The Travel Chica

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Seeing the Greatest Polo Player in the World

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Since I am from the US, I know absolutely nothing about polo.

When I got to Buenos Aires, I found out that polo is HUGE here.  In fact, people from around the world come here to play polo because it is much cheaper, and they can really improve their skills.

To be honest, I am not that interested in polo.

However, spending an afternoon outside on a nice sunny day sipping wine sounds like a fun time to me.  And after spending so much time in Buenos Aires, I decided I could not leave the city without going to a polo match.

Hurlingham Club Final

I attended the Hurlingham Club Final between La Dolfina and Ellerstina.  It was a short train ride from Palermo.

It was a warm Spring day.  The sun was shining.

We snuck in a bottle of wine.

A perfect day!

The Greatest Polo Player in the World

My friend explained to me that I was watching the greatest player in the world.  Adolfo Cambiaso plays for La Dolfina.  It was obvious that I did not grasp how great of an athlete he is, so the comparison was made to Michael Jordan.  Jordan was my hero when I was a young, aspiring bench-warmer, so I suddenly realized Adolfo must be AWESOME!

The only reason I know this is a photo of him is because he wears a helmet with the flag of Argentina on it.

The Game

Despite not really knowing what was going on, I was still impressed by the sport.  It seems quite difficult to maneuver this giant pole with a big weight at the end of it in such a way that you can actually hit a ball with accuracy.

The other cool thing about seeing a match live was experiencing the sound of the horses.  When the group of horses ran towards our end of the field, the sound was so powerful.  I was not expecting that.

I got a souvenir.

One of the reasons we sat in the grass just behind the goal was so that we would have a chance to snag a polo ball.  We were successful!

The After-Party

My free-alcohol-detection-system kicked in, and we found ourselves at the tent of one of our favorite wine companies.  There were 4-5 different types of wine, and the pours were generous and frequent.

The Verdict

Am I now a polo fan?  Not really.  I do not plan to follow the sport.

But it is a fun way to spend an afternoon. 

For me, it is sort of like going to a baseball game to hang out with friends and see something exciting on the field every once in a while.  The big difference is that the ridiculously overpriced beers are replaced with free wine!

I also went to another polo match in Palermo. 

Check out more polo photos here!

Comments

  3. I love how you said “my free alcohol detection system kicked in” :) . That’s one of the perks of being an expat lady in Buenos Aires; you must get a lot of opportunities to try free alcohol.

    Polo by the way is played here in Australia as a sport too but it’s only played by the ultra rich millionaires and billionaires and sadly I’m not in the circles of any of those. I think it all comes down to our British roots as to the reason why Polo is played here. It may also be the reason why Polo is played in BA considering the British once had a foothold in Uruguay; it’s not too big an assumption to make that it crossed the border and got taken up in Argentina as a result.

    I must admit that I’m very happy for you that you were able to experience a Polo match in Buenos Aires and also a slight bit jealous at all the free alcohol you’ve managed to get since you’ve been back in Argentina from the States :) .

    Best to drink up now because the further south you head from BA the rarer the wine is going to get.

    • The British took polo wherever they could play it. And virtually everywhere (except Seattle) has better weather for it than England.

      After the British failed to capture Buenos Aires in 1806 and again in 1807, they finally returned in the second half of the 19th Century to be the engineers of the country that came to be Argentina.

      Polo was first played at the Hurlingham Club in the town of Hurlingham, Provincia Buenos Aires (just outside of the capital city) and the Hurlingham Open is the oldest Polo Tournament in the world. (This year was the 118th Open.)

      There’s lots of Polo to be seen through the year whether in tournaments or at private estancias & clubs. Come for a visit!

      And stay for the free wine “samples” after the matches.

      • Thank you for the info :) Seeing that the British came back as engineers in the second half of the 19th century, it makes me wonder if they happened to bring the game of Cricket along with them as well. Wherever the British had a colony they seemed to have brought Cricket with them. I wonder if there are any remnants of the game in Argentina.

        • Barely any.

          Cricket is played at the prestigious British found prep schools like St. George’s (San Jorges) and St. Andrew’s (San Andreas), but not much else.

          There are expats from Britain and its former colonies who get together for a “test” occasionally at the Hurlingham Club. I attended one of these matches and sat on a terry cloth blanket while enjoying a Melipal Rosé. Quite a lovely afternoon. (And I very rarely use the word “lovely”.)

          One time some English friends dragged me along to see Argentina’s national team play against Hong Kong’s “national team” (made up entirely of Indian and Pakistani expats living/playing in Hong Kong) at the Hurlingham Club and by the total domination displayed by the Hong Kong side, I would say that cricket didn’t exactly catch on in Argentina like the other four sports I mentioned.

          After the match we did go into the clubhouse and have some Gin & Tonics, so that “sport” has remained strong with both the expat Brits as well as their descendants known as “Anglo-Argentines”.
          Chance Miller recently posted..Time Out selects BAlocal’s Art Tours in 2011/12 Spring Summer issue

          • I did a Google search on Cricket in Argentina after I put up my previous comment not expecting to get any hits. On Wikipedia it turns out that the first match was played in 1806 and that Argentina had a strong team to the point it was playing first class internationals between 1911 and 1938. After the 2nd World War though, interest in the game dropped off markedly to where it is today.

            Apparently there is a Buenos Aires Cricket and Rugby club who play both games. I assume they’d play Rugby in the winter and Cricket in the summer possibly using the same players like used to happen here in Australia before Australian Rules Football was invented in the 1870s.

            I have a lot of respect for the Argentina National Rugby Team. I watched them play in the recent world cup on TV and was amazed at the courage with which these men played against the world’s best. I think it was against France where they got the first try or something and lead for a little while against all odds. They ended up losing the match but didn’t go down without a fight.

          • In the 2007 Rugby World Cup, Argentina opened the tournament by beating FRANCE IN FRANCE!

            They went on to place 3rd, they’re highest position ever.

            In addition, many of Italy’s top players are Argentines who play for Italy.

            Also, a select team of amateurs (or at least players who have yet to make the move to the big time in Europe) went over and competed in South Africa’s top league this year… and won the league. Argentina has a large youth program, but doesn’t have a top professional rugby league like some other countries.

            So yes, it’s big.
            Chance Miller recently posted..Time Out selects BAlocal’s Art Tours in 2011/12 Spring Summer issue

  5. I don’t know too much about polo, but it looks like it would be a really fun sport to photograph. Some of your horse pictures are really great, although my favorite one is of the little kids on their pretend ponies.
    It doesn’t look all that crowded for a club final match though. What kind of crowds does the sport draw down there?
    Steve recently posted..Mattress Run – 21 Hotels in 22 Days

    • Not only are virtually all the best players in the world Argentine, the best polo ponies in the world also come from Argentina.

      This year the winning team of the Argentine Open (Abierto Argentino de Polo), which is the most prestigious tournament in the world, had a guy on it from Uruguay. He is the first non-Argentine on the winning team of The Open in something like 15 to 20 years.

      You have to start playing a young age, have a wealthy family, have lots of land, and a passionate family support group (a.k.a. “obsessed father”) to even be a top polo player. Even that doesn’t guarantee it. You then also have to fall into that category and have super fast reflexes, great hand-eye coordination, and be able to take the pounding of galloping on a horse (and probably falling off many times) for years and years and years so that your experience can peak before your body falls apart.

      The polo culture is an expensive offshoot of the gaucho culture of Argentina.

      And then there’s the fact that Argentine’s love all English sports (except for cricket): Polo, Soccer, Rugby, & Tennis are all huge in Argentina.
      Chance Miller recently posted..Time Out selects BAlocal’s Art Tours in 2011/12 Spring Summer issue


  10. ryan:

    The most elitest sport ever, played by toffee nosed scroats.

    I have to say that growing up in the States, I’ve never heard a sentence quite like that. That’s one of the things that first got me into reading about soccer (a.k.a. “football”) was the English journalists reports on the matches. My vocabulary exploaded and I got to the point where I could almost fluently understand British English. (Almost)

  11. What a fun experience. I went to a polo match in the U.S. once. I didn’t know anything about the sport, but it was a beautiful, sunny day and we were drinking champagne. Nice time.

  19. I took a polo lesson once near Washington, DC. I already knew how to ride (have been doing so my whole life) so that part wasn’t hard, but man, swinging that giant mallet around takes some effort! You use its own weight to swing it and try to use your arm/wrist strength as little as possible, but it’s definitely still tiring! I could barely hit the ball but it was really fun anyway. I’ve never actually watched a match – have to do that!
    Rachel recently posted..Travel Photo: Ithaca, New York

  21. I’m kinda jealous that you’ve seen an extraordinary athlete play even though if you’re not familiar with the sport. I would love to watch any athlete that resembles Michael Jordan’s talent and success. Thank you for sharing!

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