On my second day, my two roomies and I, Alex (English) and Jeremy (American) and took off to explore the houses and parks in Palmero, which is the wealthier area of the city. We spent the day at the zoo, parks, drinking mate, and eating empanadas. That night Alex and I went to a lovely local steak place in San Telmo that at 11pm the line was out the door. I got delicious Bife de Chorizo and wine we were all set for another late evening. The next day we went to the famous San Telmo markets which, for all the markets that I have been to- and there have been a lot, it may have been the best. Street after street were filled with stalls selling amazing jewelry, leather goods, and some random things like old clocks or bottles. Even better was all the live music- full bands and single singers, salsa and tango dancers, just made for a great time at the markets. That afternoon we went to see the famous Boca Juniors futbol team play. We had to do some bribery to get into the game after scalping some fake tickets (long story), but we got in and as we entered the stadium we realized we were in the popular section, aka hard core local fans. Although Boca was doing horrible that season the popular section- #12 fan- was full of the real fans who never stopped singing or dancing. The stadium was pretty empty except for our section. It was great to see one of the most famous teams in all of futbol and watch with the true fans, the ones who will support their team even when they are doing badly (San Diego fans should take note of this phenomenon).
Later that same evening I finally got around to checking my email and discovered that my mom had booked a last minute flight to BA and was coming out in two days. She was feeling really great a week after her surgery and was going to come out. I was so excited!
The next day our crew was all geared up to go to a huge futbol match, a semi final game, outside the city for a local team, The Estudiantes vs The Nationals (from Uruguay). Dare I say one of the coolest things I did while traveling was seeing this intense futbol game, it puts even the most dedicated sporting fans to shame. When we all arrived to this big deal game the stadium was electric with noise makers and chanting. We never sat down, stopped dancing or singing the entire game. Flairs, smoke bombs, and fireworks were going off all around us. Sometimes the smoke was so thick it was hard to even see the field and I have no idea how the players could even see the ball. It was just a big party. Because the game mattered so much people were screaming, cheering, booing, and cussing (puta) as they followed the game very closely. Suddenly there was a huge squrimish in the stands and the crowd opened up and we saw a guy literally getting the shit getting kicked out of him. Three huge guys were just kicking him because, as I later discovered, the guy had a flag from another team- a sister team- and that was why he was beat to a pulp. No big deal is what all the locals were saying to me, it happens every big game. Well as the guy was bloody and carried out on a stretcher I thought he probably thought otherwise. Despite the momentary interruption, the game was so much fun and the home team, The Estudiantes won. Even better, the next day my mom was coming....
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