Gearing up for World Cup Brazil 2014!

Here it is...all the stress and painstaking months of planning for my fifth World Cup nearly behind me.  Hands down, this has been the most challenging (and if my flight there wasn't free would be the most expensive) World Cup to date.  Let's just hope it was all worth the efforts!

We got our tickets fairly late late in the second lotto offering and only got the first two US matches (US-Ghana and US-Portugal).  And just to complicate matters, all three of us traveling (Amy, Jim and me) got all requested tickets, meaning we now had 6 extra per game.  Shouldn't be hard to sell, right?  Except we don't have the tickets in hand!  Luckily, and thanks to fellow US supporters we currently have 9 of the 12 currently committed with the exchange planned to go down in Natal on our arrival. Woot!

Flights:  Delta employee Jim offered up his "One Great Team" ticket for our Brazil flight in exchange for planning the rest of the trip...well, that turned out to be more than limiting with all the rules that applied, ending in my having to book a (mileage) flight to ATL to connect to GRU.  But it got us confirmed to Sao Paolo.

Accommodations:  We had booked our accommodations in Rio (Ipanema) early on, so not having US-Germany tickets proved a bit of a blessing not having to make the choice between that and Rio. Amy took the lead to book a hotel in Natal, despite my effort to get my former Galapagos roommate Bianca, now living in Natal, to feel it out for us.

More Flights:  After some consultation about the safety of driving in Brazil, we had our hearts set on driving thinking it a good idea to rent a car and drive back the coastal from Rio to Sao Paulo to actually have some time enjoying the countryside.  But still, the daunting task of our internal travel still loomed, and flights were selling out and fares going up on TAM as if they were flying to the moon.  We had to cover some mileage from GRU-NAT-MAO-GIG-GRU. Fortunately, Gol offered better flight options (2:15am is a good thing when the alternative is nothing) and at more reasonable rates.

More Accommodations/tour: After weeks of back and forth with agencies, we were able to book not only a tour in the Amazon, but Manaus Booking also arranged our airport pick-up and accommodations bookending said tour.  Sorted!

Car Rental:  So I quickly discovered coastal drive Rio-Sao Paulo idea wasn't the best at $500+ for the day (apparently renting cars is rare, the supply low and agencies are independently owned warranting a $400+ one way drop fee).  So we decided to rent a car while in Rio for a couple day trips and fly GIG-GRU at ~$180/ea for the one hour flight.  So you can imagine my delight when in coming upon the "lowest fare of the day" at just $53 each!  I never hit "buy" so quickly in my life...and after only a few technical glitches on Gol's site, our flights were confirmed!

And finally today, I arranged a taxi for the day upon our arrival in Sao Paulo to get in a few hours of the city and perhaps the Football Museum.  It finally came together, and I can only hope that we can squeeze in a few more games while there!

Oh, and Jurgen Klinsman sent me this!:

USA - USA - USA