It was time to say goodbye to wonderful Lencois and set off for the long drive back to Salvador.
A few weeks ago we’d got tickets for the quarter final here, thinking/hoping (in vain) there’s a small chance England might be in it.
That dream had long since faded of course, but I was still excited to be going to what would surely be our last World Cup match of the tournament.
We were on the road shortly after 7 and to begin with it had it all to ourselves…
It didn’t last long and soon we were dealing with lots of trucks
We’d worked out a shortcut thanks to some local tips – actually it’s a longer route – but it avoids all the trucks which are ubiquitous on this road. Basically you do a left at Itaberaba and travel via Ipirá to Feira de Santana, before rejoining the dual-carriageway to Salvador. This turned out to be a god send, and we were soon making really good time again.
We made it back to Salvador in under 6 hours – going the other route had taken us 8 or 9. We had a little difficulty finding Hertz again, and got a bit lost despite having a Hertz GPS and Google Maps on our phones. When we did get there, which involved resolving to drive the wrong way up a highway service road, the Hertz guys were hanging out watching the Argentina v Belgium game. We watched some of the game while waiting for a taxi.
We’d booked a hotel by the airport for one night which was enormous and packed with fans.
We made the mistake of ordering some food, which took forever to come, and while I fretted over how to get to the now imminent match, Eli made a friend and played pool.
I got chatting with an American guy named Alex, who lives in Rio and was also going to the game. As soon as the food arrived (we were about to abandon it), we shared a cab to get to the game, which was some distance away.
We made good time – surprisingly little traffic, and were soon walking to the stadium
The Arena Fonte Nova in Salvador is not the prettiest of stadiums and our seats were very high up. We climbed (and climbed) to get to the top.
We had some time so we located our seats and went off exploring
The game itself was a bit boring but still fun to watch
We were among a lot of Costa Rica fans and Brazilians supporting Costa Rica. We were backing Holland…
The game ended nil-nil and we were excited it was going to penalties – a first for us and our football watching exploits
And this is the moment Holland won
We filed on out and found a bus going to near our hotel by the airport
It dropped us off at a large shopping centre / mall called Salvador Norte
Eli was hungry so went inside to look around
We found a food court and caved to the King / had it our way
We were the last to be served and last to leave the mall!
A long day but no complaints