Hundreds of cost-conscious football fans have found a cheaper way to attend the World Cup in one of Brazil’s most expensive cities – camping by Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach.
Fans have been have been sleeping rough and cooking meals by the beach in a bid to avoid Rio’s notoriously pricey hotels.
Although Rio has worked hard to shake off its reputation for violent crime and security is at an-all time high, the famous beach is still renowned for pickpocketing and robberies.
Hundreds of cost-conscious football fans have found a cheaper way to attend the World Cup in one of Brazil’s most expensive cities – camping by Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach.
Fans have been have been sleeping rough and cooking meals by the beach in a bid to avoid Rio’s notoriously pricey hotels.
Although Rio has worked hard to shake off its reputation for violent crime and security is at an-all time high, the famous beach is still renowned for pickpocketing and robberies.
Some fans have travelled to Rio in camper vans and are spending the night in them to support their national teams and avoid expensive flights.
The largest contingent of supporters camping by the beach is Argentine, but Colombians, Chileans and Ecuadoreans could also be seen parking old cars, trailers and even small buses turned into rolling dormitories along Avenida Atlantica, one of Rio’s most famous postcards.
The camping has become so extensive that now Rio de Janeiro authorities have promised to provide proper facilities for the World Cup fans campers.
Rio mayor Eduardo Paes opened up the gates of the Terreirao district used during the city’s famed carnival in order to create a campsite for them.
‘We want to receive tourists correctly with special attention for our South American neighbours who have driven enormous distances with family and friends to enjoy the World Cup in our city,’ said Paes.
The establishment of camping facilities will give visitors access to toilets while municipal cleaning teams and police will also be deployed there.
But not all the tourists, who have in some cases travelled more than 4,000 km (4000 miles) to Rio, are happy to have to leave their beach bolthole.
‘Rio was not prepared to receive such a large scale event … there are no chemical toilets, no spaces to park our camper vans. Now we are being moved on and they are saying if we don’t comply they will confiscate our vans,’ one Argentinian fan, Daniel Muller, told AFP.
‘We want to stay here. There is the Fan Fest and cultural interchange with fans from other countries. If this is about moving us 30km away from here then I’d have rather stayed in my own country,’ complained Chilean Jonatan Tabia, a physiotherapist.
Emmanuel Estrada, 29, and Damian Perez, 32, took four days to drive a 1984 Ford Falcon Ranchero from Buenos Aires to Sao Paulo for the World Cup’s opening game.
‘We will stay here until Argentina wins the World Cup. And certainly a few extra days after that,’ Estrada, who works as a plumber in Buenos Aires, told Reuters as he sipped a cup of coffee he made himself, using a portable stove.
Both are part of a larger group of 50 to 60 Argentines who drove rickety buses and vans into Copacabana over the past weekend. Rio will host the World Cup final on July 13.
Planning for the trip started years ago but travelling on the cheap was the only option to deal with Brazil’s sky-high prices and Argentina’s weak currency, which has lost about 20 percent of its value so far this year.
‘Our money is worth nothing here,’ Perez complained about Rio, where a room for two in a dingy hotel can cost as much as $700 (£411) during the World Cup.
While their presence has annoyed some local residents, many Brazilians have welcomed them. Nor have they been hassled by police, several campers said.
Camping is usually not allowed on Rio’s central beaches and cars must pay hourly parking fees in most of the city, but authorities have largely turned a blind eye to the presence of World Cup campers so far.
A military police officer stationed near the Argentine group said it was the responsibility of Rio’s municipal guard to take action.
A nearby municipal guard said he would only intervene if the campers caused trouble.
Meanwhile, foreign visitors were pleased to see an extensive police presence in Copacabana.
‘We feel safe here,’ said Fabian Alvarez, a Chilean auto mechanic who drove over 5,000 km (3,107 miles) from Santiago to Cuiaba, where he watched Chile defeat Australia on Friday, and then to Rio on the following day.
Alvarez said he decided to sleep in his van after failing to find affordable hotels in Rio.
He plans to spend about one million Chilean pesos ($1,789, £1,051) during the whole trip, including on gasoline, food and maybe even one more World Cup ticket.
Echoing most World Cup campers, Alvarez said the trip was exhausting but he would do it again.
‘It’s all worth it. It’s such an emotion when we sing the national anthem in the stadium. It gives me goose bumps.’
Daily Mail
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