June 14th-17th 2015
The Catholic Religion is prevalent and very important in most of South America, but in my experience there is one religion perhaps more wide spread, and perhaps even more important to the south American people. What is it? Futbol! (soccer) It seems to trump just about everything.
Another bonus of my detour south with Mirela, Anna and Torsten proved to be the Copa America hosted this year in Chile. For those who don’t know Copa america is essentially the south American version of the European championships, and with players like Lionel Messi and Neymar playing in the tournament you’d better believe it’s a big deal.
Watching the games in various bars in Chile along with my friend Natalie who I first met down in Puerto Varas proves to be a lot of fun for the energy of the Chilean crowds, but as my time in Santiago extends I decide it’s time to try to find some tickets to a game along with Torsten.
Colombia play Brazil on Wednesday night but sadly it’s all sold out, still we decide it’s worth a try and hop on the Santiago metro to the Pedrero stop nearby Colo Colo’s stadium which is playing host to several games of the tournament including this one. We get off the metro and are instantly met with chaos outside.
The sun is down and the fanatics are out and from the moment we step of the train we are enveloped into the manic energy that both these nations feel for their futbol teams. Vendors of hate and clothes line the road to the stadium alongside delicious smelling food stalls, as well as a few people subtly selling tickets, but their hard to find and there’s lots of cops around, as well as fake tickets to worry about.
We wander back and forth through the swarming mass of fans, a surprising amount of them Colombian, enquiring with a few lingering people if they have tickets. We get a few offered but all for a higher price than we are willing to pay at around 100,000 CLP (200 CAD) . In fact we’re about to give up hope when a Colombian couple walks by us and catches our eyes. We enquire and they are in fact selling two tickets, at face value and we end up getting tickets to tonight’s match and Friday’s game of Venezuala vs Peru for 50,000 CLP (100 CAD) Quite a deal.
We make the Colombians come with us to scan the tickets through before paying them money and we get in despite not having our passports on us. (Knowing the number helps a lot) and we then rush through the press of Colombians, Brazilians, and Chileans to the stadium which is packed to the bring with an electricity I’ve not felt in a sports arena since watching Liverpool come to Old Trafford to lose to Manchester United more than 2 years ago. In fact this might even surpass that, and much to my surprise the crowd is overwhelmingly Colombian, which couldn’t suit me better.
We head down the aisle in our corner section of the stadium and find that there’s no seats left, no matter, it doesn’t feel like will be doing a lot of sitting anyway, so we stand in the aisle and before long the teams are coming out. Huge stars like Neymar, James Rodriguez, Falcao, Thiago Silva among them. The crowd ups the decibel level and the game begins.
What follows is 90 + minutes of insanity, the noise and energy is incredible, much like I’d imagined futbol games in South America would be. To my own delight and the delight of the crowd Colombia takes the game 1-0 and Torsten and I leave among the jubilant and friendly Colombians. (A video coming soon.)
The rush of the game slowly fading from our mind we head back to Casa Roja to play some ping pong with the paddles I got for my birthday from Mirela and Torsten!
Three days and a short trip to Pichilemu later I’m back at the Estado Municipal for Brazil Venezuala, and it’s incredible how different the atmosphere is. While Colombia and Brazil was an orgy of energy and passion, this game is more restrained, and not even completely full. Still it’s a very fun time and while Brazil sadly manage to win it’s still a fun experience and the 6 hours of ping pong that follows are even more fun. Here’s some snapshots from the second game. The lesson though is this, Colombians are as awesome as their country, and I can’t wait to go back. If you’d like check out my top 10 things to do in Colombia.
