Life in Argentina: Boca vs. River

It's late and I'm exhausted, but I have to write this all down while it's embedded in my memory because the Boca vs. River fútbol game was the most epic and insane sporting event that I have ever been to in my entire life.

*A little background on the two teams: Boca Junior and River Plate are the biggest rivalry teams in all of Argentina. When they play each other, the game is called the Superclásico and it's unreal. "The Observer newspaper said it's the number one sporting event that anyone should place on their sporting 'bucket list'" (bocariver.net). The rivalry is so intense that the Boca fans had to enter the River stadium before any of the River fans, and they were in their own little section with police and barbed wire fences. People have died at these games.

Now for the crazy details: (Bear with me because there's a lot to tell.)
   A group of about 20 of us walked the couple miles to the stadium not really knowing what to expect. Rafa had told us not to bring any cameras and to not wear any Boca colors (blue and yellow) because we would more than likely be punched in the face. So we finally get to the stadium and it's PACKED. They had police (I would guess there were about 500 officers there in the whole stadium, but that may be an exaggeration) lined up pretty far away from the actual stadium and we all had to be patted down. We went through about 2 other security stations before actually being able to walk up to the top of the stadium where we would watch the game. After finally walking up the stairs to the top of the stadium, we all had assumed that there was assigned seating and that our whole group would be together. We soon realized that it was general admission and we had to squeeze our way in to find a place to stand. At first, we tried to move so we could find a place with more spots, but there was a massive crowd of people singing and jumping all around, so we had no way of moving. We all ended up splitting up, but a handful of us got some really great seats.
   We stand in our spots and not only is it very crowded, but everyone starts throwing stacks of newspaper. We obviously had no idea what it was for until these guys in front of us start ripping all the paper into little pieces and putting them in stacks. They hand us a few and we catch some that were soaring in the air, and start doing the same. Then what we thought was the Boca and River players, but was really just a warm up team, came on the field and played a really short game. The crowd was still pretty rowdy but not enough to really be the epic game that we had all heard about. After about 10 minutes of them playing, we realized that they weren't actually the real teams and we got nervous about how the crowd was going to react when the real game happened.
   The Boca team comes out and the crowd goes wild. Every single person around us was screaming cuss words and yelling at the team and their fans. When the River team came out, that's when we started throwing the newspaper. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. Bits of newspaper were flying EVERYWHERE and then the fireworks started. Not professional ones, mind you. The kind that fans bring and blow up themselves. Imagine billions of pieces of paper and hundreds of fireworks filling the sky. That's right. We couldn't see a thing. The air was completely filled and we couldn't see the sky or the field in front of us. Then this MASSIVE flag thing comes over our heads and covers our entire section of the stadium. We have no idea what it said on the outside but we stayed under that flag for a good 5 minutes, just cheering along with everyone else.
   The game started and we (River) didn't score until the second half. But when we scored, the crowd went absolutely insane. People were jumping, screaming, crying, you name it! We threw even more newspaper! Less than 5 minutes after the goal, the Boca fans start throwing fireworks (the flare type ones) at the River fans below them. They would catch on fire and all the people would stomp them out before it spread. This went on for a good 15 to 20 minutes and as far as I know, no one caught on fire. The huge flag came down again and this time, the guy standing next to my friend Taylor (who was standing in front of me) decided to roll up and light a joint. Me, being the naive drug expert that I am, was so confused as to what that horrible smell was and when Taylor told me the guy was smoking pot, I thought to myself, "Is that even allowed?" It's a Boca v. River game. Anything goes. It's a miracle we all didn't leave high because I swear I practically inhaled that joint myself.
   The game starts coming to an end and when the final whistle blew, the crown went crazy, of course. We had to wait about half an hour or so before we could leave the stadium because the Boca fans had to be let out first, to avoid riots. It was madness trying to get out of that stadium, but we finally did and had to walk on the side of a freeway, through 2 sketchy parks, until we finally found our way back to the Casa. On the way back, my friend Bridget and I were talking about how weird it was that we weren't hit on or touched once while we were at the game. Taylor then told us that at River stadium, there's this unspoken "no touch"rule where no man is allowed to harass a woman (not that there were very many women there). It's funny how safe we felt at such a crazy event where people have actually died.

   I'm sure I didn't even do a half decent job describing this experience because my mind is still blown. Even though I was skeptical about paying 290 pesos (around $70) for a game that I didn't know much about, it was SO worth it and was something I will never forget.

Pictures I stole from Uri Hong (you da best, girl).