Rio de Janeiro and the 2014 World Cup

 

 

Having just wrapped up my two months in Peru and Colombia, I flew back to Buenos Aires early Thursday morning with just enough time to empty my bags and pack a smaller one before heading to the airport where, after work that day, I caught a flight to Rio de Janeiro.

I was fortunate enough, months ago, to have won the World Cup lottery, allowing me to purchase a ticket to the quarterfinals in Rio. This year, the match was a classic - Germany versus France. Needless to say, with German blood in my heritage, I was rooting for Germany and they won a close match: 1-0. I even managed to get invited into the Budweiser VIP Hospitality Suite before the game!

The stadium in Rio, Maracana, is the world's most famous stadium and there were 74,500 people in attendance inside, with tens of thousands more outside of the stadium watching the match on large outdoor TVs. Following the match, I rushed out of the stadium to the subway to meet my friend, Cristina, who is from Rio. I met her at her apartment in Copacabana and we headed to the world-famous Copacabana beach, where we joined 250,000 others to watch Brazil beat Colombia in the other quarterfinal played that day.

I returned to my hotel after a long day of drinking and partying, to wake up the next morning and explore Corcovado and the huge Christ the Redeemer statue at the top of the mountain. Today, before heading back to Buenos Aires, I checked out Ipanema Beach (the last picture above).

Click here to see more photos from this once-in-a-lifetime trip!