Saturday, November 13, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
Boca Juniors vs Colon BA
I have forgotten to write up the soccer game we went to on Sunday night.
After a busy day in San Telmo (flea markets, antiques and thousands of people, mostly Brazilians on their winter holiday) we got home just in time to be picked up for the Boca game at La Bomberina...the stadium famous for the shape ( a chocolate box) and for the passion of the supporters. I have been before and enjoyed it so much it was worth going again and seeing Sarah's face as the stadium started to vibrate and sway, actually.
I had not noticed how extremely poor the Boca working class streets were around the stadium. Real slum conditions behind faded facades could be glimpsed as we marched along. snotty nosed kids with attitude hung about...I think I had a different access last time. in fact I know I did as last time I was in with the Boca supporters but now we have to be locked in with the visitors for our safety. This means we have to arrive early to avoid Boca supporters, get marched through three police cordons and searches, and past riot police all shielded up. Once we are in our seats, then the Boca supporters start to arrive with the accompaniment of drums and singing. They didn't stop playing or singing the entire game.
I stupidly applauded a great play by Boca Under 18's in the game before the main match and I was told off by the guide. Remember to be careful and you are a Colon supporter tonight!
We also had to be aware of what colours we were wearing, and all of the Colon supporters put their colours over top of what they were wearing after they were safely locked in.
After a busy day in San Telmo (flea markets, antiques and thousands of people, mostly Brazilians on their winter holiday) we got home just in time to be picked up for the Boca game at La Bomberina...the stadium famous for the shape ( a chocolate box) and for the passion of the supporters. I have been before and enjoyed it so much it was worth going again and seeing Sarah's face as the stadium started to vibrate and sway, actually.
I had not noticed how extremely poor the Boca working class streets were around the stadium. Real slum conditions behind faded facades could be glimpsed as we marched along. snotty nosed kids with attitude hung about...I think I had a different access last time. in fact I know I did as last time I was in with the Boca supporters but now we have to be locked in with the visitors for our safety. This means we have to arrive early to avoid Boca supporters, get marched through three police cordons and searches, and past riot police all shielded up. Once we are in our seats, then the Boca supporters start to arrive with the accompaniment of drums and singing. They didn't stop playing or singing the entire game.
I stupidly applauded a great play by Boca Under 18's in the game before the main match and I was told off by the guide. Remember to be careful and you are a Colon supporter tonight!
We also had to be aware of what colours we were wearing, and all of the Colon supporters put their colours over top of what they were wearing after they were safely locked in.
Foodies blog post South America 2010
Here are some of the photos of what we have been eating...feasts to the eyes as well as the bellies at times.
The food has changed significantly from Chile to Argentina to now Brazil where it is much tastier and more interesting.These photos are of the first two places.
The food has changed significantly from Chile to Argentina to now Brazil where it is much tastier and more interesting.These photos are of the first two places.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Stuck in BA airport instead of getting drenched by Iguazzu Falls
Well, writing this from the BA departure halls...been here since 6.45 am and it is now 1.20 pm!
The flight got all loaded up, and then unloaded as the weather in Iguassu was a storm. Having survived a hairy aborted landing in Beijing in a thunderstorm/tail of a typhoon I was not too concerned as better delayed than dead. Now it is getting annoying, as other flights are going but ours has not because our flight crew were 'over' time so a new crew needs to be fetched.
The fetching is taking about 5 hours.
The flight eventually let at 4pm!!! We were exhausted and grumpy, but less so than the whole families who had missed tour bookings etc.
Iguassu was a bit damp and the the sky grey, so the water looked a little green. The Devil's Throat was roaring but the butterflies and birds were not too keen to come out in the rain which eventually fell.
Luckily we had time to drop in to the Butterfly and Bird House on the Brazilian side , right next to the airport. If you ever go, make sure you do that too. Flamingos and Hummingbirds were some of the favourites plus of course the Toucans and the parrots of all shapes, sizes and colours.
Still tired from the long useless wait yesterday, we were glad to get on the plane on time for Rio.
My cold is so bad that my ears are playing up terribly on flights , so by the end I was almost completely deaf. Very frustrating.
Our room at Mama Ruisa though has made up for any discomforts in the last few days. Wow what a view over the Bay and it has a veranda which I am writing from now. It was 31 degrees when we arrived last night. We had picked up a good special for the Junior Suite and decided to splurge here. Most of the hotels on Copacabana are ugly and expensive. We are also near to Lapa, the nightlife area for jazz etc. http://www.mamaruisa.com/
More on Rio next time.
The flight got all loaded up, and then unloaded as the weather in Iguassu was a storm. Having survived a hairy aborted landing in Beijing in a thunderstorm/tail of a typhoon I was not too concerned as better delayed than dead. Now it is getting annoying, as other flights are going but ours has not because our flight crew were 'over' time so a new crew needs to be fetched.
The fetching is taking about 5 hours.
The flight eventually let at 4pm!!! We were exhausted and grumpy, but less so than the whole families who had missed tour bookings etc.
Iguassu was a bit damp and the the sky grey, so the water looked a little green. The Devil's Throat was roaring but the butterflies and birds were not too keen to come out in the rain which eventually fell.
Luckily we had time to drop in to the Butterfly and Bird House on the Brazilian side , right next to the airport. If you ever go, make sure you do that too. Flamingos and Hummingbirds were some of the favourites plus of course the Toucans and the parrots of all shapes, sizes and colours.
Still tired from the long useless wait yesterday, we were glad to get on the plane on time for Rio.
My cold is so bad that my ears are playing up terribly on flights , so by the end I was almost completely deaf. Very frustrating.
Our room at Mama Ruisa though has made up for any discomforts in the last few days. Wow what a view over the Bay and it has a veranda which I am writing from now. It was 31 degrees when we arrived last night. We had picked up a good special for the Junior Suite and decided to splurge here. Most of the hotels on Copacabana are ugly and expensive. We are also near to Lapa, the nightlife area for jazz etc. http://www.mamaruisa.com/
More on Rio next time.
Last day in BA...golf at Golf Club Patricio
Our last day in BA didn’t go quite so smoothly as the rest of the trip. I woke very sick from my cold, unsure if I could even play golf. I took some paracetamol and hoped I would feel better
I had an appointment with an agent (just to say hello, not really work), and then we caught a remis- taxi to the Golf Club Patricio, (former navel course and out on the Tigre delta). Karina had begged us to get a remis taxi rather than the usually black and yellow hail cabs as they are more reliable. Her words were “a taxi might just drive around for ages and make the charge higher.”
Well our remis driver could not find the course....the time for our booked start came and went and we were still at the side of the road asking locals for directions. This was all despite Karina having given me the instructions on how to find the course in Spanish, and me having copied them out clearly.
The driver, old, shaky hands and quite deaf kept glancing studying the piece of paper and re-reading the same sentence over and over and getting more and more uptight. Karina had also given me a mobile, in-case of trouble, so he eventually rang the number. It didn’t seem to help, he just muttered. Eventually he found some people who gave him instructions he could follow, and we rolled up to a desolate looking field, surrounded by swamp.
Two hopeful and relieved looking men smiled at us at the checkpoint, they were the caddies who had been waiting for us.
After much waiting round, miming and general confusion, we paid our money, borrowed clubs and got to play on the course which was somewhat desolate looking as it was built on a delta in the middle of swamps. Quite attractive, in an ugly kind of way!
I managed to put a ball into the water, and even more disastrously knocked a bird and her nest...making her scream like crazy and go really mad at me. The ball ended up against her egg and cracked it!! I felt like a murderer.
We called it quits after 9 holes as it was already getting late and they were bringing the flags in behind us. Sarah’s knees were hurting and my chest was getting no better. We bowled into the club rooms for a beer and the way it went quiet we suspect we were not meant to be in there or something, too bad. Our caddies came in too and we shared a few cold beers.
Another day to write down to experience.
I had an appointment with an agent (just to say hello, not really work), and then we caught a remis- taxi to the Golf Club Patricio, (former navel course and out on the Tigre delta). Karina had begged us to get a remis taxi rather than the usually black and yellow hail cabs as they are more reliable. Her words were “a taxi might just drive around for ages and make the charge higher.”
Well our remis driver could not find the course....the time for our booked start came and went and we were still at the side of the road asking locals for directions. This was all despite Karina having given me the instructions on how to find the course in Spanish, and me having copied them out clearly.
The driver, old, shaky hands and quite deaf kept glancing studying the piece of paper and re-reading the same sentence over and over and getting more and more uptight. Karina had also given me a mobile, in-case of trouble, so he eventually rang the number. It didn’t seem to help, he just muttered. Eventually he found some people who gave him instructions he could follow, and we rolled up to a desolate looking field, surrounded by swamp.
Two hopeful and relieved looking men smiled at us at the checkpoint, they were the caddies who had been waiting for us.
After much waiting round, miming and general confusion, we paid our money, borrowed clubs and got to play on the course which was somewhat desolate looking as it was built on a delta in the middle of swamps. Quite attractive, in an ugly kind of way!
I managed to put a ball into the water, and even more disastrously knocked a bird and her nest...making her scream like crazy and go really mad at me. The ball ended up against her egg and cracked it!! I felt like a murderer.
We called it quits after 9 holes as it was already getting late and they were bringing the flags in behind us. Sarah’s knees were hurting and my chest was getting no better. We bowled into the club rooms for a beer and the way it went quiet we suspect we were not meant to be in there or something, too bad. Our caddies came in too and we shared a few cold beers.
Another day to write down to experience.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
