of Ronaldo. He didn’t play too well, but I was just happy to be 10 metres away
from him…
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| The king. |
In between the two matches, things got a little hectic. With
two flatmates and one rogue Italian (he’s actually lovely, I’m just bitter), I
rented a car in Salvador and embarked on a long journey that would take me over
1000km in 3 days and into the heart of the Chapada Diamantina national park.
Sensational would be an understatement. The scenery was beautiful and being out
in the middle of nowhere with a little Fiat ‘Attractive’ made it all the more
special. The highlights were the ‘Morro de Pai Inácio’, which bore an uncanny
resemblance to the Lion King, and the ‘Poço Azul’, an underground pool of
remarkable depth, which was a blue as a smurf’s bottom.
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| Me on top of the world |
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| Paradise pool |
Getting back behind the wheel was also a lot of fun. From
Brazilian motorways to dirt tracks, we saw it all, fortunately managing to
avoid the major problems of speed bumps the size of horses and 26 metre-long
lorries that overtake uphill and around blind corners. However, the journey did
make me realise just how massive Brazil is. Relative to its size, we went
nowhere. Although of course, the best part was realising that Brazil really has
it all. The beaches on the coast to the mountains and rainforests inland; there
is an abundance of diversity all over the place, just waiting to be discovered.
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| Capoeira at a waterfall |
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| The Fiat 'Attractive' |
All too soon, it was time to go home. After oversleeping, I
raced to the airport only for the flight to be delayed, and eventually arrived
home after a full day’s travelling. But I suppose you have to look on the
bright side. I had seen two cracking games and visited some of Brazil’s finest
places. What’s more, I’m off to São Paulo in a few hours for this big one. Uruguay, your move.
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| It's coming home. |
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