August 5, 2018 (James)

Last night, we set our alarm for 9:00 a.m., but this morning when it started going off none of us wanted to get up. I was the first to rise and opened the window. John and Ryan immediately hid under their pillows. After a rough morning, we were finally on our way out of the hotel. Each of us grabbed a Clif bar and got on the bus. Because of our slow start, we might be a little behind. The bus ride to the futbal stadium, La Bombonera, was a little under an hour, so we had a lot of time on the bus. For most of the time on the bus, we looked at the sights of Buenos Aires. This was the last day we would be here, so we were taking it all in. Halfway through the ride, I found an article about the stadium and what we could expect on the tour. La Bombonera was home of the Boca Juniors. The soccer club La Boca was founded by a handful of younger boys in 1905, hence the name Juniors. Since then the club has grown and is one of the most famous in Argentina. We will get the chance to walk on the field, and we will have a tour guide. We got off the bus next to the stadium. Our tour was at 10:45 a.m. and we got off the bus at 10:43 a.m.

We only had to minutes to find the tour guide. We ran around the stadium and finally Ryan shouted , "I FOUND THEM." You could hear John's sigh of relief. The tour group was just walking into the stadium. We met up with them and already heard the tour guide talking. He was explaining how the stadium's unusual shape made sound much louder. When he saw us running in late the tour guide stopped the group. He said, "You guys arrived just in time." He said his name was Walter and welcomed us to the tour. He resumed talking about the stadium and what we would be seeing on the tour. (Sports) The first thing we saw when we walked in the entrance of the stadium was a poster that said, "La Doce." Walter explained that this is what the fans called themselves. In English that means twelfth man. John leaned over and asked, "what does that mean?" I told him they called

themselves that because there are 11 players on the field and the fans call themselves the twelfth man because of how crazy they are and the impact they have on the game by cheering. Just as I was done saying that, Walter said that the Boca Juniors have 16 million fans which is one of the biggest fan bases in the world. In Argentina they really take soccer seriously. We started walking down lower towards the field. Mason was very excited for this part because we would be able to walk on the field. One of his favorite players, and one of the world's best, Messi, had played on this field. We walked out on the field and it was amazing. It was the lushest green I have ever seen. Walter told us that there were people working on the fields every day. After staying on the field we went back into the trophy room for the Boca Juniors. Even though the Boca Juniors have 66 total titles, not all of them were in the room. Walter said Boca had won the National Cup 12 times. The National Cup is one of the biggest competitions in Argentina. Right down the hall from the trophy room was the Boca Juniors Museum. There was a lot of history behind this stadium and this team. We saw pictures of the founders and some of the first games at the stadium. The stadium has had lots of renovations but never changed location. Although this is the main stadium for the Boca Juniors, Walter explained that not only do the Boca Juniors play here but, because of how nice the stadium is, there are many national games played here too. We eventually made our way back to the entrance. We thanked Walter for being our tour guide and then left. After that we were exhausted and hungry. We noticed a place with pizza just two blocks from the stadium. We hadn't had pizza since we left America and wondered if it would taste different in Argentina. The place was called Rostiseria Pamelita. Service was very quick and the food was very good. The pizza didn't taste all that different. So after eating and the three hour tour, it was about 1:30 p.m. We decided to take the bus back to the hotel and figure out what to do from there. Another hour back and this time John and Ryan napped. Back at the hotel we started to walk around a little. This was our last day and we hadn't even checked out what was around the hotel. We walked halfway down the block and noticed a Puma store. In America, Puma wasn't as big as it is in Argentina. We walked around in there for a bit but didn't buy anything. Across the street was a shoe store that had a wide variety of options for shoes. We knew we couldn't buy anything but still looked around. By now it was getting late so we went back to the hotel and ate dinner. After that we went back to the hotel room and chilled out. We were all tired from the tour but knew we would get to rest tomorrow on the ride.