Tag: costa rica

World Cup Brazil 2014: Part 5 – Recife to Salvador for USA Belgium and Netherlands Costa Rica

Note: This is part three of a series about my world cup trip. Read part one here about Natal and USA/Ghana, part two about Porto de Galinhas and Costa Rica Italy here, part three about Manaus, Sao Paulo, Natal and USA/Portugal, Chile/Netherlands and Uruguay/Italy, part four about Recife and USA/Germany and Costa Rica/Greece, or the entire series here.

After watching Costa Rica advance to the quarterfinals, we set out to the south, aiming for Salvador, about 750km away. Every Brazilian we’d told we were driving south to Salvador looked at us like we were crazy and tried to convince us to change our plans. They said the road was terrible, there were frequent robberies, potential kidnappings, random objects in the road to get you to slow down so that people could rob you, and that many of the police were so corrupt that you weren’t even supposed to stop for the police if they tried to stop you.  I assumed this was another case of south americans exaggerating the danger, but I looked online on trip advisor and found dozens of stories of bad roads and dangerous conditions.

We needed to get to Salvador for the US game three days later and we wanted to see the beautiful Brazilian coast line, so we decided to go. Because the Costa Rica game went to extra time and penalties and we got stuck in traffic, we ended up leaving Recife after dark. We stopped at a truck stop for a traditional meal of grilled meat, farofa, beans, rice and fruit juice and planned our route south. I so wish I had a russian style dashboard cam for this drive, as it was one of the craziest of my life.

Within 20 miles of leaving Recife, the road went from decent highway to a two lane road with no shoulder, car eating pot holes and heavy truck traffic. This route connects Brazil’s third and fifth largest city, but at least half of it is worse than anything I’ve ever driven on, even in South Africa. Over the next few hours we avoided: a road kill horse that was blocking our lane, a fully intact truck tire in the middle of the road and a two and a half foot long piece of metal that would have popped our tires.

After avoiding pot hole after pot hole in the now dense fog, we saw red flashing lights off in the distance. We had been told not to stop for police, so we weren’t sure what we were going to do when we came to the flashing lights. As we got closer, we saw that the police were blocking the road. What to do? We slowed down and got closer and we saw the entire road sparkling in our headlights. And then we saw it. A jackknifed semi truck blocking 80% of the road that had spilled its entire contents across the road: 10,000+ now shattered glass beer bottles. The police had used shovels to clear two tire paths for cars to pass and were trying to direct traffic.

We finally cleared the area and pulled into Maceió, which we later learned is the most violent city in Brazil. As I was pulling into the city, I read an article that said Maceió was mostly lawless, people solved problems with knives and that the police could be bought off for even the biggest of crimes. It was late, I was tired and we weren’t paying too much attention as we sped into the city, keeping up with traffic going 110km per hour, blasting through red lights, in 50km zones.

As we got closer to our hotel, I tried to turn left and had to take evasive action to avoid an oncoming car, as I’d turned down a one way street. That oncoming car was a police car with its lights on. I figured we were screwed and he’d stop us and maybe demand a bribe. But he just kept on going and didn’t pay us a second thought. I can’t think of many other places in the world where you turn the wrong way down a one way street, almost crash head on into a police car and don’t get pulled over. The entire drive reiterated why Brazilians were mad about the world cup. Basic infrastructure connecting the 3rd and 5th biggest city just didn’t work. And was outright dangerous.

Praia Francesa
Praia Francesa

The next day we went to Praia Francesa, a small beach town about 30 minutes south of Maciaó. It was absolutely beautiful and really relaxing after the long, harrowing drive the night before. Besides for the natural beauty, the first thing I noticed was the amount of people with knife wounds. On their faces. On their chests.  On their legs. I looked it up later and found articles saying that people solved their problems with knives instead of fists, guns or calling the police. And it showed. I bet we saw 10+ people that afternoon with some sort of knife scar, including our waiter who had a mouth to ear scar.

IMG_3476

After spending the day at the beach, we headed south again, with the intention of getting to a small town about an hour from Salvador. We missed our turn off and by about 1030pm, ended up in Conte, a tiny town about 120km from Salvador. We were some of the only tourists in town and stayed in a beautiful hotel for about $50 for the night. We ate dinner at a small restaurant where locals were drinking beer and sampled the local food.

Fish, shrimp stew
Fish, shrimp stew

Salvador and its region has some of the most interesting food in Brazil. It’s the center of afro-brazilian culture and you can see the influences in everything, but most of all the food. There are dishes that are very similar to southern food in the US, including Acarajé, which is very similar to hush puppies, boiled peanuts and stewed chicken with spices. Acarajé, one of my favorites and a ubiquitous street food, is made of smashed up black eyed peas and then covered with okra, boiled shrimp, greens and sauce.

Source: http://santomenino.blogspot.com/2011/12/acaraje.html
Acarajé.                                         Source: http://santomenino.blogspot.com/2011/12/acaraje.html

There’s also fish and seafood stew cooked with spices, served with the stew sauce thickened by manioc flour. I had this stew in Salvador and had to convince the waiter to let me order it, as he thought the shrimp and fish stew, along with the manioc would be too much for my gringo digestive system. I’m glad I was able to convince him, as it was by far my favorite dish I tried in Brazil.

Acai is the hidden gem of Brazilian snacks. I’d had acai juice before and didn’t really like it, but the frozen acai with bananas, granola and honey. I had it for breakfast, in hot weather on the beach and after hangovers. An incredible treat that I wish we had either in Chile or in the US.

In Conte, I sampled a manioc and chicken stew that had been cooked for 4+ hours in a spicy broth, while my friend had carne de sol, the most popular meat dish in the region. We also ate cheese grilled over open coals, another ubiquitous street food in the region. It’s really easy to always order grilled meat when you’re in Brazil, but if you go off the beaten path a bit, you can find really interesting, flavorful dishes.

IMG_3481

We got up early the next morning, ate Brazilian fruit for breakfast, and then headed south toward Salvador and the USA Belgium game. We stopped for a coconut water halfway to Salvador, then drove to the mall near where we would be staying to take the shuttle to the game.

IMG_3465

 

Lighthouse Barra, Salvador
Light house Barra, Salvador

Salvador was my favorite city I visited this trip and I would go back again. It’s a city that made sense to host world cup games. The historic Arena Fonte Nova is located downtown, within walking distance from Pelorinho, Salvador’s historic center, the beach and areas with bars. Located between a major street, a favela and a beautiful lake, the redone stadium is beautiful from the outside and had good sight lines from inside. We bought beers outside the stadium from entrepreneurial Brazilians and got into the stadium.

coconut water
coconut water

I had tickets from the US supporters club and was expecting to be in an all US section as I had been in the previous games, but FIFA screwed it up and I was in a mixed section with Belgians, US fans and Brazilians. I’d stood and cheered the entire first three games with thousands of other US fans, but this time I had to sit as Belgium dominated the first half. The US were lucky to be tied at halftime, but were still in the game.

Arena Fonte Nova
Arena Fonte Nova

My friend and I decided to move seat locations and stand with other US fans in another section, which improved the atmosphere. Tim Howard stood on his head the entire game, turning in the best goalkeeping game I’ve ever seen. Belgium really should have scored two or three times in regulation, but Howard kept them out. In the last seconds of the game, the US missed it’s chance win the game, missing a wide open chance from about six yards out.

IMG_3422

Belgium finally broke through in extra time and scored twice, but the US fought back, scoring quickly and almost scoring again off a beautifully executed set piece. It would be have been nice to see the US play more attacking in the Belgium game, but it was a good end to a fun world cup run. I was surprised how anti-US the Brazilian crowd in Salvador was, chanting “USA go home,” “bye bye USA,” and whistling loudly to drown out our cheers whenever we got something started. Although the US advanced to the round of 16 again, just like 2010, it was a good world cup that showed US progress. Hopefully Klinsmann learns from this world cup and puts in a good showing for Copa America 2016 in the US.

The next day was a public holiday, for Bahia independence day. Salvador de Bahia, founded in 1500, was the first settlement by the Portuguese and just oozes history. We drove to Pelorinho, the old city, which gets its name from the stockades where the Portuguese originally hung and tortured slaves and locals. We watched the celebratory parade with full brass marching bands and dancers, had a beer and enjoyed the old architecture. Everyone was incredibly nice, open and willing to talk to us. This was true everywhere in Brazil, but especially true in Salvador.

IMG_3459

We spent the next day in Barra, one of Salvador’s many beaches, enjoying the sun, caipirinhas and warm water. Barra is one of the only beaches in Brazil where you can see the sunset, which was absolutely beautiful. The Brazilians on the beach stood up and cheered as the sun went down, thanking it for making the day a great one. We decided to watch Brazil vs. Colombia in Pelorinho, the old section of town. People piled out of their homes to set up chairs in the streets and watch the game on tvs perched from windows and porches. When Brazilian won, this was the reaction:

I went to one last game, the Netherlands vs. Costa Rica in the quarterfinals, which was a tight, exciting and chance filled game. The entire crowd were behind the Costa Ricans, willing them to win. Both teams had great chances, but neither could convert. The Dutch manager substituted goal keepers in the last minute of extra time and his gamble paid off. Tim Krul, the substitute, taunted, psyched out and disrupted the Costa Ricans and then saved two of their shots, winning the game for the Dutch and sending them through. The atmosphere was electric, with the Brazilians singing anti-Argentina songs throughout the entire match at full volume. Argentines sang right back.

IMG_3447

By the end of my three week trip, I was ready to sleep in my own bed and stop traveling, but I was sad to leave sunny, warm Salvador for cold, rainy Santiago. It was an amazing trip through northern Brazil and I’d love to go back to explore more of Salvador and the surrounding area, along with southern brazil. Although it’s still four years away, I can’t wait for the world cup in 2018, even if it is in Russia.

IMG_3458
Last sunset in Brazil
Flying back over the andes
Flying back over the Andes

World Cup Brazil 2014: Part 2 – Recife-Porto de Galhinas for Italy Costa Rica

Note: This is part two of a series about my world cup trip. Read part one here about Natal and USA/Ghana or the entire series here.

On the morning of 20th, we left Natal at 6am in our rental car, hoping to make it to Recife in time to grab a bite to eat and have a few pregame beers before the 1pm kickoff. We drove through sugar cane fields and beautiful rolling hills and made it to the outskirts of Recife by 10am, but quickly realized that things would be different as we got closer to the city.

IMG_3413

Traffic stopped, so we took a local road, speed bumps, potholes and all, across the city to get closer to the stadium. We’d finally made it through what we thought was the worst of it, but all the sudden, traffic just stopped completely. We were within 6km of the stadium, but we just weren’t moving. I shut off the car. Brazilians got out of the their cars in the blazing heat to sit in the shade. Food vendors appeared out of nowhere. We sat for a good hour and then were finally moving again. It was the first time I’d ever seen black on google maps traffic.

We finally got to the front of the line and realized the holdup: the police were blocking the road and letting the cars on the road we were trying to merge with go. We were unlucky and had to wait another 30 minutes. A side note about the police. They’re scary guys. They have massive automatic weapons, battle armor and look like they know how to use it. And that they want to use it.

IMG_3236

 

The policemen at a completely non threatening road block had their fingers about a half inch from the triggers of their guns and brandished them at anyone who dared ask what was going on. It’s no wonder that at least 2000 people are killed by Brazilian police each year. The ultimate reason for the blockade was that the Italian team bus was running late, so they needed a traffic free route to the stadium.

The bus finally passed and we were on our way again. The Recife stadium is beautiful, but it’s about 30 minutes outside of the city, really in the middle of nowhere. Even though there’s nothing around, we had to park about 2 miles from the stadium and take a bus to the stadium. Why? Because FIFA mandated it. Some Brazilians just pulled over on the highway and walked to the game rather than pay $20 per car, plus $5 per person to park and ride.

The stadium itself is beautiful and a great place to see the game. We had tickets in the 2nd level in the corner and watched at Costa Rica picked apart Italy, leading to a beautiful goal. The Costa Rican fans could hardly believe it and continued to sing the entire game. Games like that are one of the reasons I love the world cup. A tiny country of about 4.5m can take on a world soccer power like Italy and dominate.

IMG_3384

After the game we drove to Porto De Galinhas, but had to do some offroading to even get out of the stadium. Brazil hadn’t finished all of the onramps, so we had to go under a bridge on a dirt road, through a quasi favela, and then pull onto the highway via the shoulder. This entire maneuver took at least an hour, but we were finally on our way. We were running out of gas as we got to Porto de Galinhas, but were too tired and hungry to stop. Instead, we checked into our Airbnb house and went out in search of food.

ef437ab6ecc53d056bce116e82e8c39d
Offroading to get home from Recife

Nearly everywhere we went, we found “gaucho style” dining: a salad, veggie and potato bar, plus all kinds of cuts of meat for a fixed price. It was a great way to eat well without spending a ton of money. We had our first experience in Porto de Galinhas, where we paid $15 for all you can eat meat, plus fejoada (black beans), farofa (a grain that you put on meat, rice and beans), veggies and salad. We’d have variations on this meal at least 10 more times on our trip. It’ll be one of the things I most miss about Brazil when I’m back in Chile.

The next morning we explored the beach. It was an absolutely beautiful day on one of Brazil’s best beaches. We set up shop under a beach umbrella and ordered a caipirinha, Brazil’s national drink, and laid back to take it all in. One of my favorite parts about Brazilian beaches in the north are the food vendors. They bring full lobsters, crabs, fresh fish, meat skewers, fresh fruit, coconut waters, tapioca fried cheese and more. You never have to leave your seat.

IMG_3243

The water was warm, tropical blue, with just the right amount of waves to play in. After multiple caipirinhas and a full day at the beach, we headed back to our house. The car still needed gas, but we weren’t going to drive that night, so we didn’t bother. That decision would be very important about 10 hours later on my way to Manaus and the USA-Portugal game.

IMG_3375
Lobsters on the beach