Sports of Colombia

Tejo: Colombias national sport involves throwing a heavy lead puck at a target in the mud containing packets of gunpowder. If you are lucky enough to hit one, they explode. We heard about this sport prior to our arrival in Colombia and of course we had to give it a go. We booked a time with an instructor and showed up at the courts in Medellin.

While the concept seemed simple enough, after more than an hour of throwing, only three packets had exploded. We quickly realized we were not very good at the sport. We had the form down, but when you are throwing heavy weights into mud it throws you right off your balance and is tougher than it looks.

The explosions were much louder than we expected and that also caught us off guard a couple of times. It was a fun couple hours but we were totally tejo-ed out! A large part of the game is drinking beer while playing. However, we played in the proper courts rather than the bar, and beer wasn’t allowed. So after the two hour lesson we went for well deserved beer and lunch.

Later that day we heard there was a football (soccer) game and knew we couldn’t miss that opportunity! We saved a lot of our “things to do” for when our friend from Canada came to visit, so we ended up doing a lot of them in a busy but fun-filled week!

We bought our tickets and made our way to the first entrance, but were denied entry. It turns out our tickets only allowed entrance to the stadium through a certain set of doors. We didn’t understand why, but realized after that the gate we initially tried to use was reserved for the die-hard fans. These fans had painted faces, instruments played by a full marching band - in the stands - with decorations and all the songs you could think of for their beloved team.

They got mad when their goalie made a great save simply because their team allowed the ball to get so close! You should have seen their reaction when the goalie didn’t make a save… But the way they cheered when their team won the overall game I will never forget. That’s passion right there. We don’t typically follow sports, but watching the fans that love sports, well, I love doing that. Such a rush. An amazing experience in itself, I am very glad we went.

Now we finally understood the strange echoing that made its way into our bedroom window on game nights. Living only one metro stop from the stadium itself, the yelling and cheering filled our apartment on those evenings.

Medellin was starting to become one of my favourite cities.