Advertisement
Published: January 16th 2009
Around 0900 we caught bus 29 from Microcentro to La Boca to try and get tickets to Boca Jnrs vs. Estudiantes at La Bombonera. The hostel had been promoting $200 pesos per person (NZ$100) “tours” to the game including pickup and match tickets but we’d heard through the backpacker grapevine that - despite what we were being told - it was possible to buy tickets with the locals at the local price. The other reason we were not so keen on the tour was that tickets were in the family area - not amongst the noise and colour of the cheap seats.
After a few Spanglish conversations with a couple of locals we worked out which stop to get off at and tried to find somewhere to buy tickets. La Boca is most well known (aside from Boca Juniors) for it’s brightly coloured buildings and cafe culture along two streets called The Caminito. As it was a futbol day the Caminito was just starting to liven up with the locals setting up stalls and cafe owners placing their chalkboards. We were stopped by a couple of local volunteer firefighters selling caps and t-shirts, one of whom spoke reasonable English, so
we bought a cap $20 pesos (NZ$10) and asked him if he had any info on getting match tickets. His mate texted someone and they told us to come back in a few minutes. I took the camera out and started snapping away.
Within a minute we were approached by a Maradona look-alike trying to get us to pay for a photo with him. Maradona is so big in Argentina that there even seems to be an industry for impersonators. We declined about three times before ignoring him completely.
Unfortunately the firemen couldn’t come up with much info for us so we headed off on the five block walk to La Bombonera. About two blocks along we bumped into a local couple we’d seen on the bus. The bloke warned me about having my camera around my neck so we put it away - apparently the streets outside of Caminito were very dangerous. After several unsuccessful attempts to enquire about tickets, Jo found a shop owner that pointed us in the right direction and we soon found the ticketing booths surrounded by security guards and barriers, with several hundred locals in line. To make things worse, we were
at the wrong end of the street and were going to have to walk the block to find the end of the queues. As luck would have it a security guard heard us speaking English and asked if we were looking for tickets. He explained firmly that the only ones for sale were “populare” in the standing section and “it is very dangerous”. He also told us to go back to the hostel, drop off our bags and keep our money in our hands - not our pockets. He waited until we agreed to do so before cutting line with us in tow and arranging the sale with the ticket booth attendant. Jo paid and the guard guided us out. I made the international hand signal for cash, assuming he was after some money but he refused. The tickets were $24 pesos (NZ$12) so we had enough left over for some Boca Juniors kit to wear to the game. Jo bought a tracksuit top for $75 pesos (NZ$38). We walked back down to the Caminito for a coffee and coke before getting on the bus to the hostel to drop our gear off.
We returned to La Boca about
1230, plenty of time to buy a genuine-fake Boca shirt $50 pesos (NZ$25) from one of the street stalls and have a pizza and beer before the big game. We had a friendly waiter who spoke English who made the experience a hell of a lot easier.
By the time we headed to the ground most of the roads had been barricaded and were patrolled by policemen. We passed through two pat-downs and three ticket controls before taking our spots in the second tier at the southern end of the ground.
Boca lost the reserves grade game 4-0 and the crowd sat quietly throughout. At 1600 Estudiantes took to the field to the sound of 30-odd thousand wolf whistles then Boca came on to songs from around the ground. The songs continued throughout the game, stopping only for abuse every time an Estudiantes player took a corner in front of us. 20 minutes in, Boca scored when a forward connected with a cross-field pass from the right wing. The crowd went apeshit and I felt what I thought was rain for the first time only to look at my arm and realise we were being spat on from
the top level. It seems tier 3 of the southern stand is reserved for supporters of the away team. Momentum swung in the second half with Estudiantes scoring two quick goals in the 17th and 20th minutes to take the lead. Boca were unable to get the tying goal and several midfield fumbles met with jeering from the home fans.
As interclub rivalry is so fierce in Argentine soccer, our tier of the stand was locked in and not allowed to leave until the Estudiantes fans could make their escape and get well out of town. We were locked there for well over 30 minutes before the police finally let us out.
We returned to the cafe/bar where we had our lunch and had a chat with our waiter and a few brews. We also met Walter and Hector, two local guys who were having a beer (or 7) also. All in all a very fine way to end an exciting day.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.048s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0274s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
