Ok, so.... I apologize for not writing. This is what I´ve actually been up to: left Ushuaia on the night of the 9th, and flew 3.5 hours to Buenos Aires. Stayed in Buenos Aires for 5 days, and now I am writing to you from Punta del Este, Uruguay.
Then in Buenos Aires I had the time of my life. I spent 5 days there with my friend Carlos and his mom. I was staying in his Grandma´s apartment in the Belgrano neighborhood. It was a 10 minute walk to the subway, 5 minutes to the train, and a bus stopped 3 blocks down. In 5 days we only ate more than a block from the apartment once. We went downtown for pizza one night. There is just the most amazing little take out restaurant on the corner, and if you go to the other corner there is an amazing pizza and empanada place. We literally ate at one of those two every day. I guess the reason was, other than it being the best food I´ve ever had, was that it was soooo freaking hot there, that when I woke up around 10ish, you didn´t want to move at all. So Carlos and I would tend to hang around, talking about what we were going to do, sharing stories of Patagonia, or talking about futbol. The take out place opened at 11:30, so we were always just hanging around, so we´d go grab lunch, bring it to the apartment, and then around 1pm I´d finally feel like I had wasted enough of the day and I´d go hop on the subway and check out the city. I think it was around 90 degrees everyday in that city. It was so gross, everyone is hot, and when you get on the subway it is just a train full of hot sweaty people.
In Buenos Aires I did a lot of walking and window shopping. I got huge blisters on the bottoms of my feet from my flipflops on day 1, but not bad enough to keep me from walking the entire town the next day. Day 1 (Wednesday 2-10) was also the reason I flew into Buenos Aires early: Vélez Sarsfield futbol game in La Copa Libertadoeres. Vélez played a team from Brazil in a huge South American international tournament and this was a big game. We took a train, met up with Carlos´cousin Nahuel, flagged down a bus, and then walked a few blocks to the stadium for the game at 9pm.
It was already dark when we got there, and we were rushing through all the people walking to the game, we turned a corner, and there was the stadium, towering over the other buildings and glowing blue. I told Carlos that I felt like I was making the pilgrimage to Mecca or something. I have been hearing about this team and watching their games for the past 3 years now, and I was now about to see them in person, but more importantly, I was going to be in the crowd with all the crazy people I hear stories about!!! I couldn´t wait to sing all the songs, and I was praying that we would get under the big banners that they roll across the fans and everyone grabs it and shakes like crazy!
HighlightsUnder the banners!!!We won the game 2-0, and it was pretty cool. I got one song in particular stuck in my head. Carlos and I then spent the next 3 days singing it over and over again.
Dicen que San Lorenzo tiene aguante
Pero son todos putos y vigilantes
Quieren ganar La Copa, pero no peuden
Nunca vas a tener las que tiene Vélez
Oooooooooh, San Lorenzo!
Sooooooooos, Vilgnates!
(repeat for 20 minutes)
listen here ?
or here (the first 20 seconds)
Carlos and I didn´t figure out what they mean by viligantes, but the song is basically talking to the fans of the team San Lorenzo, saying
¨they say they have the patience, but they are %&$¿$, they want to win La Copa (the tournament), but they can´t, you´ll never have what Vélez has ¨
San Lorenzo is supposed to be one of the top teams, but they have never won La Copa Libertadores and Vélez has, so they rub it in with this song.
So this set the stage for the next big adventure..... going to an away game of Vélez in the stadium of their rival, San Lorenzo!
Neither Carlos or his cousin Nahuel had ever ridden the buses to an away game before, especially to San Lorenzo in the slums. We went to Vélez and got our tickets on Saturday and thought, well we can always come, and if it looks too scary we don´t have to go, tickets cost like 7 dollars, half that for girls. All the stories were likè "Don´t go! they´ll rob you and take your shoes! They´ll jump you!" all this scary stuff, but we decided to try anyways. We thought about wearing neutral colors so we could blend in with anyone if we had to get out of any areas fast, but ended up wearing Vélez jerseys anyways.
We meet up with Nahuel, and jump out of his dad´s car at an intersection and onto a bus to the stadium where everyone meets. We are all kinda anxious, and we get there, and everyone is so chill. People are just eating hotdogs and hamburgers, drinking beer, and waiting for the buses to leave. I was a little nervous because there were a LOT of people and 6 buses sitting outside. I also didn´t know anything that was going on. We ended up walking around the side of the stadium and there were at least 30 buses revving their engines.
We picked one and got on. There was even a baby on the bus next to us. Everyone else started filing over to the buses too, and they started the singing and pounding. They pound on the ceiling, they pound on the windows, they pound on anything within reach, they sing, they do this arm fling thing, like we would pump our fists in the air, they keep their hand open, and it is incredibly hard to do it and look like they do. We had a police escort to the game, and we had a caravan as far as the eye could see, every bus the same, people hanging out of the doors, people hanging out of the windows, arms out windows, flags flying, some buses bouncing up and down because everyone is jumping, all of them singing at the tops of their lungs. When we pulled out of the stadium people were lining the sidewalks. We were still going slow enough that people were jumping out of cars and jumping on the busses, people were running down the sidewalk to catch one. Every intersection was stopped, and when we were still in Liniers (Vélez´neighborhood), people were waving and singing and cheering. Then we got on the highway and our wild party caravan was just going absolutely wild. As we got closer to San Lorenzo we got louder and louder.
We got there, and the police escort us to a separate entrance, and we go through the same motions, get let in in small groups, get searched, give tickets, meet up with Carlos and Nahuel, get a drink, use a bathroom with no paper and toilet seat, and then go into the game. The other Vélez fans are yelling all sorts of insults at anyone they saw from San Lorenzo. We get in and people are already putting up our banners and signs. I had thought we would get there, sing songs, but no, this is a full production. We found a spot and waited. I thought the section was really full, and that we were doing well, and then the drums started up under the stadium.... and then in they came, the mob.... the flags were flying, the hands were flinging, the drums were beating, and they were singing! When they moved into the stands it was absolutely packed. We had the drums, we had the banners, we had signs, we had pretty much just moved into this place and taken it over. The game was a while off too, they got us in there earlier than the San Lorenzo people. So we were going strong for a long time before the game. I think the lack of fans to challenge us made us sing louder because the teams were on the field were doing warm ups and we knew they could hear us.
Once San Lorenzo´s fans started piling in we were done for. I had thought we were holding our own, and then I saw their mob gathering with the flags and drums under the stadium. They had tons of fans, and completely drowned us out, but we gave a valiant effort. The game was actually a little boring and it ended 0-0, and one news paper comment was "the only goals scored were by the fans" complimenting us on not letting up the enthusiasm for a boring game. I guess that´s what happens when you have fans that hate each other.
Our competition you can see our section on the opposite side of the stadium with the banners from the bottom to the top of the stadium, and you can see their fans with the flags and drums
San LorenzoThis video makes me laugh out loud, because this is what it was like from the buses, to the game, and to the end of the game.... non stop crazyThe game ended, we piled out and got on the buses. It was a more subdued ride back from the stadium after hours of singing and jumping. Police escort, the Vélez fans just yelled insults at anyone they saw outside of the stadium and anyone that gave the thumbs down on the highway.
