I’ve spent a lot of time in Medellin, but done very little blog worthy.  A lot of this is because the Blacksheep hostel 22-28000 COP is two comfortable by half.  Ive relaxed, watched a lot of sports, read and written a lot, and also taken advantage of the big city to get my broken Macbook Air fixed and enjoy a little western fast food.  Yesterday I changed that and did something worth writing about, but before we get into that I just want to point out that the Santa Fe shopping center has a hedge maze decorated by giant fake lollipops and used for lazer tag games.  Epic I know.

 

I spent halloween here though I did not do much, choosing instead to party in Guatape last weekend.  More on that later if I have the time.  Rather than partying I spent halloween bargaining for a go pro in the afternoon,  (I managed to get a 3+ black edition for 900,000 COP)  and then later that night after a bunch of reading I ended up booking my flights to the Galapagos islands.  I leave on the 14th of november and spend two weeks there for which I can’t wait.  It also serves as motivation to keep moving as soon as I get my macbook air back.

 

Now back to yesterday.  I’d spent the morning watching soccer then the afternoon working on tthis blog.  I figured it was far past time I pulled over the blogs from the first 6 months of my trip from blogspot onto this wordpress site.  You’ll notice more countries in the menu at the top.  Sorry for the poor picture formatting but it was just way too much work to change it and at least now this whole trip is all together in one blog.  Now to break the writer’s number one rule, I’m changing tense.

 

I watch the hostel guests pile into the minibus which will take them on the tour to the football match today and wonder if I should make the trip.  I think back to Wednesday nights game and how much fun that experience was but getting the motivation to leave the hostel is proving difficult.  Ive all but decided not to go when an aussie friend named Andy come’s into the lobby and wonders out loud why anyone would pay 60,000 for  tour of the game when tickets are between 20,000 and 30,000.

 

I ask him if he wants to go to the game and not five minutes later we’re out the door walking to the metro station in el Poblado Medellin’s fashinable and rich suburb.  We get there and thankfully it’s not as insane as it was wednesday night, though still very much crowded.  As we change onto the other line at San Antonio station in the centre of Medellin a sea of red fills my eyes and I realise very quickly I’m clad all in blue.  Lucky for me I ask a smiling local if the opposing team is blue and he shakes his head.  Thank goodness, I’m told Colombia football is like the streets of compton, don’t wear the wrong colours.  (Im sure this is massively exaggerated though)

 

At any rate we climb off the metro at Estadio, three stops from San Atonio and walk the five minutes to the stadium.  I head to entrance 34 where I’d purchased tickets on wednesday but find the window very much closed. We wander a ways until I finnally stop and ask three young policemen where we might buy an official ticket.  My spanish isn’t quite good enough to want to deal with seasoned scalpers.

 

We’re given some vague directions, before one of the police officers steps forward and signals he’ll take us there after getting permission from his boss of course.  We head back the way we’ve come towards a large athletic centre and the police officer and I chat as we walk.  His name is Pedro and he tells me that he bleeds green for Atletico Nacional, the other local team who I came to watch on Wednesday.

 

We walk a good long way with him, scalpers coming up and trying very insistently to sell us tickets through him.  The first place he takes us is sold out and my hopes start to sink but he tells us it will be fine and we continue on with still more scalpers pestering poor Pedro.  Finally we come to a line and he turn and explains to me that we’ll be forced to pay a gringo price unless he goes to buy the tickets for us.  We as him for the cheapest ones and after inquiring we each hand him 21,000 COP, he disappears inside and not two minutes later we have our tickets.  This is why some trust while travelling is very important.

 

Pedro walks us to the gate and we thank him with smiles words and handshakes, thrilled to be admitted.  Just to compare, transport include we paid 24,800 COP instead of the tours 60,000 COP.  I love the blacksheep hostel but to me the tour prices seem at least a little inflated.

 

We get into the game and find an open seat near the corner flag and wait the 30 or so minutes for kick off.  The stadium here in Medellin seats about 45,000 people and by the time the two teams are ready to kick off I think about 85% of the stadium is full, a much better turn out then the midweek game.  This probably has to do with the fact that there’s two games left in the league and the home team Deportivo Independente Medellin have a slim lead at the top of the table with just two games left to be played.

 

As the players line up to shake hands and before kick offs the Medellin fans start making noise, matching the atmosphere of most matches at Old trafford despite having half the people in the crowd.    At certain points in the game the whole stadium was rocking.  The red and yellow crowd also certainly provided some great where’s waldo type shots.

 

The teams kick off and I do my best to cover some of the action with my camera.

 

 

 My Camera inevitably captures the attention of a young girl sitting beside me.  Bit by bit she works up the confidence to talk to me, only slightly put off by my accent.  Before long she’s introduced herself to me as Maria Jose, as well as her entire family who is spread out throughout my section.  Her father sitting beside her is friendly but clearly very invested in the game.  She though has the ability to shift back and forth in instants, smiling and talking to me asking me tons of questions one second, then standing on her seat and screaming at the players or ref the next.  It’s not long before she asks for me to take some pictures of her, and pictures of me and my friend Andy too.

 

 

The game holds two excellent goals but sadly it ends as a 1-1 draw, meaning that the DIM’s will need some luck to hold on to that first spot.  We say our goodbyes to Maria Jose and her family and head back into a more somber Metro, returning to the hostel smiling.  It’s funny when travelling Ive found you almost never regret doing something, and often regret choosing not to.  While I was working on updating this website I happened upon my New Years Resolutions for this year.  Funny how we forget isn’t it.    At any rate, it seems I was quite into aying yes, so for the last two months of the year I’m back to focusing on that.  Take chances, make mistakes, say yes when opportunity knocks and don’t be lazy.  Good rules not just for travel, but for life.  Until next time folks.