I am a Bandwagon Soccer Fan

Back in October we had the opportunity to go to a professional futbol game here Tegucigalpa. Los Angeles Galaxy was playing Honduras’ own Motagua. I think we had 34 volunteers who went plus some local friends, and not to mention our safety and security director JC, who went to a lot of trouble to obtain our tickets and rent us a little busito for transport. Also: Major thanks to Emily W. for coordinating with JC to make it happen!

Tickets were originally set to sell at 250 lempira (about $13 US) per person. But since this is Honduras and nothing ever makes sense ever, the tickets didn’t go on sale until the day of the game. And you could only buy them at the stadium. BUT THEN when they finally did go on sale, scalpers immedietly bought out ALL the tickets in the good sections and jacked the prices up so JC had to haggle with them to buy our block of tickets. (Scalping is not illegal here btw. Go fig). We paid more than we should have, but at least we got in the door…

Despite any preconceived notions you might have about Latin American soccer fans being rowdy fanatics that incite alcohol-induced brawls, this game was relatively calm. Or at least it seemed so from where we were seated. In fact, our group of gringos was probably the most obnoxious of all the fans in our section. Could be because it was common knowledge that Honduras had already missed their chance at the playoffs so it wasn’t a particularly important game for Motagua. Plus this wasn’t a huge rivalry or anything.

I think most people, both Honduran and otherwise, showed up just to see David Beckham play. I’m not ordinarily a huge futbol fan, but seeing Beckham live was quite a thrill. He is after all, the hottest underwear model that ever lived. Oh and twice runner-up of FIFA World Player of the Year blah blah blah… But seriously:

Swoon

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Unfortunately I forgot to bring my glasses to the game, so the entire night everything looked like this:

But from what I gathered Beckham played a great game, assisting the only goal scored (yawn) that led to a 1-0 Galaxy victory over Motagua.

I am reluctant to admit that the game was a little blurry for another reason. There were these kids (and I do mean kids) that would walk through the stadium rows taking orders for beer and food and shots and would then bring them right to your seats! Que facil! I have a feeling they charged a little extra for this service, but since I never once had to make my way to the concession line, I really couldn’t say. It’s very convenient. There were two boys that were cousins and very adorable I might add, who hung around our section and kept bringing us whatever we wanted all night long. I got a pic with them on the way out:

Lots of cameras and photographers came our way as well, and I’m pretty sure my friend Emily got interviewed on camera for some news station. The next day I watched the game on ESPN to see if there were any shots of us in the crowds but I didn’t see any…their loss.

I simply cannot imagine why they wouldn’t want to put us on t.v.

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One of the highlights of the evening was taking a shot with our Safety and Security Officer, JC.  First let me say that a few weeks ago, Peace Corps Honduras said a tearful goodbye to JC. He has decided to take another job and he will be truly, truly missed. JC has been the only staff member that we love to have around but wished we didn’t need. The few times I had what they call “security incidents” JC was there for us and handled everything swiftly and with professionalism and empathy.

His job was not an easy one, Lord knows I would never want it. Lately Honduras has just been a minefield of problems as far as crime goes. Yet JC spent every waking moment trying to keep us safe, advise us of what not to do, where not to go, and then he helped pick up the pieces when bad things happened anyway. Even though sometimes we resented his over-bearing better-safe-than-sorry attitude, it was always for our own protection. I feel bad for whoever is next in line for the S&S position. Because that poor schmuck has some seriously large shoes to fill.

So anyway, the evening of the futbol game I had the pleasure of doing a round of shots with JC. They weren’t ordinary shots mind you. That wouldn’t be in JC’s professional nature to be throwing back tequila with volunteers while on the job. Rather, we had some turtle egg shooters. Seriously. Turtle eggs.  I’ve heard about these being served other places in Honduras as rare delicacies or bar gimmicks. At the stadium there was a man walking through the rows selling them, three for 100 lempira (about $5US). Who could pass that up??

If you can imagine what a golf ball-sized booger tastes like, then you know the flavor of an uncooked turtle’s egg. They came floating in a juice of soy sauce and some other unidentifiable seasonings, all three in the same cup I might add. Salty, slimy, chewy, mysterious. I made the mistake of biting down on mine which was disgusting. Apparently the trick is to throw it back like, well, a shot. But now it’s one of those things that I can say I’ve tried. And not vomited afterward. Score!

For the rest of the weekend my friends were calling me out for supporting an industry that’s killing the turtle population. I still feel really bad about it too. Horrible actually. So I’ve vowed to pick up garbage in my site and then donate to a sea turtle relief fund just to clear my conscience.

Some better pictures of the game (click to enlarge):

#10 Landon Donovan – lead scorer 

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#23 David Beckham – lead hottie 

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Here’s an article from ESPN about the warm and enthusiastic reception that LA Galaxy received while in Honduras.

Hasta la proxima vez,

-Sarita