{"id":17039,"date":"2014-12-04T07:59:43","date_gmt":"2014-12-04T12:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/?p=17039"},"modified":"2016-03-18T07:34:40","modified_gmt":"2016-03-18T12:34:40","slug":"tejo-in-colombia-with-my-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2014\/12\/tejo-in-colombia-with-my-parents\/","title":{"rendered":"Tejo in Colombia with my parents!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tejo is one of those things that nobody really believes in outside of Colombia:<\/strong> try telling people that the national sport of the country you live in involves chucking metal lumps at gunpowder whilst getting slowly (and often compulsorily) drunk, and <strong>they often won&#8217;t believe you, or at least assume you&#8217;re exaggerating.<\/strong> The game receives a fairly cursory mention in the Lonely Planet guides, and even then <strong>the amazingness of a tejo experience is heavily understated<\/strong>. The assumption is generally that the explosions that you have so obsessively described over Skype are more like little firecracker pops; the kind of thing you might not let a toddler play with, but really no more dramatic than that.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17044\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17044\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2014\/12\/tejo-in-colombia-with-my-parents\/attachment\/112\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17044\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17044\" src=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/112.jpg\" alt=\"Tejo Colombia\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/112.jpg 800w, https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/112-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17044\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">That&#8217;s got &#8216;mecha&#8217; written all over it!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So it was with great pleasure that <strong>I took my parents to play their first ever game of tejo in a traditional\u00a0<em>cancha\u00a0<\/em>in Salento<\/strong> earlier this week: the chance to demonstrate my not inconsiderable skill notwithstanding, it was exciting to be able to <strong>show them the national sport of my adopted homeland.<\/strong> They approached the experience with some trepidation, and a few little jumps at the loud explosions coming from adjacent lanes, but<strong> with an open mind, ready to have some fun.<\/strong> The rules were explained clearly (and in English) by Juan, the very friendly owner of the\u00a0<em>cancha,\u00a0<\/em>and <strong>three excited Colombian kids jumped in and offered to play us 3 on 3; England vs. Colombia<\/strong>. Even though their combined age wouldn&#8217;t have topped my 26 years, I was still anticipating a beating; I mean, <strong>my parents were brand new to all this, and surely wouldn&#8217;t be any good, right?!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Wrong! <strong>My Mum in particular took to tejo like a duck to water<\/strong>; she was consistently hitting the clay, and seemed to be always inches away from making a\u00a0<em>mecha<\/em>. My Dad started a little slower, but once he got his eye in he was the same; my aforementioned skills kept us in the game for the first round, and we lost 21-20 <strong>(thanks to some fairly creative score-keeping from our young charges).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17045\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17045\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2014\/12\/tejo-in-colombia-with-my-parents\/attachment\/127\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17045\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17045\" src=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/127.jpg\" alt=\"Tejo Colombia\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/127.jpg 800w, https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/127-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17045\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Posing with the 9 pointer!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>However, <strong>as the beers flowed, and the gunpowder smell filled our nostrils<\/strong>, the game began to turn in our favor.\u00a0<em>Mechas\u00a0<\/em>came from both parents, and my Mum even managed an elusive 9-pointer! <strong>We claimed the second game by a dominant score of 21-10<\/strong>, and rolled through our (tiny) opposition by 8 points in the final round to claim a 2-1 victory. Palms were slapped, fives were highed, and all I could hear the kids whispering was: <strong>&#8220;Man, that lady can\u00a0<em>play<\/em>!&#8221; Needless to say, my Mum was pretty chuffed with that!<\/strong> She&#8217;ll be dining out on it for years!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17046\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17046\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2014\/12\/tejo-in-colombia-with-my-parents\/attachment\/124\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17046\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17046\" src=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/124.jpg\" alt=\"Tejo Colombia\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/124.jpg 800w, https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/124-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17046\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">So close&#8230;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I love a good game of tejo in any circumstance, but, I have to say that <strong>playing with my parents was about as fun a way of experiencing the Colombian national sport than any other<\/strong>. And what is even more impressive is how good they were; most of my friends over here (Colombian or\u00a0<em>extranjeros<\/em>) couldn&#8217;t muster such a good performance now,<strong> let alone on their first time!<\/strong> So, for anyone planning a trip to Colombia with their family, don&#8217;t forget to enjoy a game of tejo; <strong>it&#8217;s a great chance for them to spend some time in a different, less touristic atmosphere<\/strong>, and have a lot of fun at the same time&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Practical Guide:<\/strong> We played our game of tejo at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tripadvisor.co.uk\/Restaurant_Review-g1580963-d6715675-Reviews-Los_Amigos-Salento_Quindio_Department.html\" target=\"_blank\">Cancha de Tejo Los Amigos<\/a> in Salento (Cra. 4A #3-32). It&#8217;s a really traditional old tejo\u00a0<em>cancha\u00a0<\/em>in a beautiful town, with friendly owners, and good English spoken (by some).<strong> Highly recommended&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Chris<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Tejo is one of those things that nobody really believes in outside of Colombia: try telling people that the national sport of the country you live in involves chucking metal lumps at gunpowder whilst getting slowly (and often compulsorily) drunk, and they often won&#8217;t believe you, or at least assume you&#8217;re exaggerating. The game [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":17048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[33,115,4,2362,66,24,1],"tags":[2735,2885,2866,2878,2863],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.4 (Yoast SEO v18.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Tejo in Colombia with my parents! - Colombia Travel Blog by See Colombia Travel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2014\/12\/tejo-in-colombia-with-my-parents\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tejo in Colombia with my parents!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; Tejo is one of those things that nobody really believes in outside of Colombia: try telling people that the national sport of the country you live in involves chucking metal lumps at gunpowder whilst getting slowly (and often compulsorily) drunk, and they often won&#8217;t believe you, or at least assume you&#8217;re exaggerating. 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