There were only a handful of things I wanted to do while here in Buenos Aires and attending a Polo Match was on that list.
It didn’t hurt that this match also had free tickets available to the general public.
I love the opportunity to experience some culture with the locals when given the chance whether it be watching the opera in Russia, seeing a volleyball match in Macedonia, or seeing a luche libre show in Mexico, I’m always on the lookout for something unique.
The best sandwich I’ve ever had
The polo match wasn’t until 4:30 so I just decided to take it easy and didn’t actually leave the hostel til late in the morning.
Despite not eating dinner last night, I didn’t start getting hungry until 11am this morning. That just shows you have massive a lunch that was yesterday.
I popped back over to Il Mandorla which was the place where I went a couple of days ago for those amazing gluten free empanadas.
This time I wanted to try one of their sandwiches and, holy crap, it’s not hyperbole when I say it was the best sandwich I’ve ever had.
I ordered the Brooklyn sandwich which is pulled pork with coleslaw, pickles and veggies on pumpkin bread.
It literally melted in the mouth and I savored every bite wanting to drag out the experience.
When it comes to gluten free bread, it’s always hit or miss and, honestly, alot of time it’s miss.
The bread is either too dry or stale or just falls apart. This pumpkin bread though, wow.
It was so fresh and soft. And the pulled pork was so tender and moist.
Oh my God, as I type this, I want to go back and get another one.
Anyway, yeah, it was a good lunch.
A weekend market
I headed over to the Palermo area of town to the Campo Argentino de Polo grounds.
On my way I happened upon a huge weekend market setup at Plaza Francia which was totally unexpected.
I took some time to walk by the dozens and dozens of stalls to see what they had.
Unlike some markets I’ve gone to in the past, it wasn’t a bunch of mass produced souveniry crap being sold in multiple stalls.
Instead there were alot of handmade items and a wide variety of things.
Across the street were even more stalls but these one were all food stalls.
Oh the torment!
Six years ago, before I was diagnosed as a celiac, I would have been in heaven.
Now it was a personal hell.
All this amazing food and I can’t have any of it.
Sigh.
It was time to get to the polo grounds anyway.
Free polo match
I have never been to a polo match but when I was looking up cultural things to do in Buenos Aires, I saw that a polo tournament was taking place this week.
The website showed the different matches and their ticket prices which were in the $100 range.
They also had a “free tickets” option but no other information about it.
I could click the paid ticket link and actually buy a ticket but there was no link for the free ticket.
So a couple of months ago I went on to Facebook groups and reddit to ask people about the free tickets and nobody had any idea what I was talking about.
I finally just sent a WhatsApp message to the polo grounds to ask them personally and they confirmed that there were indeed free tickets and just to show up a half hour early.
Alright! Free tickets confirmed!
Despite that, I was still dubious about whether I would be seeing polo today.
I still had absolutely no idea about where to go or what to do at the stadium when I arrived and the fact that nobody online knew about the free tickets still worried me a bit.
Well, it turns out, it was super easy to get into the stadium and into the free seats.
I literally just walked in past the turnstyle, went to the counter and, using Google Translate, asked her where I went for the free match.
She pointed around the corner and I just walked into the stands.
I’m still not exactly sure where the paid tickets were sitting or why anyone would actually pay for one.
It seemed like the entire stands were filled with free entry seats.
I’m glad I came early though cause it would have been hard to find a seat later on as droves of people kept coming and they had to keep climbing all the way up the stairs.
The match itself was interesting.
Like I said, I’ve never seen polo and I didn’t really understand the rules.
I don’t know if there was a home team I was supposed to be routing for because the crowd clapped whenever either team scored.
These were the things I noticed while watching:
-The field itself is 10 acres covering a length of 300 yards and width of 160 yards which is basically the size of 9 football fields.
-There was no scoreboard, just a clock, so I have no idea how people kept track of who was winning.
-This was not a rowdy crowd like at a football match, whenever anyone made a play there was a collection of polite clapping.
-In the very far corner there was a ESPN Polo replay screen which, honestly, was so far away you couldn’t really see it from where I was sitting.
-Apparently this match was being televised on ESPN somewhere
-Between each playing round there was a 3 minute intermission where a dozen or so people came onto the field to replace divots that the horses kicked up
-Players would sub horses in the corners of the field seamlessly hopping from one horse to a freshly rested horse
After an hour and a half, the match was over and I gotta say, it was a pretty cool experience.
A meaty dinner
The restaurant I went to for lunch today, Il Mandorla, has another location further away that is a smokehouse and is open all day as opposed to just lunchtime.
This location has an expanded menu that included meat and rib dishes and, well, I was craving me some meat.
I had such an amazing sandwich earlier that it just seemed like a full circle moment that I would end the day eating an amazing dinner at their sister restaurant.
I ordered a meat plate of ribs and pork shoulder served with fries and coleslaw.
Let me first say the coleslaw was amazing and the fries were nice and crispy.
The meat, welllllllll…
Dry as f*ck.
I had to add so much ketchup and eat each bite with a bit of coleslaw and fries to get it all down.
That was disappointing.
Ah well, can’t win em all.
They did redeem themselves with their dessert which was a gluten free volcano cake filled with dulce de leche and served with caramel and berries.
That was amazing!
By 9pm I was back at the hostel and that was it for the day.
The best sandwich I’ve ever had and a unique cultural experience.
What a day!
