Rockin´in La Boca & paying respects in Recoleta.
Trip Start
Jan 16, 2008
1
24
37
Trip End
Jan 01, 2009
Buenos Aires,
Capital Federal District,
Argentina
Monday, May 5, 2008
I´ve not been able to update for some time as we´ve generally been in towns with little or no internet access for the last week or so, so there´ll be a few blogs on the way to make up for everything in the middle...so don´t read them all at once!!!!
Well I´ll start with the first installment of our stay in Buenos Aires and a trip to the local football derby between Boca Juniors & River Plate with 40,000 complete maniacs! Now we´ve been to a few games already in South America and can honestly say they are the most passionate fans I´ve ever seen in my life. This game however completely blew me away!!! It was played in the home stadium of Boca Juniors, called La Bombonera (Spanish for The Chocolate Box). It was given this name due the shape of the stands which take on the same shape as...you´ve guessed it.....a chocolate box!!
They can imitate us but never equal us
! Once inside however, the atmosphere was just unbelievable. I hope the photos and videos do it justice. The singing started about an hour before the game and didn´t finish until an hour after it. Not only was it a local derby but there was also a place at the top of the table at stake so there was a lot more intensity added to the usual levels. Luckily for us, as we were in the Boca fans, they won 1-0. The game itself wasn´t a classic by any means but the atmosphere more than made up for it. Like all big football clubs there is a certain area for the hardcore fans, like the Stretford End in Manchester United, the Kop in Liverpool, and eh the Havelock Square of Lansdowne Road end was for Ireland! The fans in this section called themselves the 12th man and just before kick off unveiled possibly the biggest banner I´ve ever seen.
Once the players came onto the pitch however, the noise increased ten times over and the whole stadium rocked. It really was what I imagined gladiators coming into a coliseum must have been like! As I said earlier, luckily for us Boca won because the River Plate fans were directly above us and at the end of the game, as the Boca fans gestured up to them, there followed a tirade of balloons and bags filled with urine, seats and just about anything they could get there hands on
The massive flag
! We had to wait half an hour after the game to allow the River fans to leave, which was fine by me! We got back to the hostel, still buzzing from the atmosphere but wrecked from standing for 7 hours! Still, it knocked the socks off having a quiet Sunday in! It did take a while to get used to the Buenos Aires social life (about 2 hours!!) so there was many long nights and sleepy days, which can become quite easy to get used to. Especially as our dorm in the hostel was about 10 steps from the bar and on the roof, overlooking the whole city, definitely the best room I´ve ever stayed in. Plus we had the added bonus of sharing with Danny, a chap from Galway in Ireland, who´d been a resident in the hostel for a good 3 or more months and so, knew the city very well so it was pretty much an Irish embassy up on the roof. We were joined by Sam from England, who at first couldn't understand a single word we said when the three of us got talking, then when she started to understand us and was worried by us and by the end she said she began to feel part Irish herself!
So on one of the few occasions we managed to get up before midday, we paid a trip to the exclusive suburb of the city called Recoleta. Not only is it the the most exclusive place to live, but also the most exclusive place to rest in the afterlife
The Bombonera during the game
. The Recoleta Cemetery is a very very strange place as it's not your average one. Instead of the average small plot and a head stone, here we what can only be described as small houses! Obviously it´s only Argentina´s elite are buried here so the bigger the name the bigger the size of the grave. It houses a couple of surprise ones though, mainly that of an Irishman who founded the Argentinian Navy, Admiral William Browne, who was listed in the plot directory as "An Argentine Hero" and Father Fahy who was the priest to the Navy. Both are given massive graves and in Admiral Browne´s case, it´s a painted in green to acknowledge his birthplace, which was a nice touch. Some of the cemetery was quite eerie, and in particular the fact that so many cats roam the grounds, and one in particular one that followed me around through the majority of it. It was a very strange experience. However, probably the biggest name resting there is that of the famous Eva Peron, the wife of the ex president Juan Peron. Affectionately known as "Evita", or little Eva, by the Argentine public, she is still honored greatly by the public. Having passed away at only 33 years of age her husband went on to by the leader of the country with varying degrees of success,. it is Eva that is treated with the greater level of respect and love especially by the women of the country for whom she did so much.
So that concludes the first part of our stay in BA. I'll be back soon with the second installment which includes a quick trip over to Uruguay, some Tango lessons and getting some more of the city´s amazing sights.
Till then,
All the best,
Jim
