Road to Rio | Road to Rio: We may have to sell an eye to secure World Cup final tickets
Websites are peddling Maracana seats for upwards of US$6,000 each, but it all depends on which teams manage to get there
For the past three weeks we've lived our lives according to the rhythm of the football schedule, but as the games start to thin out, we turn our attention to exploring the northeast and trying to bag tickets for the final.
The former invariably involves long and tiring drives down bumpy dirt tracks better suited to 4x4s than our two-wheel drive rental, and we needed the help of some friendly locals to drag us out of the sand after one adventurous detour. But compared to tracking down tickets for the main event, it is a stroll on Ipanema beach.
On ticket-reselling sites like viagogo and Stubhub, final briefs have been changing hands for upwards of US$6,000 a pop, and it seems every Brazilian has a story about someone who has paid the olho da caro (the eye of the face) for a seat at Maracana.
For sheer spectacle and atmosphere, the four of us agree before the quarter-finals that a Brazil-Argentina final would be impossible to top
We discuss our theoretical final-ticket budget and continually revise the number, sending off e-mails to friends who might have an in.
We ask almost everyone we encounter if they've heard of any tickets for sale and get some half leads here and there, including a tout in Barra Grande who says he might be able to get four tickets for 34,000 reais (HK$120,000) depending on the results of the semis - another hot topic.
As a side-effect of our ticket hunt, we've become vested in the results of games well beyond mere footballing preferences.
For sheer spectacle and atmosphere, the four of us agree before the quarter-finals that a Brazil-Argentina final would be impossible to top, but as that would greatly reduce our already slim chances of being there in person we keep our fingers crossed for Germany-Holland.