Argentina beats Mexico 3-1

Rough Road to Buenos Aires

Kyle- Buenos Aires, Argentina- After leaving Paraguay, we crossed the border into Argentina. Nico said that he felt safer and relieved that we were in Argentina, but was unaware of what would come. Yesterday and today consisted of a lot of driving. We drove 8 hours on Thursday and 10 hours on Friday. The drive started very well. The drive in Northwest, Argentina was tremendous. The forests we drove by were beautiful, and the sky looked awesome (filled with pink clouds). Even when we got lost, we came across a an amazing part of the forest that we had to stop and take pictures. The drive was going so well.
Unfortunately, the near perfect drive in Argentina turned into the most stressful part of the entire trip. As we drove, we started looking for hotels to stay for the night. All of sudden, we approached a National guard, check point. The National Guards took one look at our car and asked us to pull over (Only A small percentage of cars were pulled over). I got nervous even though I knew we did nothing wrong. Three guards approached the car. The Chief guard asked us for our passports and car registration. They walked away from the car and talked for a few minutes. When they returned, they asked us to step out of the car and take all our bags out. As soon as we stepped out, three guards began searching the car. This was a very thorough search- they looked under the seats, in the trunk, on doors ect. Then the chief guard brought over a table and asked me to put my suitcase on it and take everything out. As I removed my clothes i heard Danny and the Chief talking. I had no idea what they were talking about but figured it wasn't good. The guards then made Nico do the same thing to his bag. After they searched all the suitcases they let us go. When we got in the car, I asked Danny what they spoke about and he said they just talked about the World Cup. These guards weren't actually so bad and were just doing there jobs. Everything was fine!? not really!
We left the next morning at 6 am with 950 kilometers to Buenos, Aires. Within 5 minutes of the drive, we were stopped at another National guard check point. They asked us to step out of the car, searched it, but this time they only searched our backpacks (instead of our suitcases). It turned out, these checking points were about every 100 kilometers on the way to Buenos Aires. After being stopped for the sixth time (going through the process of being searched each time)we ran into corrupt police officers that decided they were going to give us an absurd infraction and take our money. We were brought into a small police office near where we were pulled over. The officer explained to us that our car lacked a fire extinguisher and the penalty was 273 pesos (approximately $75). This is one law I have never heard of but the officer said that we needed to pay the fine before we could leave. We only had 280 pesos which would not leave us with enough money for tolls had we given them 273. Danny told the officers that we only had 200 pesos and the officer said " okay great! we'll take it!" These cops really scared me. I knew we did nothing wrong, but that did not matter.
The rest of the drive was very stressful. We were all really upset, and knew we still had 4 hours left of driving (and possibly more police/national guard check points). I got nervous each time we got stopped and it became very annoying to empty our bags and suitcases so many times. We did not feel better until we arrived in Buenos Aires where Danny's Uncle and Grandmother took us out to dinner around 8p.m. At the restaurant we realized... it was our first meal of the day.

Paraguay Advances/ City Celebration

June 24, 2010
Kyle- Ciudad del Este, Paraguay- Paraguay and New Zealand tied 0-0 yesterday, but advanced to the next round. Before I talk about this game...Lets talk about Paraguay.

We crossed the border into Paraguay on Thursday morning and were immediately overwhelmed with the chaos that occured. As we drove, looking for a place to watch the game, hundreds of people were in the streets. Most of them had a Paraguayan jersey on and there were flags everywhere. Every 20 feet, people would knock on our windows in the middle of the street attempting to give us a flyer or handout. There were hundreds of people! One kid (10 or 11 years old) approached the car and washed our windshield (expecting a tip). We hadn't exchanged money yet so we had no Paraguayan money to give him. Nico gave him a few Uruguayan pesos instead and the kid immediately threw it at the car and started yelling at us. I didn't understand exactly what he was saying, but my guess is that he said "What the heck is this? give me some Paraguayan money!" We ignored him, but he displayed his anger by punching the window. Luckily, he did not break it and we were able to get away.

We pulled into a mall to watch the game. After all the chaos in the city, we were worried about the car, but Nico took his bag (with our valuables in it) into the mall. For the first time all trip, we felt unsafe. I thought I would feel safer once I bought a Paraguayan jersey and Danny felt the same way. We agreed we would look to buy one before the game started. The first store we saw was a gun store and this did not help us feel any safer. All I could think about was getting that jersey, so that everyone knew we were there to show support. We went to three sporting goods stores, but none of them sold Paraguayan soccer jerseys. All I could think was "How can a Shopping Mall in Paraguay not sell...Paraguayan jerseys!" The entire mall was filled with people wearing Paraguayan jerseys. If you needed an NBA jersey, you were golden, but no soccer jerseys. The game started and we found a cafe in the mall that had couches and a room full of passionate fans (with jerseys) ready for the game. Several stores closed for the game. This game was not very exciting. Paraguay outplayed New Zealand, but could not score. The fans jumped out of their seats every time Paraguay had a scoring opportunity but it did not happen. The game ended 0-0, but the celebration began right after the last whistle. Paraguay only needed a draw to win their group and the fans knew it. The celebration started with fans inside the mall screaming, blowing horns, and waving flags. The stores re-opened but most workers were partying, dancing, and screaming inside their store. People were partying in the streets so we decided to take a walk and check it out. The music was so loud that it was difficult to hear each other speak. I took out my phone and attempted to record a video when Danny quickly told me to put it away before someone snatched it from me. We decided it was time to leave and went back to the car. We got to the car and saw that someone tried to break in. Someone clearly cut into the door handle and tried to unlock the door. We left Paraguay (after crossing the border three hours earlier) and crossed back to Brazil before crossing again into Argentina. As we drove off all I could think was...If only we had those jerseys.

Iguazu Waterfalls

Kyle- We are sorry for the lack of posts in the past few days. We have had some internet issues that have been very frustrating. We have done more driving the past four days then anything else and have mostly been in the middle of nowhere. There is a lot to say and I will start with Wednesday.

June 23, 2010. We woke up on Wednesday and watched Team USA vs. Algeria. That was such an exciting game! Thank you Donovan for that goal in the 91st minute. USA!!!! We were so excited and can't wait for tomorrow's game against Ghana which we will watch at an American bar in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The majority of Wednesday we spent at Iguazu waterfalls which are waterfalls of the Iguazu River which are located on the Brazilian state of Parana and the Argentine province of Misiones. The falls divide the river into the upper and lower Iguazu. Everyone we talked to from Dannys friends in Montevideo, new friends we met in Montevideo, and people we met in Brazil all told us this place would amaze us. Our expectations were high when we arrived, and this place lived up to the hype and more! We were amazed! This truly is a magical place that is absolutely incredible and unbelievably beautiful. We toured the falls (from the Brazilian side) for 4 hours and loved every minute of it. This is the last time we had a nice, relaxing day as Thursday and Friday have been stressful and crazy!

Florionopolis to Guarapuava - Wild.

Danny - We left Florianoplis at around 10am this morning. Stopped by the local gas station filled up, check the oil, cleaned the car a bit and buckled in for a long drive about 580 Kilometers (350 miles). The drive started out smooth sailing on a scenic drive with the coast on one side and jungle/mountains on the other. The 4 hours north to the city of Curitiba felt like 20 minutes with great weather, open road and beautiful views. Our trip would take a drastic change on our drive west.

Unaware of the road ahead I expected the same drive that we experienced from Florianopolis to Curitiba. I was wrong. Finding the highway west took us on a tour through Curitiba asking everyone we saw where to go in broken Portuguese. We finally found the correct highway by sheer luck and were on our way.

In the exact opposite way that the first part of the drive felt fast, the next 3-4 hours felt like 10 hours. The highway was in and out of 1-2 lanes in what seemed to be an endless incline, winding roads through the mountains with a dense fog and mist and Truck conveys flying by at 70-100 mph. The highway near our destination (Guarapuava) would prove the worst as night fell. 43 kilometers with 0 visibility (fog/night), impatient drivers and cliffs on our right. Ive never been happier to see the city lights of a small, sleepy city like Guarapuava.

We got some food, watched the thrashing of North Korea (sort of feel for them, Kim Jung Il wont receive them with open arms) and we are going to watch Uruguay vs. Mexico tomorrow before we leave to Foz do Iguazu the border city with Paraguay and where we will stay for 2 days. Plan is to see the Iguazu waterfalls & watch the Paraguay game in Ciudad Del Est,Paraguay.

Brazil defeats Ivory Coast

Kyle- Earlier this afternoon, we watched Brazil defeat Ivory Coast 3-1 to improve 2-0 in group play. We watched the game in a small town in Florianapolis, Brazil. The scene in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was definitely much bigger. Before the game started, a shot of thousands of people gathered to watch the game in Rio appeared on the television screen. We watched it in a smaller town, but passion for their team was the same. People packed the bars hours before the game wearing their Brazilian t-shirts and jerseys.The bars had big Brazilian flags on them and most cars also had flags hanging out the windows. The fans also demonstrated their high expectations for their team (That has won more World Cups than any other country) when they yelled at the television any time Brazil crossed midfield and didn't score a goal. Brazil won 3-1, and some of the fans seemed disappointed that they did not earn a shutout. The bar got very silent when Ivory Coast scored a goal as people looked on in disbelief. Brazil dominated this game from the beginning and never looked back after #9 Luis Fabiano gave them a 1-0 lead scoring the goal midway through the first half. Fabiano added another goal in the second half and Ivory Coast never recovered. One huge story in this game was the physical play in the second half. Several yellow cards were handed out, and Brazil's star #10 Kaka received a red card after getting his second yellow card late in the second half and will serve a one game suspension. Brazil's team is very strong, but the fans expect nothing less than World Cup championship #6.

Danny - We are leaving Florianoplis this morning to get to our resting point (Guarapuava) as we drive west to the Paraguay-Brazil border and on to the Iguazu Falls. We will post from either Guarapuava or Foz Do Iguazu. Next match - Paraguay New Zealand on Thursday with some must watch games on the way. But Ciao Floripa for now!

Winter coat cold! (Uruguay) to on the beach warm! (Brazil)

Kyle- The trip to Porto Allegre was long. We left Punte Del Este at 8 am and arrived in Porto Allegre at 10 pm ( we made two stops of approximately 90 minutes on the way). It was pouring rain in Porto Allegre, but much warmer than Uruguay. We went out for dinner and then went back to the hotel early to sleep. We turned on the news briefly and the top sports story was the Brazilian soccer analysts talking about how they felt the refs robbed team USA of an historic victory. Danny mentioned earlier how we immediately thought they were robbed and this news story further highlighted the significance of that game. We woke up at 7 am and left Porto Allegre for Florianopolis, Brazil. This was another long trip and we arrived in Florianapolis today at 4 pm. The weather here is great. We went to the beach as soon as we got here and it was awesome. The beaches here are amazing! and so beautiful. We had a nice dinner at a seafood restaurant on the water after leaving the beach. We are staying here until Monday morning and will be watching Brazil vs. Ivory Coast at 3:30 pm tomorrow.

USA Gets Robbed - Uruguay/Brazil Border - Chuy

Danny - We made it to Chuy in the early afternoon (travelling from the farm in Punta Del Este). Chuy is the border-town between Uruguay in Brazil. There is one main avenue in the small city and the south side of the street is Uruguay and the north side is Brazil. On each side there are shops, on the Uruguayan side think the standard Duty Free Shop at the airport and on the Brazilian side think Canal St in Chinatown. On the way we heard USA was losing 2-0 to Slovenia, not good. We arrived to Chuy and the game was on a flat screen in a duty free shop. We saw the score was 2-1 and the replay of Landon's goal just played, with the US putting pressure we decided to stay and watch the rest of the game at the store...Bradley's goal aaaaahhhhhh I almost knocked over the perfume display celebrating. Kyle and I were going nuts...everyone around us is confused that 2 Americans are in Chuy watching this game. Then the "non-winning goal" (or the "non-perfect game" for those that understand baseball better, yes thats how big that was). That was a fair goal, and as I always say the USA gets robbed in the WC. At least France lost. Back to the trip, we ate in Chuy and left on the road to Porto Allegre in Brazil where we were spending the night before getting to Florianopolis for the Brazil game on Sunday. Crossing the border was relatively painless, we had the necessary paperwork and we were on our way, officially in Brazil...

Fort of Santa Teresa -

Quick post here, we left Punta Del Este early on our way to the border town of Chuy (Uruguay/Brazil) we stopped to check out an old Spanish fort the colonists/Spanish army used to watch the the ocean to make sure the Portuguese army did not invade from the north (Brasil). Unknown to many, the fort of Santa Teresa was a stronghold for the Spanish in South America to keep the southern territories, great military museum but tough to get to.


Note Kyle and Nico in the picture, we had the place to ourselves we were like little kids running around this massive fort with cannons everywhere.

Danny's farm in Punte del Este

Kyle- my post on dannys farm did not publish for some reason. We have had some internet issues. Hopefully this improves in Brazil so we can post more pictures/videos. Anyways we spent the day at dannys farm in Punte del este. The farm is very beautiful and covers a lot of land. It is very quiet and relaxing and it is several miles from the city. There are lots of cows and some horses here and no other people for miles.It is much different from where we stayed in Montevideo because we are miles away from the city. We bbq here for dinner and now must rest up as we leave for Brazil in the morning.

Danny - We arrived to Punta after an eventful couple of days in Montevideo, Rodrigo was a gracious host and we met some great new people, (shout out to max, rosina and stephania). The road to Punta was eas,y stopping along the way to show Kyle the sights of the normally bustling resort city (deserted in the winter). Had lunch in La Barra at Barra Alta the only place open year around. Mario, a family friend who lives there year around joined us for a bit and warned us about our trip ahead. He had done the trip various times and said the roads in Brazil were good but truck convoys, high traffic and the mountains wouldnt help, especially not at night(it was already 2pm). We made the decision to spend the night at the farm, have a traditional asado (uruguayan bbq), relax and rest up for our long trip. Since its winter down here, we fired up the fire place, got the parrillada (grill) going and buckled in for a chilly but quiet night of rest on the farm known as "Panorama".


Thats Daniel in the picture, he is at the farm year around and joined us for the night drinking Pilsen (Uruguayan beer) listening to Cumbia (like country music) and ate about half a cow.

Celebrating in Plaza de Independencia

Uruguayan Asado in Mercado Del Puerto

Uruguay Game, City goes crazy

Kyle- Yesterday we watched Uruguay defeat South Africa 3-0 earning Uruguay its first World Cup win in 20 years. Danny helped me prepare for the game with the team scouting reports, and I bought a Uruguayan jersey so that I would fit in well. They dominated this game with a fiesty defense and constant attacking from Number 10 Forlan, and number 9 Suarez. Forlan scored two goals. We watched the game in a restaurant in Montevideo. We ate a lot of asado (south american bbq) and drank the local beer (Patricia and Zillertal).
When Forlan scored the first goal, 25 minutes into the match, the restaurant erupted with excitement, but their was still a lot of soccer left to be played. Uruguay went up 2-0 in the second half on a penalty kick after Suarez was tripped by the goalie in the penalty box. The goalie earned a red card and was ejected from the game for this dirty play. Forlan made the penalty shot which set off a massive celebration. People ran laps inside the restaurant, exchanged hugs, and high fives as we could smell the victory.
When the game ended, a city wide celebration immediately followed and I was not ready for this. We got in the car and headed to downtown Montevideo and arrived at the start of the celebration. The city went absolutely insanse and this was just after winning ONE game. You would have thought they won the World Cup. There was a parade of thousands of people screaming, chanting, honking horns, and carrying Uruguayan flags. Danny and Nico bought a Uruguayan flag and put it on my back as i marched down Avenue 18 de Junio chanting- Sooooooooo Celeste!!! I yelled vamos! and ganamos! at cars as they honked at me, gave me high fives, and waved their flags at me. I walked by a group of kids who yelled things at me that I did not understand and I simply responded with Vamos! we builded off each other´s excitement. There were dogs roaming the streets (without leashes!) with flags on their backs. There was confetti flying everywhere and people setting off fireworks into the air. The parade ended at Plaza de Independencia and everyone jumped up and down and yelled more chants here. This was an absolutely amazing experience being part of the celebration with the Uruguayans. This victory meant so much to this country.
We are now leaving Montevideo and stopping in Punta del Este, Uruguay before heading to Brazil.

Kyle's Arrival/first adventure

Kyle: I arrived safely in Buenos Aires, Argentina this morning!! The first thing i noticed is it's cold (somewhere in the 50's) but the sun is out and it's a pretty day. Danny, Danny's Uncle- Tio Jorge and I spent about two hours touring this beautiful city. We saw political buildings, financial companies, restaurants, and the stadium of Tio Jorge's favorite soccer team, Huracan. We then ate a delicious, but fast lunch (with Danny's parents) before racing to Puerto Madero to barely catch the 3:30 p.m. ferry to Montevideo, Uruguay...


Danny: We had to catch this ferry, our rental car that will be our mode of transport throughout the trip is meeting us at the port in Montevideo, so we had to make it. With time counting down I warned the ticket sales/boarding/security/immigration/gate personnel that I was traveling with a non-Spanish speaker and to walk him through quickly. Then the Coast Guard/Security accuses Kyle of having a knife...

Kyle: I had my first mini-scare when the security guards at immigration asked me if I had a knife in my bag. I said "no" and then they asked me to empty my bag. They said that a knife showed up on the computer screen. Even after I emptied my bag, they kept asking me if I had a knife and again I said "no". These few minutes of searching my bag almost cost us to miss the ferry and also scared the crap out of me!

Danny: Kyle and I just made it, they closed the doors seconds after Kyle got in. We are on our way to Montevideo to pickup the car and get to Rodrigo's apt to stay the night.

Vamo Vamo Argentinaaa

Lets Go

Danny, have you arrived in Buenos Aires yet? I am having great time watching decisiones (my new favorite show) and working with the Rosetta Stone in preparation for the trip. I ready! lets goooo!

Anyways, I am convinced that the toughest border is going to be Brazil/Paraguay. Today I had a very stressful day at the Consulate of Paraguay. They told me that my visa would be ready at 9am. I arrived at 9, and it was not ready but they told me it would be ready any time after 12pm. I arrived at 1pm and it still was not ready. I asked when it would be ready and the guy yelled "sit down and wait!" haha. I hope I have a better experience in Paraguay then I did in the Consulate of Paraguay (New York).

So Official

Blog Switch - You Can Comment On This One

June 3rd - Kyle in Training

A day and a week & counting…

Kyle stepping up his Rosetta Stone game and learning the lost art of manual transmission in preparation for our adventure.

kyledudley15: the shows are actually mad interestin lol, u ever watch decisiones?

me: thats the famous soap opera right?i used to watch 2-3 of them on the regular when i was youngermuneca brava y bety la fea

kyledudley15: decisiones is a late night one that is very sexual, its like always a different cast, Last night these 2 women were unhappy with theri sex lives with their boyfriends, so they switched and both found love with the other guy, lol

May 17th - Countdown Begins…

In a little under a month the greatest sporting event on the planet begins…and shortly thereafter so does our journey…4 Games in 4 Countries…