My wife, Mrs Junkie has been traveling to Colombia since 2011, visiting sponsored children, many of whom have become family.
In 2012 when the concept of traveling to such a place by herself was still slightly nerve wracking for me, she found herself at the Medellin derby between Independiente and Nacional. She informed me of this once she was in the stadium with friends so that I wouldn't be concerned. I still was.
Nacional are the more famous and successful of the two and renowned for being "Pablo's team", if you've seen the magnificent ESPN documentary "The Two Escobars", this will sound familiar.
At this point nothing she does surprises me so last week when she was down there to say farewell to her first ever sponsored child - who is now 27, married and moving to Australia - she took in the Colombian League Final first leg between Independiente Medellin and Deportivo Pereira.
Like most South American leagues, Colombia cuts its seasons into two per calendar year with play offs to decide the winner of each. This was the "Primera A Clausura" final.
In a party of 11 people, tickets for the sold out game were obtained hours before kick off from a tout (scalper to Americans) who knocked on their car window as they were pulling in to park near by.
She can't remember exactly how much they paid for them but around three times over the face value of $13 USD.
The Estadio Atanasio Girardot was built in 1953, is shared by both Medellin clubs, has a capacity of 40,000 and is the third largest stadium in Colombia.
In typical South American fashion, smoke bombs filled the sky at kick off and drums, singing and bouncing was constant throughout.
This is a notable difference from Spain and some other major European countries in my experience which tends to react to action on the pitch with bursts of noise whereas South America tends to be a constant rumble.
Some of the most popular food on offer was sausage covered french fries which she unfortunately didn't take a picture of.
The main ultra firm of Medellin was located at the other end of the stadium but they had the visiting fans close by on the upper tier, raucous throughout.
Interestingly the police barrier between the fans was broken at least once and savage blows were exchanged, seemingly at the passive gaze of the authorities before eventually restoring order
It was a damp, humid night and the open air stadium was wet but very loud.
Striker Dimber Cambindo opening the scoring for the home side towards the end of the first half, quickly canceled out by the impressive Leonardo Castro, a former Medellin player.
Medellin had more of the possession, many more attempts on target but missed a penalty late in the second half and the game ended 1-1.
A truly unique experience for Mrs Junkie who unfortunately didn't go to report on the second leg a few days later but it ended 0-0 with Pereira winning 4-3 on penalties.
We were planning on going to Colombia together in 2020 as they were due to host the Copa America.
That plan went out of the window due to good old COVID but I certainly plan to experience Colombian football myself at some point in the future.