Club de Amigos

We've joined a sports club here called Club de Amigos, which is a twenty minute walk from the apartment, through a quiet neighborhood of small clothing boutiques, cafes and restaurants, across the large boulevard Av. Libertador (13 lanes!) and past Jardin Japones. There Quinn has a three-day-a-week fútbol practice and Jack has a three-hour multi-sport class on Saturdays.

The club is mostly aimed at children, with all kinds of activities for them: swimming, volleyball, basketball, tennis, field hockey and aerobics, in addition to fútbol and the multi-sport classes. In one corner of the large complex is the Adventure Playground, an area filled with wooden play structures and kid-fitness type structures all strung with cargo nets and ropes; it's a young kid's dream (and also seems to offer the older teenagers a place to hang out on the cargo nets to talk story and get in the younger kids' way). Quinn and Jack especially love the rope swings.

On Friday afternoons we walk down after school for Quinn's fútbol session from 5:30-7:00. While Quinn kicks it on the cancha Erin and I take turns shooting and playing one-on-one with Jack at an empty goal - there's always one to be found either on the astroturf canchas or at the goals set up on the track's infield. Usually Jack and I head out together for the first 45 minutes and then Erin and I switch so she can warm up after sitting still in the bleachers watching Quinn. Saturdays we head over for Jack's 2:00-5:00 class, which overlaps conveniently with Quinn's 3:30-5:00 fútbol. Erin has found a spinning class at 3:30 that she attends while I find something productive to do with myself. Two Saturdays ago found me huddled in the main administrative area with my laptop taking advantage of the wifi to watch the men's gold medal match of the European Championships, while last Saturday I endured a stint on one of the treadmills, which is slightly better than running around the neighborhood inhaling car & bus exhaust. On Sundays we head over for Quinn's 11:30-1:00 session and usually have lunch outside at the snack bar - hamburgers and fries for the boys (and me) to balance such a fitness-filled weekend. Of course, I usually manage to sneak in a cortado doble or two when I can.


Erin and I have even begun heading over a couple times a week when the boys are at school to use the weight room and the running/biking machines. Thankfully it's void of floor-to-ceiling mirrors and posturing, and when I take out my earbuds (it's a great place for me to catch up on my podcasts) I have noticed the music comes from an era I recognize, though working out to REM is kinda strange, if you ask me. Nevertheless, we are very happy to have a place for the boys to meet more friends, hear more Castellano and get exercise, and we happily spend each week anticipating our family walks to the club.

All of us are extremely happy we are four of the club's new amigos. Here's Quinn meeting some of the other boys at his first fútbol practice (gotta love the aprons that say, "yo juego limpio"/I play clean).

And a couple others...