Casualty Count: The Final Tally

So, unbelievably, Copa '14 is in the books. I cannot believe that the 28 days went as incredibly fast as they did, but at the same time I can hardly comprehend the things we experienced in that short time. Herewith is a final tally that in absolutely no way does justice to what we all just experienced. As always, the accuracy of the following numbers is worth about what you paid for them.

28: days gone, 26 days in Brazil with a travel day on either end

31: Trips to an airport for Brothers Chapman; yes, in just 28 days

4: Airlines patronized - TAM & Gol (both based in Brasil), Avianca (out of Colombia), and Delta (originating in Hades, GA)

12,270: air miles by Sofia
14,430: air miles by Amy, Daniel & Aviana
17,340: air miles covered by Sergio & Veronica
22,260: air miles racked up by the Brothers (just 2,700 miles shy of a full circumnavigation; eat your heart out Phileas Fogg!)

9: Brazilian states forever changed by (sometimes ever so brief) visits by the Brothers (of 27 total)

16: cumulative games seen by the travelers (still haven't heard if Jose made it into the Final, so his number is incomplete/not included yet)

51,999: number of the roughly 52,000 people holding their collective breath during the extra time between the USA and Belgium match at Arena Fonte Nova in Salvador; Tim Howard, however, was clearly breathing through his eyelids the whole night

3: trips to Restaurante a Mineira, in Sao Fracisco Beach; good food, nearly frozen beer, gratis cachaca, good TV's, great view...why wouldn't you?

3: keys KIA (please, don't ask)

DOZENS: number of wonderful people that we got to meet, spend time with, and will call friends and honorary family for the rest of our lives

HUNDREDS/THOUSANDS: priceless memories that we will carry away from the whole experience; ALSO rough amount spent on a month-long vacation (!!!!)

MILLIONS: number of wonderful people in Brazil; the alarmist media sold us all a hefty bill of goods with the "you will absolutely get mugged/roofied/robbed/raped/kidnapped/stabbed/shot/murdered/just plain die in Brazil" stories. This should never be forgotten. Or forgiven

1,426: days until kickoff of FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia!   

Casualty Count: Week 3

As always, no guarantees as to the accuracy of the following numbers - 

9,000: temperature and humidity in Manaus for USA v POR

40: reais for admission to As Cataratas do Iguacu; maybe best real-for-real purchase of the trip

30: reais for admission to Parque das Aves; maybe the best real-for-real purchase of the trip

600: gallons of water in the wave our captain drove into to swamp Sergio and Amy riding in the prow

6: feet of rain that fell during our 2 1/2 days in Iguacu

6/2/6/4,600+: cities/hotels/beds/miles racked up by Brothers Chapman in the Rio-Belo Horizonte-Brasilia-Manaus-Brasilia-Foz do Iguacu-Rio run last week

100's: more beers killed, but they seem to just keep coming; we'll keep up the efforts

9,000: calories consumed in brigadeiros; pray we don't make these when we get back...evil little buggers

Worth the trip if for no other reason

Spent the whole day on Praia Sao Francisco, across the bay from Rio proper. May be the most beautiful beach we've been on the whole time. Don't believe me, see for yourself.

We Did Come Here For Games

To date, here are the games seen in person:
Daniel - Spain x Chile in Rio
Sofia - Argentina x Bosnia in Rio
Veronica - USA x Ghana in Natal and Colombia x Uruguay in Rio (she doesn't know this yet)
Jose - Argentina x Bosnia in Rio, Belgium x Russia in Rio, Colombia x Uruguay in Rio
Sergio - Belgium x Russia in Rio, USA x Ghana in Natal, Colombia x Uruguay in Rio
Ryan - USA x Ghana in Natal, Argentina x Iran in Belo Horizonte, USA x Portugal in Manaus
Devin -  USA x Ghana in Natal, Spain x Chile in Rio, Argentina x Iran in Belo Horizonte, USA x Portugal in Manaus

Devin and Ryan leave in a few days for Salvador for the USA x Belgium game.

Lions and Tigers...Wait Tucans and Macaws and...

Parque das Aves in Foz de Iguacu.  Awesome!!!!!

Stop talking about summer in DC...just stop (USA v POR)

So, normally I'd try to give some kind of recap about the game attended, but given the reports we're reading from back home, it appears a safe bet that anyone reading this blog also watched Sunday night's game. Nearly 25M viewers in the US. Fan-freaking-tastic!

Manaus, though...wow, Manaus. Up to now, must of the games we've been to have been on or near the Brazilian Atlantic coast. Not Manaus. Manaus is way, way, WAY up river in the Amazon jungle region. It's a little over 210 miles from the equator; like Albuquerque to Roswell. We'd spent the night before in Brasilia (more on that later), which felt very like home. It sits at a higher altitude and cools off noticeably after dark (see what I mean about sounding familiar?). Walking out of the airport in Manaus was like walking opening the door and walking into a sauna. Our very gracious host chuckled when we mentioned it, saying that "today is actually a cool day."

The game that night was the brand spanking new Arena Amazônias. The place is gorgeous as you can see from the stadium shot, and, much like Natal, it was full of Americans. But it was hard to enjoy it too much. Walk around the stadium, you're going to sweat. Climb the stairs to your seats, you're going to sweat. Jump up and down cheering, you're going to sweat. Turn your head to follow the game or talk to the folks next to you, you're going to sweat.  Breathe, blink, think, you're going to sweat. When Portugal (and Pretty Boy) jumped out to a quick lead of a just terrible piece of defending by the US, it looked like we might be in for a horribly long night. But amazingly our boys suddenly turned it around and liked like the team we'd all hoped they one day could be. Unlike Natal, the mid-field controlled the game and dictated the pace. It was very encouraging, but still Portugal would break away and scare everyone with the possibility of them jumping out to a 2-0 lead. And then, this happened:

Suddenly, we had a team. Whatever it was that we saw in Natal for 80+ minutes was not present in Manaus. They played like a real team, and completely shut Pretty Boy & Co. down. At least until about the last 45 seconds when we decided to take a picture to commemorate the 2-1 win we were about to post. And, well, roughly 25M of you back home saw what happened then.

We Made It!!!

 


More...and I mean many many many more to come.