Las Panteras Rugby

SATURDAY 02/27/10

After cleaning the house a bit and relaxing, the day was much too gorgeous to stay inside.  I went to wander and take pictures of the neighborhood…but my hunger got the better of me.  I stopped in a Uruguayan steakhouse that was filled with families out for their Saturday lunch.  The meal itself wasn’t anything fabulous, but it was nice to be amongst the community.  The afternoon was just perfect – a warm breeze, birds chirping, and the streets calm. 

(church down the street from me)

(a house that I like)

(the graffiti that helps me to know which door is ours)

Tara (Vanessa’s friend who’s lived here for a year) and I headed to Flores to see Vanessa, Aurore and Natalia play rugby.  The club is located just outside of a “villa miseria,” which is essentially a ghetto for impoverished people.  They’re all over the city, mainly inhabited by immigrants or interior migrants who move to the city from rural parts of the country.  In the city of Buenos Aires, there are 21 villas with a population totaling around 167,500 people.

(for pictures of the villas, see http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_miseria)

So, the rugby club is located on the border of one of these villas, but it’s one of the best fields that they’ve played on in the city, oddly enough.  The game was great to watch!  I had never seen rugby played live, and it’s quite exhilarating!  There are some characters on the team that the girls have spoken of, and it was entertaining to see them in person – there’s Melli (pronounced Meshi) who’s a large woman and has a very gruff voice – she was heckling the audience and just a blast!

Then there’s Paula – a former professional boxer who started playing rugby recently and has whipped the girls into shape – primarily working on the arm strength.  (I have to admit, when I first arrived, I saw this pretty good looking guy, and thought he was the coach – a bit too feminine of features for my taste, though…and then I realized it was “La Paula.”)

(Paula's in the blue shirt)

(Tara and I - the good spectators!)

(gotta love the coach smoking on the field)

After the game was finished, there’s “Tercer tiempo” – which is the “3rd period” where the home team provides food, drink & entertainment for the away team.  So, we all gathered in the clubhouse and had some pizza, beer, fernet and danced to cumbia and reggaeton…hasta la madrugada (early morning).

(dancing to Moulin Rouge - their theme song from their last away game in Mar de Plata)

(Quilmes - "Argentina's favorite beer" - as it states in English on the can)

After everyone had left, it was just us 5 girls, our friend, Matias, and the 2 coaches…most of which gave up on the partying and pooped out on the second-hand leather chairs that surrounded the room.

We finally decided to head home, but as taxis don’t come into the villa late at night, one of the coaches chauffeured us to the main avenue in his “ambulance” (actually just a van that transports medical supplies).