Im going to the rodeo... Plus more soccer

Rodeo

One day while flicking through the channels on TV, I came across what I at least considered the slightly bizarre spectacle of Chilean Rodeo. That being two Huasos (Chilean cowboys) on horseback sandwiching a cow between them, guiding it and then ramming it into a wall in an arena. This feat was graded on a point scale of one to five and I spent the rest of the afternoon transfixed to the TV, trying to figure out how the points were allocated. I still had no idea when the show finished. Anyway after that, I decided I had to get along to watch it as I doubt I´ll get to see two cowboys on horseback ramming a cow into the wall anywhere else and why the hell not. So 1 month later I was at Fiesta de la Chicha de Curacaví, a Rodeo, food and chicha festival in Curacaví a small town an hour or so from Santiago. Rodeo is Chiles national sport and chicha takes place along side Pisco sour as one of Chile´s defining drinks. Chicha is basically made by terminating the process of wine making early. It is a sweet drink which tastes good but leaves u with the runs and a killer headache to boot. I will be sticking to Pisco in the future! But anway watching the rodeo, swagging back Chicha was a one off experience I will never forget. We were also fortunate to get premium seats at the 500 or so packed stadium. Right above where the bulls come out and where they tried to jump the fence to escape their protagonists. The probable reason that there were seats available in that area. One bull actually broke planks of the 2-3m fence in front of us and came very close to popping over it, mouth frothing and all, the highlight of my day. Obviously the sport/event whatever u want to call it is not for animal lovers, who would have been particularly incensed when the bulls were prodded with electrically charged rods, to get them off the ground when they had been smashed into submission. But for somebody like myself who believes a cow is a cow it was a good day out. For me the horses on show were magnificent. Im not sure about how the quality of horses are measured but some of the horses were stunning, definitely not a cheap sport! Overall going to the Chilean rodeo was a great experience, although is definitely a one off thing for me , as watching 2 cowboys riding around in circles ramming a cow into a wall for 2 and a half hours should be sufficient for my lifetime. It does get a bit routine after the first 10 or so times, but maybe thats because I still havent figured out the point system!



Chilean Soccer

I went to my first Chilean classico between Colo Colo and La U in April. We took all the usual precautions of avoiding the hordes of what could be best described as hooligans on the way to stadium. Passed the several security checks almost without problem. The problem being my batteries in my camera. I had to take them out as it was deemed I could hurl them at someone inside the stadium. In reality it meant I had to fork out 5 bucks to buy some inside the stadium from vendors no doubt in cohoots with the police. Once inside the stadium the sledging was in full force, with one teams fans occupying one end of the stadium and the others´ the other end. They spent the game singing songs sledging one another and trying to drown each oher out. Basically the game was shite, not least because Colo Colo lost, but also because it was shite. Was agian interesting diving into the world of South American soccer as as you should be able to see from the photos, its another world.

Touch Rugby

I found out about touch through some NZers I met in Chile. So I thought Id go along for some fitness, socialising etc. In Chile as in most of the world where rugby exists, rugby is an elite rich mans sport so it was an eye opener to delve into the touch playing circles. The facilities where I played were phenomenal. The first location where I played is called the Prince of Wales Country Club but in Spanish obviously. Probably equal to the Millenium facility wise, but with a golf course, tennis courts and extra add ons to boot. But on top of that it houses a very swanky country club, where a lot of ´high society´ mingles. The next place was the Old Boys club which is housed in the neighbourhood Peñalolen, right on the top of a hill overlooking the majority of Santiago which itself is as flat as a pancake as it is situated in a valley. Both places were two of the better facilities I have played sport at, was great. Again though playing touch bought home the class system that exists in Chile to me. I had to ride from my middle class neighbourhood, Ñuñoa, through a whole lot of lower class neighbourhoods to the more upper class neighbourhood of Peñalolen. Basically most people I talked to about the ride thought and said I was crazy on two fronts. Firstly riding up one of the only hills in Santiago and secondly riding through those neighbourhoods. To me it was really buzzy doing it if only to see how you can ride 1 or 2 km up the road and be in a completely different demographic. Everywhere has its rich neighbourhoods and poor neighbourhoods sure. But the differences in South America are extreme and permeate the society in every way.

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