Monday, March 19, 2012

Tejo: A Colombian Sport


View from our home for the weekend. So peaceful.
Just returned from a long weekend in Moniquirá.  A small town in the departamento (like a state) of Boyacá but bordering the departamento of Santander.   Juan Carlos' friend Freddy invited us to drive up with him and stay with his family for the weekend.  So nice to have the invite and to get away - great food, plenty of time to sleep and relax, I read an entire book (Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children per Katie Norwood's recommendation) and I learned to play Tejo!!!

What, you might ask, is Tejo?  Tejo is a truly Colombia game (only second to soccer in popularity!) that I wish everyone had the chance to play.  It's kind of like horsehoes but with explosives! ...literally, explosives.  To play, first, you buy beer.  You don't have to pay for the canchas (courts, I guess is the best translation) or the time but you have to buy beer.  Funny rules these Colombians have, but this is a rule that I can live with.  (Also, this might just have been at the location we were playing...my guess is that in the big city of Bogotá they require you to buy beer AND to pay to play).  Anyhow, you get a tejo.  This is a round, flat disk (about an inch and a half thick) that weighs about 2 pounds.  This is what you throw at the target.  The target is a wooden box on an incline and the surface is covered with clay.  In the center, you place 4 mechas little paper rectangles filled with gunpowder (I think) or some sort of explosive material around the bocin - a metal circle.  The teams take turns to throw their tejos from 18 meters away (about 60 feet).  The person with the tejo that lands on the board closest to the bocin earns a mano for their team.  You can also earn 3 points by hitting a mecha.  You know when you've hit a mecha because the friction between the tejo, mecha (filled with gunpowder) and the metal bocin causes an explosion!  It's so fun!  But very difficult...I hit a mecha once and was SO excited!b

Here's a perhaps better description of the game by Wikipedia followed by pictures of my first Tejo experience.
The Tejo court and my target.
These are the mechas that are full of gunpowder.
 Action shots...I actually improved quite a bit...
...despite the fact that I look like I'm involved in some sort of interpretive dance!

2 comments:

  1. Ahaha you do look like you're doing an interpretive dance. But seriously, I can picture you getting so into this. Looks fun!

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  2. Wow! What an interesting game. (You do look like you're doing an interpretive dance! Ha ha!) I would have never thought of it. Seems cool and scary and safe and surprising. Thanks for the cultural lesson.

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