Tejo

---

Of all the things in Salento I have experienced thus far... a 3 hour hike to a hummingbird reserve, horseback riding through unrealized railroad passages, dancing cumbia in the streets of la plaza mayor, cooking some very tasty French cuisine with my gracious hostess Liliana, what I will take from this town is Tejo. Tejo is a game alikened to our great American drinking passtimes - botchi ball, horseshoes, beanbag toss, etc. - in that you can hold a beer in one hand and lob a random blunt object at another random blunt object with the other. Throughout the course of humanity, man has searched for somet to do with the non-drinking hand. I think Tejo could be one of the best answers to this profoundly Delphic question.

Tejo:
Each player gets one metal disc, each weighing approximately 5 pounds.
A 2x2 ft. box tilted at a 45 degree angle and filled with brown clayish mud, one box on each side of a 20 meter straightaway, which is the Tejo course.
Two small triangles of folded paper, each filled with a healthy amount of gunpowder, placed inside the mud box on the outsides of a small circle.
Lots of beer.

First: drink a few beers. Get nice and tipsy, then put some cumbia music on until you cant hear yourself think.
Second: Stand at one end of the Tejo course and lob your blunt heavy metal object at the mudbox. If your disc lands closer than your opponents discs, you get one point. If It lands in the center of the mudbox in the small metal circle, you get 3 points. If you hit one of the gunpowder-filled triangles and it explodes, 6 points. Blow up a triangle and land it in the circle, 9 points.
Third: Retrieve your metal disc from the mudbox, turn around and repeat steps 1 and 2.
Falling over drunk or accidnetally hitting an opponent with a blunt metal object lands you no points. Drink another beer and start again.

The tejo courts are 3 blocks from the city center and you can hear the gunpowder fire from here. It is very loud inside the courts and never fails to make me jump. If I have piqued your interest in this great Colombian passtime, google it, and you can play it online. Or you can start lobbing heavy metallic objects into small piles of gunpowder for a more authentic experience. As I said, gratuitous amounts of alcohol are a mandatory prerequisite.

In other news... I will stay in Salento the rest of the weekend for a festival. The city plaza is full with churchbells, cumbia, and street vendors selling empanadas, arepas, fresh trout, fruit juices made with ice and sugar, and lots of handcrafts. One of my favorite snacks thus far is simply a grilled platano cut open and topped with a little cheese. Mmmm...grilled platano. Now Im getting hungry. I need an empanada de pronto.

---

Comments

[Mom]

too much fun
You are having way too much fun!! How are you ever going to get back to reality? Love, Mom

[Marydale]

well...
This IS reality, Mom! Life doesnt always have to be about working hard to buy a bigger house or a faster car. Many people work just hard enough to put food on the table, treat their friends to some beers, and play the occasional game of Tejo. I told you about my friend Richard in Taganga... the guy has about 6 shirts to his name and $25 in his bank account, and he was buying ME beers! Its really just a different perspective on the utilization of money, for better or worse.