The reason for us heading to the city of Cuiaba was for the FIFA World Cup. As we flew into Cuiaba we could see the spectacular wetlands that this city is famous for, known as the Pantanal. This is where the stadium that is hosting four games got its name, Arena Pantanal.

Cuiaba is located at the centre of South America, the furthest we have ever been from the beach! The people of Cuiaba have been very excited to see so many foreign tourists and extremely friendly. Not many tourists seem to spend any time in Cuiaba, hence their excitement.

When we arrived in Cuiaba we quickly checked in so we could see the opening ceremony, Brazil vs Croatia at the FIFA Fan Fest. It was set up like a concert/music festival with a big screen, food and beer tents, activities and an amphitheatre. It was completely packed with majority of them Brazilians, however also a lot of Chileans and Australians as well. The atmosphere was incredible and the Brazilians were very passionate! Each ‘gooooal’ that was scored, beer would fly in the air, horns were blown, everyone would chant/cheer and flares and fireworks would fill the air. As the final siren went the party began! There was more celebrations, more drinking, a band began and the dancing/samba started.

Today was game day for us, where we had the opportunity to support Australia at their opening game at the FIFA World Cup. Since we had been traveling for ten weeks (wow that’s gone fast) we didn’t bring anything to wear to the game. Surely they would sell merchandise over here, it is such a big event after all, even rip offs would have been ok. Unfortunately for us there was nothing at all! We got a couple of things that were green and gold ( Brazilian green & gold) to attempt to look like Australians.

Before the game we went to a bar near the Arena Pantanal. Chileans filled the streets chanting and were wearing a lot of memorabilia, they were everywhere! We finally found a bar that had a few Australians and sat down for a few drinks, watching Netherlands defeat Spain. We then headed over to the stadium hoping to purchase something Australian, however once again were out of luck. To enter the stadium there were metal detectors, they confiscated our horn because with too many it would have been too loud inside. We walked around the brand new arena, had a few drinks and headed to our seats.

The Chileans filled majority of the Arena, followed by Australians and Brazilians. We suddenly realised that it was going to be tough to support the Australians with so many Chileans. I was sitting next to a couple of them while they were constantly saying, “you don’t play soccer, you throw a frisbee” or “you play rugby”. This made me desperately want Australia to win. I hope that over the next few years, Australia will improve and be respected in the “Soccer World”.

 

 

 

 

After a couple of goals in the first half it was not looking good for Australia, however just towards the end the half Australia had scored their first ‘goooal’ and the crowd (including us) went wild, it was very exciting! In the second half they began to make a real contest, almost scoring early however a couple of decisions didn’t go our way. Chile scored another late goal, sealing the win! Although Australia lost we felt they did well, and even the Chileans though so. We really enjoyed the experience, its one we will never forget.

The rest of our time in Cuiaba has been spent getting in to the football spirit, going to the Fan Fest and local bars to watch other matches. Although we are not in Rio or Sao Paulo, Cuiaba was still putting on a show with the streets are filled with green, gold and blue and a great vibe.

In Cuiaba (and the rest of South America) the footpaths are terrible, ranging form a 3 cm gap to a 30 cm gap. Sommer split open her big toe open one night on the way home, she took off the band-aid to give it some air on our last night and split it open again. Ouch!

On our last day we went to watch Brazil play their second match against Mexico at the Fan Fest. We decided to walk from our motel which was about a 30 minute walk through the neighbourhoods which was a funny experience. Firstly I don’t think they get many tourists going through where we had walked and I’m pretty sure everyone we walk pasted looked at me, and Sommer well she got a lot more from the males. It was a great game and even better atmosphere again at the Fan Fest but in the end it was a 0-0 draw.

Tonight we are catching a night bus to Campo Grande where we have booked in to do a 3 day tour in the Pantanal.

We have our fingers crossed for Australia for the rest of the World Cup!

 

Chao for now,

N & S xx