The passion of football and the love towards the national team inspired the Villanueva family to overcome all the obstacles and barriers as they travelled more than 10,000 kilometers in their motorhome before Chile bid adieu to the greatest show of the world - the World Cup.
The motorhomes, small trucks with attached structure that imitates a house, are not an uncommon phenomenon and a good number of the vans were seen adjacent to the venues prior to Chile’s matches. Many football fans have chosen these motorhomes as means of accommodation and transport during the World Cup in different cities of Brazil while the authorities also provided special arrangements for parking the vehicle.
The La Roja fans started their journey from Chilean capital Santiago on June 6 and followed the national team to Cuiaba, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo before Chile’s run stopped at the Belo Horizonte to the hosts in the Round of 16.
Businessman Manoel Villanueva (56), his wife Ruth, son Jose, Jose’s son and granddaughter Julica are frequent visitors to Brazil and they knew the routes and obstacles of the journey will not be a barrier. Travelling such a long distance itself is very tiring, but yet the Chilean family was on their toe following the success of their national team.
“All of our discomforts and the soreness vanished after the national team’s success, driving thousands of kilometers is not an easy job, specially the four thousand kilometer from Cuiaba to Rio was a tough one,” said Manoel.
There were two double beds and one single and one of the beds is used as the dining table with four small chairs, a stove, a microwave oven, a fridge and some utensils also accommodated inside the van. Though a TV could be found inside, the van however did not have any toilet. The Villanueva family packed enough dry foods and of course lot of water bottles, juice and beer with them to Brazil. Jose Barrios, the 35-year old son echoed his father’s sentiment and said, “We love Chilean football team. Vidal, Medel and Vargas has lifted the counties image, Chile has played super football.”
Their 22-day travel came to end with the exit of Chile in the second round, they were ready to follow the team to Fortaleza, about 2000km away from Belo Horizonte though they did not posses any ticket. The motorhome was rented for US$12000 for 35 days but now the bill will go down. The World Cup assembles football fans across the world with different identity and different culture and the motorhome added a different taste among the festive mood.
