Futbol en Medellín

Yesterday I went to a soccer game with Harry and his buddy Joe. En route from the metro to the stadium we were followed like the paparazzi behind a naked Angelina Jolie. Except they didn't want pictures so much as coins and cigarettes. We met a couple of young locals and they accompanied us into the stadium and showed us where they liked to sit - way up in the cheap seats with the roudies! I was happy to be with some locals because some of the crowd didn't look too friendly. They continually asked us for smokes and coins (which baffled me because they all were sitting in the same seats as us - why beg to us??) and when I told them I don't smoke they looked pissed.

Throughout the game some more friendly people came by and chatted with us - explaining which players are good and that I am lucky I didn't come on Saturday wearing my red shirt cause I would have been beaten up. The opposition today had yellow and luckily Harry changed out of his yellow shirt just before we left for the game. Damn lucky! Joe, on the other hand, got it right. He wore green - like Los Nacionales, the home team.

Throughout the game everyone remained standing, continuously chanting along to songs that made it hard to believe the home team couldn't win. The yellows scored first, but that wasn't important because everyone chanted more fiercely with lyrics like "We have to win; We can't lose!"

After a while I realised why we were sitting where we were - the fumes from the pot everyone was smoking would blow out of the stadium with the night's nice cool wind. Plus, it was a great place for the boys to bark and whistle at girls passing by outside the stadium. Mmm, that's right, I haven't mentioned that yet. There was probably only 3 girls in the whole section. It was testosterone filled, so when a new girl entered the section all eyes turned as though we were all in a restaurant waiting for our food on empty stomaches. Eyes turned like the girl was the first plate of food being served. And in case you couldn't feel the testosterone, there was a mosh pit during the game too. Just to make it blatently obvious this was a manly event.

I was happy to see Los Nacionales win the game 4-2 - an exciting match too! Although our young friend told us the opposition lost before the game started. haha, that confidence seemed to be a norm amongst the fans. The bonus of the win was it'd make for a safer return to the metro.

written by  ryanmyers on August 13, 2009 from Medellin, Colombia
from the travel blog: Ryan's First Sabbatical
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