GOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAALLL!!!!!! FUTBOL!!! GO BOCA!!!! I went to La Bombonera and watched the famous Boca Juniors team play Gimnasia (a lousy team.) But it was BOCA! In their home stadium! In Argentina that is the equivalent of watching the New York Yankees play in Yankee Stadium - it doesn't get any better than that in terms of tradition, rowdy fans, and continued attitude of superiority to anyone else. Boca is the team where Argentine soccer great and national treasure Diego Maradona got his start. They are his home team. The quality of play by Boca was definitely superior to Gimnasia. They beat them 4-0. I got to see Boca's current star, Martin Palermo and one of the good defenders, Hugo Ibarra (for all you futbol fans). La Bombonera is a great little intimate stadium seating 65,000 fans (although for this game it was not full, even though we had been told it was sold out.) But the fans did rock and roll the stadium. They chanted and sang almost the whole game and they really made the stadium shake (literally shake) when Boca went on their goal scoring spree in the second half. It was truly an exciting experience.
One other plus was I got to see the ocean! We sat near the top of the stadium and could see the port cranes above the city and beyond that the ocean and ocean horizon. It actually made my heart warm. I had not seen the ocean for over 10 days (since leaving Miami) and I had not realized until that moment how much I have become a beach bum. Evidently 23 years in Florida has done that. I never expected that growing up in St. Louis and I can remember sitting on the South Carolina beach watching the waves when I was in Seminary and thinking to myself this was really nice, but I really preferred the mountains for beauty and inspiration. The mountains as still nice, but obviously I have too much sand between my toes and I have to smell and feel the salt air and see the sun reflecting off the turquoise water to really have my soul nourished. On one of the sunny days this week (I hope we have some) I have to go down to the Port and get a closer view of the water.
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