Tejo

Location:
Cancha de Tejo El Recreo

Calle 2 9-40
San Agustín, Colombia

Other Activity Types:
Tejo

By Lorraine Caputo

This Sunday afternoon that sign across from the market again catches my attention: Cancha de Tejo El Recreo. What in devil’s name is tejo? I walk through the courtyard to the rough, tin-roofed cancha beyond. Men in various stages of drunkenness are throwing a 2.5-pound (1.125- kilo) lead weight at an up-right board 18 meters (59 feet) down court. There’s a soft thud as it hits the soft clay bed.

“What’s the object?” I ask one reasonably sober man.

“To hit this.” He points to a ring set in the clay of a target near us.

“Is that an anti-personnel mine?” I raise a brow.

“Yeh—oh, but it’ll only make a loud boom, that’s all. The shrapnel’s been taken out.”

That’s reassuring. “How much does it cost?”

He tells me and adds, “It includes a beer. There’s a court just for women.” (Yeh, about a third the length of the men’s court.) “Just pull up a bench and wait a turn.”

So for a bit of excitement, join the gang in a game of tejo after the Sunday market. You’ll have a bang of a time.

Travel Tips: Tejo is a popular sport in Southern and Eastern Colombia. In other places, though, the target is called a bocín, which has mechas, or small packets of gun powder attached to it; the object is to explode these. It seems the resourceful citizens of San Agustín have found a new use for the landmines that were laid in the backcountry during the Civil War actions in their area.

Price Description: $1.30 per game

Relative price: Budget

Open Hours from:Sunday afternoons

Travel Skills: beginner/easy.

You Need to Bring: A sense of adventure, a good eye and pitching arm.

For the sporting types, there’s hiking, rafting, rappelling and horseback riding to enjoy in the San Agustín area.

Currencies accepted
Colombian Peso