I have never been that interested in soccer, which is a fact that separates me from about 90% of the male-aged population on this particular planet. Something about the seemingly pointless kicking around of a ball for 90 minutes in order to set up two minutes of actual action has never made a strong impression upon me. Nonetheless, I do own a number of soccer jerseys from various countries visited around the world, given my penchant for being a poser, and I enjoy a good random sporting event in other countries, especially when I am oblivious to the rules (or even objectives) of the game.

As it so happened, during our 11-day stay in Buenos Aires, one of my oldest and only half-Argentine friends, Nick, decided to come down and meet us. Or so I thought – rather our time in the Argentine capital happened to coincide with three upcoming matches for Nick’s beloved Boca Juniors soccer club, two of them against archrival River Plate. Regardless of the underlying motivations, we took full advantage of having a local guide, and Nick’s family took wonderful care of us in the ‘Good Airs’ (i.e. Buenos Aires)

Fast forward to the second of the two Boca Junior matches, on Thursday of that week. The two clubs had played against each other the previous Sunday, a game for which Nick’s uncle had inquired about getting tickets, only to dismiss that notion upon discovering the $1,000 price tag. So we watched that game at his house, a barnburner 2-0 victory for the home Boca team that we were supposed to be cheering for.

That game, however, was a league match – so like a regular season NFL game between division rivals (a la the mighty Redskins versus the pusillanimous and downright dirty Cowboys). The second match, and now this is where soccer gets quite confusing, was the first in a two-game series for the first round of the Copa Libertadores, a competition in which club teams from all over South America play each other for a title. So it’d be like if the Rhein Fire (if they still existed), Toronto Argonauts (if Canadians recognized the concept of competition), New England Patriots (if they brought their own air gauges), and the Ulan Bataar Ice Khans (if I was their captain) all played each other randomly for no real reason. So basically there are two different competitions going on simultaneously, and it just so happened that Boca was matched up in the Copa Libertadores against River around the same time as one of their regular season draws, allowing them to play each other twice in a four day span for two completely different reasons (got it? I still don’t).

So having failed at getting tickets for the regular season first match, we figured there was no possible way to score seats for the second match, what was essentially a play-off game.

Lo and behold though, Nick’s aunt worked some Argentine connections, and on the day of the game (the night match being at 9:30pm – very in-line with the nocturnal lifestyle), she informed us that she had scored tickets. Two tickets to be exact, to be divided evenly amongst the three of us. There was an awkward moment of “oh, I see . . . ” as we all knew what had to be done before anyone verbally broached the topic. Christine, bless her heart, quickly recognized the dilemma and expressed that she did not have to attend, allowing Nick and I to utilize the two tickets (as evenly as could be).

There was one other hitch, however. The game was to be hosted at River’s stadium, and Nick is a die-hard Boca fan. Soccer hooligans are a real thing here – to the point where in 2013 the Argentine Football Federation decided it just was not worth it to have away fans in attendance, and banned them from attending the home games of opposing teams (you might wonder how anyone could truly prevent away fans from attending given that you don’t demand the loyalty of the ticket buyer via polygraph at the time of ticket purchase, but it is more of a self selecting situation as opposing fans before sat in a completely separate section of just their kind, being too dangerous to mix in with the opposition). This new enactment came after the death of a fan during clashes following a match near Buenos Aires, making over 70 fan-related soccer deaths in the country since 2000. So it’s a pretty big deal to be found in the wrong crowd, meaning that Nick was going to have to suppress every instinct he had to feign support for River, or at the minimum a level of healthy ignorance (in contrast, Nick’s uncle specifically informed us ahead of time in case we obtained tickets, he would not attend the game at River, as he ‘would not be able to control himself’).

The enemy’s den

On the plus side, however, was these were not just tickets, but VIP tickets! We had no idea what that meant in the Argentine context, but were hoping at a minimum for a lifetime supply of beef.

Nick’s uncle dropped us off as close as he could get to the River stadium, which was still about a two-kilometer walk. The roads to the stadium were completely blocked off to traffic ahead of the game, and the police began checking up to a kilometer ahead of the venue for tickets, only letting those in possession passing by.

The environment just walking up to the stadium was intense – alcohol is also thankfully banned from the stadiums, so fans were getting their fair share in ahead of time. It seemed like everyone was chanting in unison to lyrics for which I had apparently not received a memo, nor could find printed on my ticket. Given my limited Spanish capabilities, I could not pick up on the subtle pretext of the crowds’ words, but I understood enough to realize it was not appropriate for my PG-13 rated ears. And everyone sang, from the recently christened 5-year-old fans to hardened 85-year old veterans.

There were also a ton of police lined up all over the streets – reportedly up to 1,700 had been deployed for the purposes of this particular match. These police figures were often the subject of derision from the local crowd, with many a crotch grab thrusts in their direction. I guess without an away crowd to direct aggression towards, the police became the next best target.

One other thing I should mention – Nick is such a fan of the opposing Boca Juniors team that he has a tattoo of their initials going down his (left?) bicep. Now it was a bit of a cold day, so we were wearing long-sleeve shirts and jackets – thus no incriminating skin was exposed. But as we walked the long walk to the stadium amidst this oppressive and intimidating crowd, with Nick believing everyone knew his secret and had a bull’s eye on his back, I began to envision some ridiculous scenarios in which his arm would somehow get caught by a protruding nail on a piece of wood in a nearby trash can, or some other similar sharp object, ripping off his upper layers as he struggled to get free in the process, leaving his torso and thus secret exposed. I decided that in the case of this unlikely but still harrowing scenario, I would not wait a moment’s notice, but just take off running. In what direction it did not matter, as I had no idea where anything was, but just as far from Nick as possible. Twenty years of friendship is great and all, but survival is important as well. Thankfully in the two-kilometer lead up to the stadium, this situation did not come to pass.

Given the lengthy walk to the stadium and our inability to find the VIP and not regular people entrance (meaning we had to back track even further amidst the hooligan crowd, as you couldn’t just enter into the stadium grounds and walk to it from there), we missed out on much of the VIP party. We got there late, but there was a room we were granted entrance to that clearly had had a healthy dose of a fog machine with some confetti. There wasn’t much left – the food was gone, but luckily there was still Freddo’s ice cream available. We got a quick dulce du leche cup, took some photos amongst a trophy, watched a FIFA match on a PlayStation set up, and then exited to try to find our seats as the players entered the stadium.

A foggy VIP room

Freddo’s Ice Cream – check it out, seriously

Upon entering the actual crowd, the atmosphere was electric. I’ve been to a number of Redskins games in my time, but I can say this was genuinely something beyond what we call sports passion in the United States (perhaps it has something to do with the team for which I happen to feel passionately about . . .). Every single person was wearing red and yelling their hearts out – and nothing had even happened yet. There weren’t even any cheerleaders or other crowd pumper uppers – there was just no need for such gimmicks. It was an instant sense of awe that came over me, just by simply walking into the actual stadium grounds. In fact, I’ve basically stopped going to football games back home given the high ticket prices, ubiquitous large screen crystal clear HDTVs, and the hassles of trekking out to FedEx field, but if the atmosphere was anything like this was, I’d be inclined to see the action first hand on a more regular basis.

Pure passion

Of course, even though our section was technically the VIP section and thus less raucous than other sections of the stadium, it was still a rowdy crowd. I looked over and saw in the section next to us someone had basically passed out and 4-5 people were carrying him away, motionlessly. I wasn’t sure what happened – some in the crowd said he was too old to handle it, but the intensity of the game claimed it first victim (and the match hadn’t even really begun).

Another interesting aspect is that no one pays attention to seating assignment. In fact, they actively disavow it. Rather, if you are in your general section, it’s a free for all – something we did not realize. Thus getting there late, right before kickoff (is that a soccer term too? should be), did not put us in an advantageous position as somehow basically all the seats were taken. We saw some guys sitting in our seats as we entered and decided best not to broach the subject in hostile territory. Rather we stood in the aisle at the side, perfect since no one was sitting anyways. We were, however, very close to the field with a great view, to make up for it all.

At halftime, more comfortable in our surroundings, Nick decided to get the guys to move, but to no avail. They said someone had told them to sit there at the beginning when they arrived, even though we clearly showed them where their seats were, a few rows back. It was an odd sort of Argentine stand off, with them clearly recognizing they were not in the seats printed on their ticket, but also clearly expressing no inclination to move. We kind of stood there for at least five minutes going around in the circular sort of argument, as they basically assumed we would eventually give up and leave them alone.

They were right. Nick finally took their tickets in exasperation and gave them ours, and we tried to sit in their seats a few rows back. Of course, those seats were empty, but a family sitting nearby told us they were holding them all for people who would return after halftime. Distraught, someone took pity on us and showed us two seats together in the middle of the last row. We happily took those, until about five minutes after halftime when a larger dude than us came out and said those were his. Opting for the pacifist route, we meekly moved to a different aisle, and watched the second half from there.

As for the game, it was a 1-0 result as I predicted (and have always predicted each and every soccer game will be, with about an 80% lifetime success rate). The home team won – though it was apparently on a late and poorly called penalty shot, requiring Nick to suppress an extreme amount of rage. Luckily though, given that the home team won, no one was shanked. The exiting crowd was in a triumphant mood, and Nick had not been out-ed as an enemy, so we were able to make a departure from the stadium unscathed.

Some actual action!

Nick’s depression over losing the game was heavily outweighed by my jubilation of making it out alive of the perceived enemy’s den, with nary an incident (we did both pretend to be confused foreigners anytime someone commented to us about an assessment of the play, which I suppose was 50% a truth). On the way out we did see a car window smashed to pieces with the insides ransacked – interesting given the 1,700 cops posted around, but I didn’t really like the car anyways, so worked for me.

An inwardly repressed Nick

I can’t say that I appreciate the game of soccer anymore after those 90 minutes of (in)action, but I did enjoy the spectacle of fans so passionately pouring their hearts out over what is ultimately a pointless round of exercise between two groups of young adult males. It is something I can relate to (though my sporting events tend to end in utter despair – so I didn’t quite comprehend the ability to leave a stadium ‘happy,’ as these fans did). The obsessive passion behind sports extends worldwide, but I do have to say the futbol fans here have exceeded anything I have witnessed before. Perhaps it’s a necessity, as the less exiting the game, the more exciting the crowd needs to be to make up for it!

Post script: As a testament to just exactly how insane soccer fans can get in Argentina, the second half of the two-series match for the Copa Libertadores between Boca Juniors and River Plate took place the following Thursday, this time at the Boca stadium. When the River players came back onto the field after halftime, some Boca fans sprayed them with some sort of ‘irritant,’ sending four to the hospital and forcing the match to be suspended (at a 0-0 tie). Imagine the chaos if away fans were actually allowed into the stadium as well – I think Argentina would be in the throes of a civil war by now!

A guest post by one Christine Ribeiro

While we were hiking the “W” in Chile, we met a number of people who had come from Argentina, where we were heading next. In talking to them, it came up that there was one tourist company (Hielo y Adventura) that actually had permits to take you out hiking on the top of Perito Moreno, the most famous glacier in Argentina and one of the largest/most accessible in the world! One couple did it and highly recommended it, while another said it was the one regret of their trip not to do it as they heard such good reviews. It was not in our initial plan and was quite a bit more than we had planned to spend, but ultimately we decided to go for it. Highly recommended and how many opportunities do you have to walk on top of a glacier in life? Probably only 4, so take advantage!

Being the planner I am, I tried to email and reserve a few days ahead, but was told the reservations had to be done at least 10 days in advance or in person. We arrived in El Calafate, the town closest to the glacier, early afternoon. After exploring hostels for the best deal in town, we went straight to the ticket office. We were in luck! They had a few spots open for the next day. After multiple trips back and forth, exchanging money on the black market (official exchange rate is about 8.6 pesos/dollar but you can get up to 13/dollar unofficially), and showing passports, we had our tickets in hand!

The next morning, we were up outside our hostel at 6:58 AM, as the bus was supposed to pick us up at 7AM. The stars were still out shining as sunrise is not until around 8:30AM down here. The bus picked us up and I had us strategically sit on the left side of the bus, per Lonely Planet’s recommendation, and we were off. About half way through the 1.5hr drive to the national park, it started to drizzle. The forecast had said afternoon rain, but it seemed to be getting an early start. As we are driving through the park to get to the glacier viewing point, the first activity of the day, the driver is talking about all the things that we should be seeing our of the left side of the bus, but actually cannot due to the fog and rain. As we get out of the bus, we see a rainbow next to glacier, a hopeful sign that the sun is somewhere around the rain would soon be behind us.

Rainbow of Hope

We had an hour to walk around a network of viewing pathways to see the north and south side of the glacier. The glacier is incredible, close to 11 stories high of pure ice walls, and that is just out of the water, it is close to 30 stories if you count what is underwater as well. It is up to 11km wide and 30km deep. Big enough for the entire city of Buenos Aires to fit on top of it! We look at the glacier from various angles, watching ice fall off the walls into the waters, creating mini icebergs. All the while, the rain is getting harder.

After an hour viewing, we head back to the bus, which drives us over to the pier, where we board a boat to take us next to glacier. What would have been a beautiful boat ride, even for someone who gets seasick looking at boats, was difficult to enjoy as all of the windows were fogged up and it was pouring rain outside. No worries, it can’t rain all day right? And we are going to be walking on this thing soon enough, so we will see it up close. We get off the boat pretty much next to the glacier. I already feel that this trip is going to be worth it as being so close, you really get a sense of the magnitude and beautiful of this hunk of ice.

We have to walk about 1 hour along the side of the glacier before we get the point where we can do our ice trekking. The first 15 minutes are along this nice almost boardwalk like path that ends at a point where the mini-trekking people went out, a shorter version of BIG ice. At this point, our guide says, if anyone would prefer to do mini-trekking due to the weather, let me know now because once we go, there is no turning back. If you are wet and miserable, you will have to continue. This is the part where we should have realized what was in store, but no one budged. We had signed up for BIG ice and we wanted to do it! Come hell or high water.

There is a bridge up there, I swear

We continued on with our hike. While the rain was a constant, my feet were surprisingly dry with my wool socks and waterproof hiking boats. I stepped carefully as we trudged through some muddy areas, now clearly off the manicured path. All the ended when we hit the waterfall. This waterfall was next to the path and there was a little wooden bridge, about 7feet long, to get over the river streaming from the falls. Perhaps on a normal day this bridge works great, but this was not a normal day. Due to the rain, it was running faster than normal and the wind gusts blow the waterfall directly onto the bridge with a gust probably every 5 seconds. Each one of us, as we crossed, was drenched in a shower of waterfall. Goodbye dry socks.

Just when I started to feel down about my socks, the guide stops us and tells us that the rain is coming down so fast, that there is a strong risk of landslides, so we will have to talk 15 feet apart. That way if a boulder falls down, it will likely only kill one of us and not the whole group. Yes that is a direct quote from our guide. I am now wondering what we have gotten ourselves into. We all get across with no issues, but you can see the side of the mountain changing around you, new rivers appearing as the rain accumulates. We finally get to the tent were we get fitted for crampons, but the other group got there first and are all inside, taking their sweet time, so they don’t have to be in the rain. We had to stand out in the rain and wait. Once we are all fitted up, we head to the ice.

Everyone is soaked and, being so close to the glacier, freezing as well. The guide that straps on my crampons has to stop because of the pain in her fingers as they have gone so numb. Once we get on the ice, however, it is like entering another planet. Sand dune like icescapes of various blue tones, deep crevices of water that are so pure blue you look down and can’t tell where they end. We walk around for about 2 hours, visiting various crevices and holes, each more beautiful than the next. At one point, the guides hold on to you as you look over the edge of a waterfall within the glacier. Unfortunately, due to the pouring rain, we don’t want to take our camera out too much for fear of ruining it, so can’t share too many pictures. Trust me, it was amazing.

The BIG ice, a different planet

After two hours of our supposed three hour hike, our guide tells us we have to leave quickly, the rain is coming in too fast and there is a lagoon forming on the side that is not safe for us. Remember that hell or high water, well here it comes. As we walk back on the ice, we see the side of the mountain next to us pouring down. You can tell the guides are worried, they keep telling us to speed up because we need to get out of there. We finally get off the ice and to the point where we move over to mountain. The water has risen, so you just have to step your whole foot into this freezing river to get across. Once across, the guide had us go one at a time to get past the landslides. When my turn came, I was about to go when the guide told me to wait. I stop and look up confused, he points to a spot above me where the rocks albeit small, are just tumbling down the path I am about to head on. I make it across to the other guide who says, “It’s a big adventure, no?” What did we sign up for?

It is not over. Once we past that point, we turn the bend and there is our good friend the waterfall. The water has become even more violent and has flooded the path around the bridge. Multiple guides are lined up along the path to help people across. I get to one spot, where you are standing on a rock in the middle of the rapids, and there is a guide about six feet away with his hand out. He is telling you to walk into these rapids, but is too far away at this point for you to grab. I just jumped to where I had seen other jump and there was a rock that 2 hours ago was above water, but now was just below. The guide grabs my hand and pulls me over to the bridge, where we all once again get a waterfall shower.

Us on the boat!

At this point, I just want to get back, I beeline back. When I finally get to the boardwalk path, I can breath. I am going to make it out ok. What were theses people thinking??? I know they told me they never cancel, but this is ridiculous. They have a fire and coffee waiting that the lodge. I head straight to the fire and try to warm my hands with the rest of the group.

The boat arrives about 10 minutes later and they hand out glasses of whiskey. I don’t usually drink whiskey, but today it goes down easy. We cross the lake, get on the bus, all wet and cold, and head back into town.

Certainly not what I had bargained for when I signed up for BIG ice, but it was an adventure. And, despite all of this, would I recommend it? Hands down. Walking on a glacier was amazing and worth it, just check the weather report before you buy your ticket!

You can’t win them all, especially at the end of the world.

Ushuaia, the southern most city in the world is a pleasant enough place to walk around in itself and marvel at the spectacular setting right on the water surrounded by mountains on three sides, while realizing you are truly at the end of the earth.

At the same time, there is an abundance of wildlife in the area, including penguins and beavers. By the time we arrived in mid-April, many a penguins were heading north to warmer climates for the incoming winter (giving me brief pause as to why we had gone in the opposition direction . . . ) so they were out. That left us just mano y mano with the beavers, nature’s weirdly shaped and furry engineers

Beavers are apparently nocturnal animals, working hard to build their dams at night. They hang out at a spot a little out of town, which also doubles as a hike to a lake in the mountains. Seemed like a nice enough way to spend the afternoon, trying to time our return from the four-hour hike with sunset to catch a glimpse of the beavers in action.

Part of the appeal was that these particular beavers have been prolific in building their dams, and by default destroying the local habitat, as they have no natural predators down in Tierra del Fuego. Whatever the actual environmental implications of such a situation, none of that has stopped it from becoming a fashionable Ushuaia tourist attraction.

We were told it’d be a little bit wet out there, but that was “part of the fun.” After just walking over creeks and streams in Chilean Patagonia with our proudly recently-bought water proof hiking shoes, we were prepared for the possibility for a ‘little mud.’

20 kilometers of hiking in this??

A little bit of mud was a little bit of a understatement. Much of the area was covered in peat bog, making it quite squishy to walk on, kind of like the marshmallow land I used to always dream of. That was the fun part – the other part of the hike was a complete mudfest, the likes of which I had not seen since partaking in South Korea’s annual mud fest (an odd event held in Boryeong every summer). The problem was that a good amount of the mud hid amongst the squishy peat bog, making it difficult to be truly confident on where you were walking – to the point where a two-foot mud hole could be anywhere.

Squishy peat bog

And they were! I was the first us of to become a victim, slipping early on to the point where I nearly lost my shoe in the muddy abyss, with the remaining area between my sock and sole subsequently filled with mud. BUT Christine took the (mud) cake, stepping in a sink hole up to her knee at one point.

C doused in mud!

Cleaning off the mud

At any rate, we made it up to the lake amidst the mountains, which under any other circumstances would’ve been sublime. Unfortunately we were there days removed from the Chilean Patagonia Torres del Paine National Park, and everything in life is relative. Thus a pretty view, but not one we had been lacking in recent days (perhaps we had become a bit spoiled by Patagonia, happens to the best of us).

A pretty scene for sure – we are spoiled

To top it off, we got back to the area where beavers apparently hang out and work, with much evidence of their presence. It was another 20 minutes through the woods back to our pick up point, but unfortunately we had forgotten our headlamp, so couldn’t wait too much after sunset for the fuzzy, wet creatures.

Plus it was freezing cold – it was the end of the world after all. We waited for about 30 minutes, as long as we could until it was getting quite dark, with no signs of any beavers in sight. Perhaps it was national beaver holiday we were unaware of, perhaps they hate trudging to work in mud as much as we do (and took a ‘mud day’, as we should have).

Evidence – beavers were here!

More evidence!

So we froze, doused our in mud as part of an emerging fashion trend that no none-homeless individuals seem to be following us on, and unwittingly did another hike after promising to take it easy for a while – the best part being that we had just paid and arm and leg to get all our laundry done (literally, good thing I always pack some extra limbs when traveling). All that for some dam-builders who were too lazy to even show up. The beavers of Tierra del Fuego may not have any natural predators in the area, but they sure have two unnatural ones now!

Beaver homeland – we will be back . . .