Waking up feeling fresh after the day in Colonia it was
finally the end for Part I of the journey.
Kate was flying back to London this evening and I fly out to Sydney the
following morning. What better way to
complete the South American tour by visiting one of Buenos Aires best loved
things; Boca Juniors. Those who don’t
know; Boca Juniors is the main football team within Buenos Aires and is famed
for having one of the most passionate following to any team.
Kate didn’t have to leave until around half 5, so we headed
out for the last time and made our way to the Botanical gardens close to
Palermo. We wandered around the gardens
for an hour or so before lying down and catching a bit of sun for a few
hours. We have also managed to get
ourselves right in the middle of a film set... and after the entire crew pretty
much setting camp up around us; it was time to head off.
After the emotional send-off Kate was on her way to the
airport and I had about 20 minutes to thrown on the Boca Juniors shirt, meet
Matt and Mike and sink a couple of quick pints before heading out. We were picked up by the guide and all
squeezed into a packed mini-bus where we met the two Italian guys from earlier
on in the week, a couple of Welsh lasses and a Dutch girl.
For 10 blocks in all directions around the stadium the roads
are completely sealed off for match days.
There is also a ban for selling alcohol within this area. Leading up to the stadium we were ushered
through 6 security checkpoints where the tickets are checked and each person is
frisked by the military police. Having
got through the first 3 checkpoints, our guide took us to one of the only
places where you could still drink within the zone; which closely resembled his
friend’s house... So a few beers and a
couple of sausage baguettes later, we were heading towards the stadium.
The stadium is pretty huge; holding approx. 49,000 at full
capacity. The two end stands – of which
we were in the North side – were completely standing. We arrived pretty early and managed to first
see the 2nd half of the reserves match. As the stadium started filling up the guide
begun to tell us about the supporters of Boca Juniors. The main hooligan side of the crowd we
directly opposite us in the South stand; and are named ‘the 12th
man’. As the South stand filled up,
large flags and banners were being put up all around the stadium in the Boca
colours of Blue and Yellow. Within the
12th man supporters they have the band playing continuously
throughout the game with several drums and trumpets echoing around the
stadium. As the main bulk of 12th
man supporters enter the ground, a rhythmic beat starts and hundreds of
flag-bearers pass through the crowd and the South stand clearly becoming
absolutely full to capacity.
The atmosphere throughout the stadium was electric and as
the teams came onto the pitch the volume almost doubled instantly. The chanting was continuous throughout;
however every so often the band would changed tune followed quickly by the increased
crowd volume. The South stand were
non-stop and at periods of good football throughout the game everyone in the
stadium would start jumping up and down in time with the beat to send a wave
rippling across the crowd.
The game was really good; cup game vs. Olympio so Boca had
to win. Before the game a six of us put
in 2 pesos bets each on the correct score.
Having seen their scoring record for the past few games I went for a
nice 3-0 win. Although they were lucky
to not be 1-0 down within the first minute as Olympio came straight out of the
blacks and forced a really good save by the Boca keeper. The game settled down a bit after that and
shortly before half time Boca took the lead with a great strike. In the 2nd half, the Olympio again
started well and had a goal disallowed for a fail on the goalkeeper early on in
the half. But Boca again took control
and outplayed them for the majority of the half and were rewarded with another
goal which sent the entire stadium crazy.
There were a lot of chances late on in the game, but they couldn’t find
that 3rd goal to seal me the bet win and it finished 2-0 to Boca
Juniors.
We got back to the Hostel at around 11.30 and thought as the
night was still young, we’d head downstairs to the bar/club to get what I can
only describe as completely plastered... Everything was going well until I
spotted the nice new un-opened bottle of Jagermeister. The Jagerbombs flowed continuously for about
half an hour and the dancefloor was looking very tempting!! Fast forward another few hours; 6am time for
bed!! Three alarms set for 7.30am and I still nearly slept through and ended up
having to run through the streets of Buenos Aires with an 18kg rucksack on my
back to make sure I got on the bus for the airport on time!!
Managed to just make it and looking forward to a nice 16
hour flight across the Pacific... Destination: Sydney!!
x
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