Adventures of Cameron & Emma in Buenos Aires

Last weekend we attended our first ever polo mach. We decided after long debate to ditch the idea of wearing ridiculously large hats- which was the right decision, as we would have been the only ones sporting fancy headgear at the event. I guess Pretty Woman really is outdated. Sad. Anyhow, although we did not wear the hats, we still struggled to fit in. We were not quite as preppy as the other fans…but at least we wore dresses! (maybe next time we can perfect our polo attire). The games (there were two, one right after the other) were amazing to watch at such a close range. I thought learning lacrosse was hard, but cannot imagine ever playing a game while riding on a horse! These players were inspiring to watch. Regrettably we did not do our homework before the games and had no clue what was going on. Even with our lack of knowledge we were able to figure out the scoring system, or so we thought. Although we figured out how to make a goal, it was nothing to be proud of. There are goal posts, which are about 8 yards apart and when one team hits the little white ball through the goal… they get a point… pretty self-explanatory.

Later we were informed by two lively women that each player has a handicap… the highest handicap possible is a 10, which means you are the best. Supposedly there are only 10 people in the world with a handicap of 10, and they are all Argentinean. The handicaps of all players for each team are added together and the team that has a lower total handicap number gets the difference in goals before the game even starts. (See how confusing this is!) Anyhow they also informed us that the number three of the day was the very best player in the world… we cannot remember his name. There are only 4 players on the field at a time with two refs. We discovered, by the clocks on both sides of the field, that the “innings,” or Chukkas, are 7 minutes long. Usually there are 6 Chukkas… (Or so says wikipedia.. in fact if you really want to understand this crazy game just go to wikipedia).

Anyhow like we said, we met two very vivacious women. Both were in their upper 50s and looked absolutely fabulous. One was from California and owns, lives, and works on an asparagus farm while the other lives in Peru and owns a clothing business of knitted goods. We discovered that they had meet over 20 years ago in a swimming pool and had been friends ever since. Goes to show that you never know how you will meet good friends,,, also, that you should always take advantage of hotel swimming pools.

Saturday ended the “cold” streak in BsAs and the city was incredibly humid. Therefore, we had no choice but to stop off (well, immediately upon arrival) at the many Chandon stations that were scattered between food stands. We were able to get to know these two women over many mini bottles of Champagne. Needless to say there was quite a bit of laughter, especially since they would always interrupt the conversation to take pictures of “cute” men. They were both wishing that they were a bit younger and the married woman said a few times with a sigh… “If I only weren’t married.”

Although we did not stalk or take pictures of any men at the match, we were pleasantly surprised by the amount of good looking men, and especially the polo players, and it may be an added incentive to attend another game! Now we just have to find some loafers, polo shirts, and white pants….