As in all Latin American countries, fotbol is king in Cartagena. When your home team, Real Cartagena, is doing well in a championship everyone turns out-even three scared Gringos with our protector, Oscar. Oscar,helped us buy tickets to the Real Cartagena/Medellin soccer match in the local stadium. Real Cartagena was the number one team and Medellin the number two team in the Liga Postobon which is the Colombian "Major League".
He said the game was sure to be exciting but it could be dangerous for us, and of course Dan was on crutches at the time but we went to the game. If you think that security is tight at U.S. airports, you should see what its like at a big futbol game in Colombia. Thousands of Police and army special forces--many in full armored riot gear--looking very serious. They do a very thorough job of searching every person entering the stadium for guns etc.
When we arrived into the stadium the excitement was palpable. The brilliant colors of yellow and green dominated the stands. Vendors of foods, hats, twenty on top of one head, neck cloths,programs, beer, soda, chicolets gum continuously forced their way through the crowds to sell their goods. When the first goal was made by Real Cartagena we were showered with beer from above us in our bleacher seats. I stood up to cheer a play with others and spilled part of my beer on the guy in front of me- a quick turn, a smile and it was "play-on". The teams seemed evenly matched with certain players to focus on who were the stars. We had a great time!
Oscar suggested we get out of the stadium ten minutes before the game ended, but the excitement built just then and we took our chances. The game had exciting points throughout with two goals scored, one for each team! The Real team even played with a man down for awhile but still was close to scoring.
Near the end, the last five minutes, we thought surely the home team would score. Gary looked over at the few fans that had attended from Medellin to see them being marched out ten minutes early by the riot police to protect them! They couldn’t even watch the end of the match which ended in an unbroken tie.
Oh yeah, we arrived home to Sea Star safely and Oscar spent the night on the boat as Turbaco was quite a distance away.
Enjoy the photos and movie.
Click on the photo to see the slide show.
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| the game |
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