RIO DE JANEIRO // The Cidade Maravilhosa, the marvellous city, may just be the busiest place on earth this weekend. With the World Cup final taking place here, it certainly seems to be the place most people would like to be. There is a Chilean fan who has been saving for two years, arrived only for today’s final, but has already concluded Rio is the place of which he has always dreamed. There is the Indian actor, Amitabh Bachchan, walking around largely unrecognised despite being worth more than US$400 million (Dh1.46 billion) and hailing from a nation of more than a billion people. Then there is the sea. |
Everybody knows Rio sits on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, but the sea that has swept over the city in the past few days is South American – or, specifically, it is Argentine. More than 100,000 visitors from the southern nation are estimated to be in Rio this weekend. Along the waterfront, you see them living in tents, cars and camper vans. Some are even sleeping, open-air, on the beach. It all makes for a very busy built-up area. Restaurants and bars have concert-like queues, taxis are invariably unavailable, accents traverse the globe. A lady selling handicrafts on the beach said she had sold many half-and-half Brazil-UAE flags. “More than the Algeria one,” she said, as if to quantify. The parties – noisy, raucous, male-dominated and good humoured – were still going strong at 3am on Saturday morning. Sunday night’s festivities, regardless of whether Argentina or Germany wins, will presumably last long after the sun comes up over the visually stunning Cidade Maravilhosa. ISWAS |