Colo Colo!

This weekend we finally made it to a Chilean Primera Division football match, which deserves a post of its own! We've watched a few matches live on TV at a great fake Irish bar in Bellavista but this is the first time we've made it to a stadium. 

Heather, Alison, and Struan outside Estadio Monumental, the home of Colo Colo!

Like the English Premier League (and most other major football leagues really) the Chilean Primera Division is dominated by a handful of top teams - in this case the big three are Colo Colo, Universidad de Chile, and Universidad Catolica. There's no new big money in Chilean football, but historic results and popularity suggest that these three equate to Liverpool, Manchester United and perhaps Arsenal as the historic "special" clubs in England. 

This weekend saw the final games of this year's Torneo Clausura, Chile (like much of South America) operates a league based on two competitions each year - the Apertura (Opening) roughly running from January to June, and the Clausura (Closing) in the second half of the calendar year. So each "season" has two champions.

Heather and Alison before the game

The previous weekend Universidad Catolica opened up a 3 point gap at the top when they beat Cobreloa 3-2. Colo Colo, neck and neck to that point, dropped points by losing away to O'Higgins, a team from Rancagua. This meant that going into the final weekend's games, anything other than a loss for UC would see them 2010 Clausura champions but a UC loss and Colo Colo win would put them level on points. Oddly, at that point the title is not decided on goal difference, but a "tournament final" would be played the following weekend to decide the champion. 

Anna and Struan before the game

An upset was possible because while Colo Colo were playing the lower mid-table, but mathematically apparently safe, Universidad de Concepcion, UC had Everton - for whom anything but a win would see them relegated to Division B.


Before you think that's a mistake, that is Everton yes, a different one. There are a few teams here which have names reminding us of the historic British influence in Chile that was so evident in Valparaiso (see our previous post). Others include Santiago Wanderers and Santiago Morning.  

In case it's not yet obvious from the pictures, we were at Estadio Monumental, a 47,000 capacity stadium (standing still allowed in parts - before they put seats in the official capacity was about 67,000!), to watch Colo Colo. Colo Colo are the only Chilean team to have won the Copa Libertadores - the South American inter-club championship similar to the Champions League in Europe. The club is named after a famous Mapuche Indian chief who kept the Spanish out of the South of Chile for many years.

On to the game! 

Colo Colo come out of the tunnel

early pressure from Colo Colo

Cristobal Jorquera - creative midfielder and Colo Colo dangerman

The first 20 minutes or so were very balanced, Colo Colo certainly didn't set out to put the game to bed quickly. U. Concepcion played an offensive 4-4-2 with 2 strikers pushing high. Colo Colo however are characterised by an excellent defence, including an awesome goalkeeper (lowest goals against score in the Primera Division this torneo) and tend to play by soaking up pressure and playing on the break with an essentially lone striker.

first goal for Colo Colo

Colo Colo play with virtually no width, but the main man is a midfield general called Cristobal Jorquera, who plays a sort of Cesc Fabregas role of controlling play in the middle and either feeding the striker or having a go himself.

Another point to note is that the game is played at a much slower pace than in the English Premier League. For anyone who knows football this won't come as a surprise as it's an accepted piece of wisdom that in England the game is fast - but we're not talking Italy slow here, it's slower.

Jorquera getting stuck in

Colo Colo went in at half-time 2-0 up, here's what happened when they scored: 

Half-time empanadas, just as bad as half-time pies

intense half-time brooding

And we're off again...

Jorquera without help

Slowly but surely Colo Colo dominate...

the mountains looming over the stadium

another Colo Colo break

skinned!

Another real oddity of Chilean football relates to the problems of being in a country of vast distances. This game was played at 1900 on a sunday night, against a team based in a city which is about a 7 hour drive from Santiago - and by Chilean standards that's not that far! Every other game is like Torquay v Newcastle United in the FA cup, and that has a large effect on the travelling support. Admittedly it was a game in which U. Concepcion stood to gain little, and on a sunday night, but the travelling support was literally a dozen people in a 45,000 capacity stadium. When we say travelling, these people were probably Conce's who now live in Santiago for work or something.

So when U. Concepcion finally got a goal back, and a good one too, the 12 yellow fans went crazy, to absolutely no noticeable effect...

Conce get one back

As you might expect, Estadio Monumental has a sort of "kop" behind one of the goals - an all-standing area where the hard-core fans (the Garra Blanca - "White Claw") cram themselves in. Not the place for gringos to watch football for sure. This pack of fans created an excellent atmosphere and, in true South American style, started to pull out the flares as the second half continued!

the first flare is lit!

the Famous, Glorious White Claw - Colo Colo!

Not long after the flares started to be lit, the police decided to join the fans in the pen, and mayhem ensued. From where we were sitting it's not obvious what happened, but at some point the police decided it was time to whip up some angst and charged the fans. Which led to a huge scrap, and then more flares, this time being thrown.

A group of Carabineros carrying shields marched onto the field at one point while the ref discussed the situation with the players and coaches.

stop throwing stuff

The best though was still to come, with a battery of flares lit, the fireworks came out!

Good work lads! (But glad we were on the other side of the stadium...). The Colo Colo Garra Blanca have some notoriety. One of Struan's students from Rancagua mentioned that at the game the week before against O'Higgins in Rancagua, after losing the match, the Colo Colo travelling fans set fire to the stadium causing millions of pesos of damage (not that bad given the value of the peso chileno)!

sun-setting on the higher snowy mountains

get up son, run it off

Jorquera lines one up

In the end, U. Concepcion managed to pull another goal back and the game finished 4-2 Colo Colo. Not good enough however, as meanwhile Universidad Catolica had thumped Everton 5-0 making UC the torneo championes and relegating Everton.

Part of the fun was certainly the journey back to the centre of Santiago. There are weekend strikes on the Metro at the moment so we had to take a bus. Having seen the buses on matchdays we had hoped to avoid that - the football fans pack the buses, completely taking them over, wrench open the doors and hang out while its moving, singing and banging on the outside of the bus.

We managed to get on a bus that wasn't too packed. We were the only people who flashed our Bip cards to pay, everyone else just jumped the barrier on the bus. The guys at the back then proceeded to take the bus apart, ripping the pneumatic cables out of the door mechanism so their singing was accompanied by compressed air escaping. Struan had a guy pleasantly chatting with him, while nonchalantly wrapping a chain around his knuckles... 

As we reached Plaza Italia (our stop, but also the spot for celebrations in Santiago - see our previous post about the 33 Miners) the tension on the bus suddenly rose and a group of fans surged for the door as the bus stopped. Outside, the Plaza was packed with Universidad Catolica fans celebrating - so the Colo Colo fans were going for them. As they got off they were met by riot police in full gear - it was all over in seconds, some of them were grabbed and the rest ran in the opposite direction. Then we got off the bus, glad not to have been caught wearing the wrong shirt. 

Carabineros ready for a ruck

A great day, and we await the 2011 Apertura with anticipation!

Santiago Randoms 2 - green Santiago and duendes

It's been a while since we've posted and we think this is a sure sign that we've settled into Santiago - that and the fact that we've not taken any significant trips recently as we're saving ourselves for summer, when we'll be off travelling for about 10 weeks!

So here's some more comments, photos, observations etc from Santiago - Santiago Randoms.

First a bit on food:

Ready meals mercado stylee

We've mentioned previously that it's great to have the time and the facility to buy food straight from a farmers market.  Feria La Vega is huge with a massive selection of fresh fruit and veg, and other things like herbs, spices, meat, pickles etc. Some stalls sell veg pre-prepared - still completely fresh, as you can see the old ladies sitting behind the stalls, shelling beans, peeling chopping etc - like in the photo above: washed butterbeans and broad beans with chopped onion and a little parsley. You can throw this straight into a pan.

Our stocked up fruit bowl, all familiar but see the stripy custard apples in the bottom

We've also found a little shop that sells amazing fresh pasta, and it comes wrapped in brown paper, everything should come like this, or at least in a nice brown paper bag:

There are various fruits here which aren't really seen in the UK, a couple of examples:

chirimoya

We can't remember what these little orange things are called. They're about the size of small tangerines, but with a smooth skin a bit like a berry's skin, and taste very sweet. There's a shiny black stone in the middle. We'll post again when we find out what they're called.

But it's not all fruit and veg, we previously praised the barros luco, a lovely chilean meat and cheese sandwich, we've recently found a peruvian sandwich bar:

Anna with a chicken sandwich peru style

Up close, and in the top left a corner of the other one a suckling pig filled extravaganza

This is grilled chicken, onions, lettuce, tomato, lovely creamy but slightly spicy sauces typical of peruvian dishes, and... chips. Yum. The other one we had was essentially the same but with suckling pig instead of chicken. Sooo good.

While we're on the subject, here's another awesome regular favourite: baked ricotta cheesecake, with raspberry sauce and a chocolate biscuit base...

Now some pics of the city. Over the last couple of weeks the weather has been fairly stable, reliably reaching or coming close to 30 degrees, bright sunshine, and a breeze - pretty much perfect. In the first half of November it was still very changeable. The sky is almost always fascinating to watch, and although the mountains are generally snow free now, there are still occasional overnight snow dumps. Here's a few pics from the last couple of weeks:

brooding

snowy mountains

cool clouds

Now for something a little different. Chile is a fast developing nation that has gone from being under military dictatorship to the first South American country to elect a female head of state, in a fairly short time. Chile however remains a strongly Catholic and relatively traditional country. There are many ways we could discuss those statements, but one fun way is attitudes to sex. .

One of the things that struck us when we first arrived was the amount of couples snogging ("making out" as our American friends might say, or maybe that's just what they say on Dawson's Creek) in the street, in parks, or in metro stations etc. Then we heard about "motels". These aren't Travelodge style hotels placed on strategic roundabouts for salesmen to sleep in, but are distinct from hotels in that the rooms in motels are available by the hour... There's one near our apartment, pictured here:  

In the photo immediately above you can just see a picture on the wall above the neon light. This shows a bed with the sheets pulled up to reveal what we think is a plastic mattress cover. It's a selling point that all bedding is washed and all extraneous fluids wiped from the mattress...

These places are a bit of an unrecognised Chilean institution, in fact one of the main characters in Isabel Allende's House of Spirits runs one: 


"[Transito Soto] had realised that what was really needed was a hotel for rendezvous, a pleasant place where secret couples could make love and where a man would not be embarrassed to bring a girl for the first time. No women: those were furnished by the customer... [she had created] a different atmosphere in every available corner, the Hotel Christopher Columbus had become the paradise of lost souls and furtive lovers... [she] had made French sitting rooms with quilted furniture, mangers with fresh hay and papier-mache horses... prehistoric caves with real stalactites, and telephones covered with the skins of pumas." 

It's incorrect to see these places as brothels, and they seem to be used as much by legitimate couples as philanderers. The reasoning is simple, for social and religious (and perhaps financial) reasons many Chileans cannot live as couples until they are married. This is true of some of our students who have children together but remain at home with their respective parents. There is also undoubtedly in some sections of Chilean society a conventional "not under my roof" culture. Hence some unintended consequences of relatively strict social conservatism in some parts of society: public snogging and hotel rooms available by the hour.

The motel near our apartment seems to be a bit of a down-market affair, for an example of something more lavish, more like Transito Soto's offering, click here. See the list of rooms (habitaciones link) - Viking, Buddhist, Roman themes all available. Quite why they chose the sort of overall fairy, goblin etc theme we don't know - the name of the place is Hotel El Duende and you can't miss the picture of the garden gnome emerging from the pond on the home page. Duende is spanish for gnome or goblin - which we actually learnt a while ago watching Harry Potter in the cinema here!

Speaking of Goblins, Elves and Gnomes, recently we were down near Estacion Central (the only train station in Santiago that still actually runs trains) and saw our first Christmas Tree of the season.

Gorgeous

Duendes at work, making pressies for you

That's better - the roof of Estacion Central was cast in, and shipped from, France in 1896

The tree wasn't the only spectacle available though, we were also treated to an unexpected bout of wrestling, Chilean style:

Grrr

Hear me ROAR

After all that excitement, some pics of how green Santiago has become now that summer is here. There is an army of city employees whose sole purpose is to water the parks, lawns and trees in the city - combined with the incredible sun that's made Santiago really beautiful. We are loving just being able to wander and relax in the sun. So some pics from the park near our apartment:

an impromptu guitar, singing and bongo drum get together

Incidentally, as it's snowing in the UK, this picture is topical - it's an old photo that's in the Museo Bellas Artes showing Parque Forestal in a very unusual year when Santiago itself was covered in snow:

Snow in Parque Forestal

In this same park, the National Youth Orchestra of Chile staged a free concert one night this week. We're really lucky with where we live, as we just stumbled on this while having a walk one night.

While we're doing green Santiago, here's some pics from a while ago that we've just rediscovered - from Cerro Santa Lucia. This is a hill park near our apartment that we have mentioned previously, but don't think we've posted these photos:

Cerro San Cristobal from Cerro Santa Lucia

Museo Bellas Artes from Cerro Santa Lucia

nice dog on the comfy grass

Here's Museo Bellas Artes from our apartment roof terrace, with the massed trees of Parque Forestal behind:

Another picture from our roof terrace, in the opposite direction.

The low red building with three arches is Estacion Mapocho, another of Santiago's train stations from where the now defunct Santiago-Valparaiso train used to run. Estacion Mapocho is now used as a large cultural space and is apparently a fantastic building up close. We plan to investigate soon. Also check out the fab cloud formations in this pic.

Here's another one to finish with. Same direction but a different day, so you can also see clearly Cerro Blanco (White Hill).

Chao!