Estadio Nacional

On the whole, Chileans are a pretty calm lot – until they step foot in a soccer stadium, that is. Mad screaming and dancing (or cursing, weeping and hair-tearing) accompanies international games, the most dramatic of which are against local rivals like Peru or Argentina, when ‘Chi-Chi-Chi-Lay-Lay-Lay’ reverberates through the Estadio Nacional. Tickets can be bought at the stadium or from the Feria del Disco. Equally impassioned are the hinchas (fans) of Santiago’s first-division soccer teams, of which Colo Colo, Universidad de Chile and Universidad Católica are the most popular.