25 hours later we arrived in Natal, Brazil
And as someone who's worked to promote soccer in the U.S. for so long, every four years I give myself the chance to go enjoy the games myself, as a fan. This one is different. In all I’ll fly around 20,000 miles from Denver to and throughout Brazil, and back.
My flights started on June 13: Left Denver at 11:15 p.m, arrived in Miami at 5 a.m. Left Miami around 10 a.m., arrived in Sao Paolo at 8:30 p.m. Left Sao Paolo at 9:50 p.m., arrived in Natal at 1:00 a.m. on Sunday, June. 15 - the day before the USA-Ghana game. Six of us will be here for about five days before we go to the Amazon.
Halfway through the huge line at passport control at Sao Paolo's International Airport, a young woman held a clipboard and gently smiled as she asked each passenger - in English - what country they were from and what was the purpose of their visit to Brazil.
Ahead of us in line was a group of maybe 80 who were wearing Nigeria's green colors. Behind us was a group wearing Argentina's traditional sky blue and white jersey, and another group sporting Chile's red. Others are wearing jerseys from Germany, England, Colombia, Mexico, Greece, and Portugal.
Our flight was an hour late, but we anticipated issues and did not check in bags, so we were able to rapidly walk past customs and search for our connecting flight. We see the sign 'last call for Natal' and run down the stairs to board the bus that took us to the plane.
It was a huge relief getting on our third plane of the day - knowing we didn't miss it and that our travels were only another 3.5 hours from being finished. We look up at other late arriving passengers and see Curtis walking in. He flew in from Chicago and originally had an even later flight to Natal, but was able to talk himself into ours.
The airport in Natal was not the one originally scheduled. The new airport was officially inaugurated last week, and all domestic flights will now land here. It was a minor inconvenience but one the guys noticed a couple of days ago.
We took a taxi to our Airbnb condo, where Clint and Ashley, who arrived yesterday from Buenos Aires had already checked in and welcomed us with cold beers - at 3 a.m. The photo above is our view from the roof.
Let the party begin!
PS Notes: BClint and Ashely decided to make this a ‘round-the-world’ trip. They first went to Argentina and this is their second of who knows how many countries…Brett - who arranged our place - arrives later on Sunday (hopefully) - his flight from Manchester, England was cancelled Saturday morning….While waiting in Miami I ran into a former player from our days at FC Dallas, Brazilian Andre Rocha. We had a nice long chat about where he's playing now (Vasco de Gama in Rio de Janeiro), and just caught up. He asked about a bunch of his former FCD teammates - seems that team left an imprint on him...30 minutes into the flight to Sao Paolo, my seat neighbor dumped a full cup of coke on my lap. I was on the window seats and tried to get up quickly but was caught by my seatbelt. My pants were soaked, and I had to put a thick blanket on the seat to sit on. It was not the most comfortable flight.
