Frosted Flakes: Hiking in a Dry Desert, Colombia Football and a Missing Airplane

Colombia really, really loves football!

Colombia played a football (soccer) match last night. It was a Copa America group stage match against Qatar (an invited guest to the tournament). I’ve quickly learned since arriving here that Colombians take the beautiful game very seriously. The trend is the same throughout South America. Football is a religion in this part of the world and unlike anything you will see in North America, Europe or anywhere else (except cricket on the India subcontinent). Every place with a television (street corner, bar, hotel, museum, food stand, public square) is packed with people from all walks of life glued to the screen watching the action unfold. It’s fair to say Colombia stops when their team is playing.

I managed a find a seat in a tiny but packed bar in Bogota just after kickoff. More people began to slowly file in until there was barely space for anyone to move. A group of well-dressed lawyers grabbed some extra seats and plopped them down next to the tiny table where I was sitting. We ended up bonding during the match of football. I showed them pictures of the matches I attended at the World Cup in Russia last summer and they displayed wonderful Colombian hospitality by sliding an ice-cold beer to me every time a new round was brought to the table. It’s fair to say I was pretty tipsy by the end of the match. Colombia finally did manage to break through the Qatari defensive wall in the 86th minute with a powerful header which turned out to be the game winner.

Their next match is Sunday afternoon against Paraguay. You can bet I will be watching the match in another spot packed with locals to cheer on Colombia and soak in the wonderful atmosphere. Football unifies us all.