My thoughts have wandered to Argentina a lot this week since I have a student from Argentina, and also because of the World Cup.

For the last couple of days I have been thinking of a few pictures that I took in Buenos Aires. The pictures were taken on the last day of my vacation there in 2010. We took a city tour as part of the tour package that took us from the cruise ship to the airport.

During the tour we drove by La Bombonera. This is not the actual name of the stadium, but is what people call it. La Bombonera means ‘Chocolate Box’ and the stadium is shaped like one.

The actual name of the stadium is Estadio Alberto J. Armando.

In this picture you can see a football or soccer field in the foreground. This was a common sight in the football mad country of Argentina.

Here is another picture of the stadium where you can see the open end. The stadium has a capacity of 49,000 and is the home of the Boca Juniors. The Boca Juniors is one of the most famous football clubs in Argentina. Most football fans have heard of Diego Maradona who was one of their most famous players.

This is an interesting picture. Have you ever seen Coca Cola advertising signs that are black with white script? Maybe some very old ones, but this is very uncommon. You usually see the iconic red and white signs.

I remember the tour guide telling us that the stadium gets a special dispensation from Coca Cola to use black and white since their biggest rival’s colors are red and white. Could you imagine River Plate coming to play and seeing their colors all over the stadium?

As we drove by the stadium we saw murals that illustrate both the history of the Boca Juniors football club and also the history of the Boca District. The murals are by Argentinian Perez Celis. We were only able to see the murals on the outside of the stadium, but there are also many more inside the stadium.

I am looking forward to the last two games of the World Cup. It will be interesting to see who wins the final games.

Will it be Germany or Argentina who wins it all?

Steven