Tales From the Chicken Bus

Day 211

They say that Argentines are amongst the most passionate people and that there is no better place to experience that passion than in tango or football. Well since I’m not going anywhere near the tango floor I’ll have to settle with football (soccer). Finally the day had to experience a football match in Argentina and the biggest club in the country, Boca Juniors. If you didn’t know already, Argentines are crazy about football. Its an addiction, a way of life, some might say a religious experience. Carlos, the Argentinian we met last week in Puerto Madryn summed it up well as his beloved River Plate fell 1-0 to arch rival Boca Jr. As Jordana and I watched the match with him we were laughing with each other about something. “You laugh but I am dying inside today.” The idea of that passion and love for a team multiplied by 50,000 today had me pretty pumped to get to back to the chocolate box in Boca.

No camera, no jewlery, only $20 and our tickets hidden in my money belt and the clothes on my back. Yep, ready to go. I was warned by several people yesterday about brining a camera or anything else into the stadium, let’s just say its not always the friendliest atmosphere in there. Jordana and I repeated yesterdays trip and met Eli and Bronwen at the train station, then cabed it to Boca. Today, over 2 hours before game time the area was busy and most streets were blocked off by police. We managed to walk through the streets amongst the riot police and entered the Bombonera at gate 6. We climbed to the second deck where our seats were. “Wow its already packed, maybe if we go to the end we can fight our way down”, I said as we entered the seating. People sat everywhere and blocked the aisles. The only place that was empty was the front few rows, this is so because the are not covered by the upper deck seats. Meaning that if and when people decide to toss things down they will land on you. I was most afraid of the bags of urine that I heard get tossed sometimes. We found a spot just under the end of overhang, hopefully we were safe. I looked around at the impressive stadium. To the left corner from us at the top of the seating area was the spot for the away supporters. The Rosario Central fans had already filled the area, they were separated from the rest of the stadium by a huge fence topped by barb wire. Only 1 hour to game time as the field slowly filled.

The stadium was filled, the chanting was slowly beginning and we were al eager to get this game going. We were all cooking in the scorching sun. Stuffed in here it sure felt like a chocolate box. We watched huge Energizer blow ups come out on the field and men who wore Energizer battery suits walk around holding hands with some ladies. Then some giant banner at midfield for Claro the mobile company here. This sure didn’t look like the club of the working class. Finally the visiting Rosario Central players entered the pitch to the loud whistling and hissing. Then it was Boca’s turn. As the first player entered the stadium erupted. Paper and Confetti flew and most of the stadium began jumping up and down singing a song for the club. It gave me shivers. Opposite to us behind the other goal a giant Boca banner was unravelled. It was an unbelievable setting.

As the match began the drums and singing was non-stop. Only 8 minutes in and Boca had their first goal of the match. Once again the stadium went into a frenzy. While Boca dominated play they couldn’t find the back of the net and the half ended 1-0 in Boca’s favour. Since nobody has assigned seats and the stadium is so full not many people move at halftime. We tried to cool off by buying as many strawberry popsicles as possible. Definitely no beer sales here.

The second half began and the non-stop chanting continued, they never let a second go by without singing a song. Oh and its not just a drum that is played, no its an entire band and they are really good. The play on the field however wasn’t non-stop and slowed considerably. Around the ’50 minute mark last place Rosario had tied up the game. A hush fell over the crowd for all of 15 seconds before they sang louder than ever trying to push their club back into the lead. With time running out, I think there was 2 minutes left in the 3 minutes of added time it looked like Boca would be embarrassed at home with a tie to the bottom club in the league. Then right below us a burst of speed brought the ball the goal and Boca had gone ahead. I think I even jumped in the air when I saw the ball hit the back of the net. I looked to the opposite stands and a huge avalanche of people crushed each other in celebration. The place just went mad. No long after the final whistle was blown and Boca had saved an embarrassing 2nd half effort with a late goal. And the four of us had survived an intense but good natured crowd.

We waited for a good 35 minutes in our section before the doors were open to leave the stadium. The police escort the visiting fans out of the stadium before letting the masses of Boca supporters into the streets. We left the stadium pretty wiped out from the heat of the day, I felt like I had just played 90 minutes! We walked out of Boca to the atmospheric bohemian neighbourhood of San Telmo where we left Eli and Bronwen to catch the subte back to Palermo.

After a quick dinner Jordana and I passed out early watching a movie. It had been quite a day and one of my highlights of Argentina. Watching a match here is the way a football match should be. Filled with passion and filled with real fans. Nobody in that stadium today, except for us real tourists was a tourist. You know what I mean? Whom ever said that to discover the passion of Argentina’s people just look to football was right. Now I just have to find out about that tango passion and hit the dance floor, or maybe not.

Day 211

Buenos Aires is a huge city, over 13 million people and its a vast city with some very district neighbourhoods across is cityscape. We were staying in Palermo Viejo, in the north. A funky, somewhat bohemian ‘hood that is becoming very gentrified. Today we were heading to the south, not only the opposite end of the city but almost a complete opposite. La Boca in the south is a lot more gritty, working class and definitely not gentrified.

Jordana and I rode the subte south to constitucion station where we met up with Eli and Bronwen. As soon as we exited the station I could tell the south was different. A stiff wind blew clouds of dust across the mostly grass less square and litter was everywhere, neither a common sight in Buenos Aires. We hopped in a taxi for the short trip to the heart of La Boca, the Bombonera. The Bombonera or chocolate box is the home of Football club, Boca Juniors. Personally this was on my must see list for Buenos Aires. I had hoped to do a tour of the field today and somehow score tickets for tomorrows match. The taxi approached the tall blue and yellow stadium and dropped us at one of the entrances. Here is the Boca museum of passion, showing the history of the famous club and containing a statue of Maradonna which seemed to be by far the most popular attraction.

Jordana and I got ourselves on a tour of the stadium. We entered the seating and were able to walk through the first level of seats as our guide explained some history of the club and field. It really does feel like a box in here, the seats rise incredibly steep and seem to almost hang over the pitch. The highlight for myself was being able to walk on a small part of the pitch and being able to touch it. From here we were shown many other parts of the stadium, including the press room and even Boca Juniors lockerooms. The stadium and lockerooms were very basic. The stadium I expected to be basic, the lockerooms surprised me a bit. They didn’t look much different than a high school lockeroom back home.

From the stadium we explored the surrounding area of La Boca, a neighbourhood the considers itself so unique from the rest of Buenos Aires that they refer to the ‘hood as “Republica de Boca”. It sure is unique, houses and shops are painted bright colours. Many of the houses are painted the Boca Juniors blue and yellow colours. As nice and unique as the area is its only a few streets that hold any interest and they are pretty touristy. Outside of here Boca isn’t exactly the safest place around.

We were just about done with La Boca when I remembered we had to call the lady from tourist information. Now this may sound a bit sketchy, actually it is a bit sketchy. Jordana and I went to tourist info a few days ago asking where we could buy tickets for a Boca Juniors match. The kind lady informed us that since every seat was taken by “members” none were available unless you bought them through an expensive agency. Then she paused and said, “my friend in Boca can get tickets, I will talk to him. Here is my number, you call around 2pm Saturday and I will get you the tickets.” Sketchy? Maybe, but sounded good to me! So fast forward to 2pm today. I go to a phone office and give Fatima a call. She says she’s in Boca right now at a bar and we can come meet her. Wow, this sounded too easy, or were we about to get robbed. We tried to find the bar with the directions she had given me. I thought we were lost when miraculously this lady runs out of a bar. Somehow we had found her.

We settled at a table with Fatima in the small bar/restaurant that had Boca Junior posters covering every inch of the wall. We were introduced to the owner who was a friendly guy and the man who was getting us our 4 seats for tomorrows match. We had to wait till 4pm for the tickets to be fetched by one of his staff but we did eventually get the tickets. He was quite insistent that we come back tomorrow before the match so he could make sure we get in OK. I felt like an insider, getting this tickets from a local establishment just a block from the field. It also felt good to safe the ton of cash we would have spent through an agency for tickets. Maybe the most exciting or should it be scary part? Our seats were in the popular section. The second deck of terraces behind the goal. It promised to be an unbelievable experience.

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