Posts Tagged ‘football’
Getting to Bolivia
May 23rd, 2009 | 
Author: It’s hard to believe that I was only in Bolivia 10 days, but in that time I certainly managed to squeeze a lot in.
The plan was to meet up with some of the people I’d shared the house with in Buenos Aires in Sucre, the constitutional capital of Bolivia. They had left Buenos Aires early on Sunday morning, but I had a pub quiz to attend (and win) so I left on Monday morning. Of course, this being South America and despite the fact that Bolivia shares a border with Argentina this was no easy task. The bus to the border took 28 hours (and I had to travel in Semi-Cama which regular readers will know is not my favourite mode of transport) and once there I had to wait in the border town of Villazon for another 4 hours before leaving for Sucre.
Sign in Ushuaia
Bolivia hits you the second you cross the border. The town on the Argentine side, La Quiaca is a typical, small, dusty, fairly quiet Argentine village, but on the other side of the little bridge you enter chaos. There is life everywhere in Bolivia, people selling all manner of things, local women wearing bowler hats carrying huge loads in colourful blankets, kids running round, dogs sniffing everything, it’s a little bit overwhelming to start with.
Sign in La Quiaca
Anyway, I sat in Villazon a while taking all this in and bought my ticket to Sucre, another 13 hour bus journey away, And what a trip! The bus was a kind of huge 4 wheel drive affair, raised a good 2 feet off the ground. The seats were pretty basic, with no heating, no blankets nothing. For the first 8 hours we bounced down one of the worst gravel roads I’ve ever been on, all the while having to shut the window every 10 mins as it refused to stay closed on its own. It was hell. Everything I’d heard about Bolivian buses was right there on my first trip. It didn’t have any chickens on it though, which I was thankful for.
Safely got to Sucre, a little dusty and tired, met up with the others (we were now a group of 9) and spent a good day there. It was a complete change from Villazon, with a pretty central square and old cobbled streets leading off in all directions. I liked it. We went to a football match in the evening, Sucre against La Paz. Was very wierd, the highlight being a dog running across the pitch and then being “arrested” by a police dog. Sucre won 2-1.
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D10S
One major disappointment about the Boca game on Sunday was that God wasn't there. Maradona came to prominence playing for them in the early 80s and then man is treated like a divine being. When he's there he has a reserved seat on the halfway line and the entire crowd sings a welcome to him. But he's off in Scotland being international manager so couldn't make it, which was a shame. He apparently turns up with about 40 of his family, nice and understated. Paula the lady who was leading the group we were in has this tatooed on her back:
The Dios obviously refers to the famous cheating incident for which he is somehow celebrated around the world (except for one country). I did however by and large keep my opinions on the subject to myself. I remember seeing the goal being scored, followed by the second goal, the greatest goal in the history of the World Cup apparently. I then stood on glass in my bare feet and sliced the back of ankle off. Now, that's memorable. Anyway, for those of you who need reminding, here's a picture of his finest moment..
Vamo Boca
I’m not a big football fan as most of you will know, but yesterday I went to see Boca Juniors play at La Bombonera in southern Buenos Aires. It was an organised trip, we got picked up, taken to a bar for beer and pizza and then onto the match. I was perfectly calm about it until the morning when I was talking to an Australian couple who had been to the big derby there against arch-rivals River Plate last year (admittedly the match I was going to see was a lot less important) and frankly I started to get a little worried. Firstly the terraces are near vertical, the away fans are put in the terraces above where the tour puts you. And they like to piss on the terrace below (containing us). Not just a little tinkle, but bottles of the stuff. But it’s OK they said, just stand at the back. Yeah, you and 30000 others sheltering from torrents of warm Argentinian urine. Then they set fire to toilet rolls and throw them down, and at the end they throw the seats over the top.
So it was with not a little trepidation that we approached the place, which is a stadium in the old tradition, smack bang in the middle of the working class area of town, surrounded by residential streets. We were told to keep out tickets in our pockets and anyone who had a lighter was to put it in their shoe, otherwise security would confiscate it. The stands were already packed when we got there an hour before kick-off and we managed to squeeze ourselves into a spot on the terrace as the start approached.
The hardcore fans were in the stand opposite us and about 10 minutes before kickoff they unfurled a banner that covered the entire stand from top to bottom, must have been 200m wide. Don’t have any pictures as I didn’t want my camera nicked. But you can get an idea of the thing here. The match itself was full of action, but a bad day for Boca as they lost 3-2. The little stocky Argentinian next to me kept slapping me on the shoulder every time Velez got close to scoring, and then sitting down in despair, rubbing his head for a couple of seconds, then standing back up and screaming at the ref. After it was all over we had to wait a while to be let out, but we all got out safe and sound, and more importantly dry. People nearer the front weren’t so lucky.
