Vamos Pincharratas!

I really have been slacking in my blogging, but last week was so crazy I'm amazed I made it through with my sanity in place. We spent two afternoons in Buenos Aires attempting to complete paperwork needed to obtain our work visas here in Argentina. Not to go into a whole long story, but we had to get a notarized letter from the US Embassy here in Argentina stating that we are who we say we are and then another letter from the Argentina government saying we haven't broken any laws while here in Argentina (that they KNOW of anyway :-)

But the most exciting & slightly exhausting thing that happened this week was that our local futbol team Estudiantes La Plata WON THE COPA DE LIBERTADORES which is the South American equivalent of the Super Bowl. There are tons of reasons why this is a huge deal, home town team, beat their Brazilian rivals, it's been 29 years since the team won the Copa. But most compelling to me is mid-fielder Juan Sebastian Veron their team captain. Veron's father was the captain of Estudiantes 29 years ago when the won 3 consecutive Copa's, the younger Veron had opportunities to play in Europe & the US for millions of dollars, but 3 years ago La Brujita (his nickname "the witch" is an homage to his Dad's nickname of La Bruja)chose to return home to La Plata and fulfill his childhood dream of returning Estudiantes back to the pinacle of South American soccer and winning the Copa. As you can see - he is not too hard on the eyes either.

Needless to say - after the win on Wed night the city erupted in celebration with 10's of thousands gathered at the traditional celebration place at the intersection of Calle 50 & 7. Drew & I live at Calle 38 & 13 but we had to join in the fun - a party 29 years in the making shouldn't be missed. So off we headed at midnight to the street - joining all the other Pinchas (what Estudiantes fans are called) towards all the singing, cheering, screaming, laughing & crying that was the celebration.

I don't think we will ever forget that night. So much fun! Viva la Pincha Mistica!