Day 119 - Colo Colo 4, Universidad 2

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The day stared well with 4 rounds of brown toast and delicious jam to go on it. It is amazing how something so basic can bring a smile to our faces, but maybe it's just a sign that we're missing home? We followed this by taking some light exercise and visiting the nearby St Cristobal Hill where we got a good, if not a little hazy, view of Santiago and the surrounding snow-capped mountains.

At around 2.30 we made our way to the football stadium. On the metro there was a lot of ticker tape (possibly they stole this idea off Pompey), a group of chanting fans roped off for their own carriage and a lot of transport police.

Following the noise and the mass of people all going in the same direction, we got into the ground after a number of ticket and thorough security checks, and found two seats. We then watched the pre-match entertainment - mainly the away fans vs the riot police and the hard core Colo Colo fans dominating the chanting - this was for about 1 ½ hours before kick off, they had been going since 12.30 when the ground was opened - with kickoff at 4.30!

The 10 minutes build up just before the players came out on to the pitch had your hair up on end, as the chanting was loud and relentless, fireworks and flares went off, fences were ripped down, stones were thrown and tension grew.

First half saw 1 goal from each team and it seemed that Colo Colo were tired and Universidad were using this to their advantage. Half time saw most of the action from the V.I.P. area where Ivan Zamorano (a very famous Chilean footballer) and a famous beauty and the beast couple created quite a stir. We could not figure out who this coiuple were though - we'll get a picture on soon so someone can tell us.

Second half saw Universidad weaken especially when coach/captain/best player/only good player Marcello Salas came off - cue 3 goals in succession against them. The noise that erupts from the 40,000 strong crowd is deafening.

Once the full time whistle was blown we made a dash for it to try and beat the stampede that was expected to descend on the Metro. Our journey back to the hostel was entertaining in itself, as we were asked what the score was, was it a good game, and being cheered and hooted at. We were wearing our football shirts again.

The rest of the evening was spent at the bus station waiting for the 11.30pm bus to Valdivia (south). What with it being a Sunday evening and the derby game, the place was packed and there were not enough buses or seats for the amount of people wanting to travel. We were extremely lucky as we got the last 2 seats going to Valdivia which we were extremely pleased about as a lot of people were going to be spending a long cold night at the bus station.

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