Sports Day ~ Part 2 ~ Santiago Wanderers Fútbol

January 11, 2015

Club de Deportes Santiago Wanderers S.A.D.P., is a Chilean fútbol club based in Valparaíso. Founded on 15 August 1892, Wanderers is Chile's oldest football club, Primera División. Their home games are played at the Estadio Elías Figueroa (23,000 seats).

We caught wind of a game on Sunday evening so we delayed our trip to Santiago by a day to catch some of the excitement, just a short distance away. We invited Nick, a British traveller staying in the same airbnb to join us, so off went the three of us by micro bus (easy to spot which bus to catch, just hail the one crammed with green and white shirts).

We arrived at the stadium, lined up for tickets, and when we asked regarding seats and cost, I was told there were side seats and end seats. We chose side for better view of the game, also at a cost of a buck more, but soon realised, the real party was in the end zone (where we would have gotten more bang for our buck, literally).

We had expected a full house for the home game but were somewhat disappointed at the under half-filled stadium. Security is tight, no booze brought in or sold on site and no lighters or matches. As I was grilled over whether my lipstick was an incendiary device, there were people lighting up smokes all over the joint at the half, not to mention the flares and firecrackers being enjoyed by all in the end zone! I had also mused about no toilet paper in the washrooms but the mystery was solved after the first whistle to start the game and the festivities cranked up at the fun end where toilet paper in flight went careening into the crowd.

At the half we moved as close as we could to the party zone, and heard many of the same songs previously belted ot by the U de Chile fans last week.

The game itself was uneventful as the home team lost 1- 0, but the rest of the evening was entertaining. From the 'human coffee machine', vendor with scalding coffee pot strapped to his chest, to the dogs chasing each other in the stands, who didn't pay or get frisked for fire by the way, to the absolutely sardined-in post-partyers in returning buses, even the guy sitting in the bus' back stairwell, open door, blowing his horn as the bus squealed out of sight.