Tejo

Tejo is a traditional Colombian game that involves throwing metal discs at explosives which are stuck in clay, over a 12 metre distance. It is a competitive game played in teams, with the aim of the game being to collect as many points as possible for your team. It sounded like an interesting if not slightly dangerous game so of course, I wanted to try it. We made our way to the small Tejo hall in Salento unprepared for the noise and the smoke that filled the Tejo hall.

The locals were extremely surprised to find a group of western girls in their Tejo hall, but were very friendly and offered advice on Tejo techniques. The hall was set out into aisles, with the clay boards containing explosives on either side of the aisles. Standing 12 metres away from the clay boards, we had to throw our metal Tejo discs at the clay board with the aim of making it explode. The points system being 1 point for getting your metal disc closest to the explosives, 3 points for hitting an explosive and 9 points for getting your disc in the middle of the ring of explosives. The winning team is the first team to reach 21 points. Unfortunately there were no points awarded for throwing your metal disc across the Tejo hall in the wrong direction, accidentally hitting a team member or accidentally throwing your Tejo disc into the next aisle. Needless to say, it took us most of the night to reach 21 points. It was a very fun game, if not alarmingly dangerous which is why we aptly renamed it as Fireball.

The new Fireball champions