An introduction to tejo, Colombia’s best sport you’ve never heard of.

Of all the drinking games you’ve played in your life, how many have involved gunpowder?

Over the years, Colombians have readily adopted a game called tejo as their national sport. It’s an alcohol-fuelled event which feels like a mix between bowling and shot-put, but with added firecrackers thrown in. I played a grand total of three games of tejo while I travelled through Colombia, and became increasingly enamoured of the sport each time.

So welcome to the world of Colombian tejo. Because why not spend your evenings throwing metal at explosives while drinking beer?!

What exactly does a tejo game look like?

Games of tejo are usually played in a barn or big warehouse, commonly called a ‘cancha de tejo‘ (a tejo court or arena). These canchas are dotted all over Colombia: they’re modest spaces when found in cities, and pretty basic in the more rural areas, with dirt floors, chickens wandering around, and often built on the land behind local bars.

All around the space, men sit and drink beer as their friends throw metal discs at boxes of clay. Occasionally there’ll be an explosion – and everyone cheers, because that means more points!

Confused? That’s understandable. Allow me to explain.

This is what a tejo board looks like.

The aim of the game is to throw a heavy metal disc, called a tejo, from about 20 metres away towards a tray of mud, which is called a cancha. There’s a metal ring called a bocin embedded into that mud; you can just about see it, as the bocin is half-buried under the surface.

And those little triangular paper packets dotted in the mud? They’re called mecha. They’re all touching the metal bocin, and they’re all filled with gunpowder.

So when the metal tejo successfully hits the metal bocin with a mecha in the middle of it… BANG!

Scoring points in a tejo game

Officially, there’s a point system when playing tejo (although plenty of games will descend into an explosive throwing party – and that’s just fine!).

For a maximum of 9 points, you’re aiming to land your tejo in the middle of the metal ring and to simultaneously explode a mecha. If you land inside the bocin with no explosions, you get 6 points, and any throw resulting in an exploding mecha scores you 3 points.

Tejo is played in rounds, so at the end of each round the person who’s landed closest to the bullseye also gets a single point. The first person to make it to 21 points wins the game!

But how on earth did this game start? Well, since you asked…

The history of tejo in Colombia

The game of tejo is native to Colombia and dates back to the 15th century. The internet has a few conflicting theories about its origins but most seem to agree that it’s based on an indigenous game from the Turmeque region of Colombia in Boyaca. However, the tendency for tejo players to drink copious amounts of beer while playing has lent it something of a seedy air, and tejo has historically been regarded as a lower-class game.

It’s only recently that the Colombian government have actively attempted to re-invent tejo’s reputation as a serious sport with a rich history. The game was declared Colombia’s national sport in 2000, and the Colombian Federation of Tejo has established tejo leagues and national championships which involve strict rules and uniformed players.

And yet the most typical and most revered form of tejo (particularly amongst foreign visitors) is still located in a dusty warehouse with the sound of clinking beer bottles adding to the explosions of gunpowder.

For those backpacking in Colombia, Tejo’s popularity is definitely on the rise.

There’s a buzz around the game; plenty of moments in hammocks or around hostel tables amongst the beers when someone mentions tejo and a chorus of, “OHH it’s so fun!” erupts. Travellers always want to find the secret, relatively unknown activity or destination, and if you haven’t yet played tejo, you immediately get the sense that it’s a necessity – something to tick off your Colombian bucket list.

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Read more: Everything I’ve learned about backpacking Colombia – the ultimate guide

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Tips for playing tejo in Colombia

– Everyone is welcome to play tejo. A few google searches led me to various travellers wondering if they were allowed to play themselves, or whether it’s just a ‘foreigners-can-only-watch’ kind of game. Let me dispel the myth right here: tejo is a game open to anyone and everyone!

– That said, tejo is a group sport. It wouldn’t be much fun to play tejo on your own, so rally a group together before heading to a game (luckily most travellers I met in Colombia were always intrigued about playing tejo).

– Be happy to drink beer. Playing a game of tejo is usually free – as long as you buy a crate of beer for your group. Many of Colombia’s beer brands sponsor the tejo courts so you’ll see swathes of advertising and branding for Aguila, Costano, and Poker beers all over the place.

– Actually, prepare to drink A LOT of beer. It’s traditional in tejo to take a drink with every toss, and getting drunk is essentially part of the game. As long as some members of your group like drinking beer, you’ll be fine. However, the general rule is that groups arrive wanting to drink a lot, so if you’re nursing just one crate for a few hours then you may well be ousted from the cancha to make room for keener beer drinkers.

– Bring cash to pay for said beer. Tejo is not a credit card game. Most tejo courts are in poorer neighbourhoods, and the chance of a nearby ATM is minimal.

– Keep your wits about you, and don’t get hit in the head. The drunker you get (and those around you get), the less concerned you’ll be about heavy weights whizzing past your head. Within your drunken haze, try to remember they’re being thrown by equally drunk people and keep your head and body out of harm’s way as much as possible.

— Be prepared for surprises. What with the cheering, the explosions, and the sound of a heavy weight landing in various places, tejo can be something of a sensory overload. Don’t go if you scare easily at loud noises!

— Learn which arm you throw best with. A tejo weighs about 500 grams so it’s actually pretty heavy to lift and throw on a regular basis. Consider lifting some weights prior to your tejo match in order to properly prepare for the game.

– Remember to flatten down the clay. Sometimes the tejo makes large dents in the clay when it lands, and it can be difficult to extricate. Don’t be afraid to dig your hands in to retrieve your muddy tejo, but try to flatten down the clay afterwards to make a smooth surface for the next player. Occasionally there will be a kind Colombian who does this for you with a special smoothing tool. Be nice to him – he has an important job.

– You WILL get wet clay everywhere. The tejo can easily get covered in large lumps of clay, which is why there are usually burlap sacks around the area to wipe the tejo down with. Try to avoid wiping your hands on your clothes if you can help it. Sadly, playing tejo has the mysterious power to cover you in mud even if you’re particularly careful. Embrace the mud, and drink another beer. You can always shower later.

– Speaking Spanish will endear you to your fellow Colombian tejo players. It’s not a necessity to speak Spanish in order to play tejo, but if you’re in the middle of the countryside it would be useful. Plus being able to whoop and cheer in Spanish will make proceedings much more fun.

Ultimately the beer and the explosions will do the talking for you though.

Right, I understand the rules – where can I play tejo? 

There are plenty of ‘canchas de tejo’ (tejo games) all over Colombia, but these are the three I tried:

How to play tejo in Palomino – beginner level

We’d seen this poster a few times while wandering along the highway close to Palomino on the Caribbean coast, and eventually I suggested checking out the ‘Mini-Tejo’ games they they advertised. The huge ‘Aguila Light’ beer logo was also a strong convincing element.

After following the signs, we found ourselves in an old Colombian man’s back garden. It was mid-afternoon, right in the midst of that soporific heat which warrants siesta time, so there was no-one else around to hear us hurling tejos at a couple of boxes filled with sticky grey clay and whooping with excitement whenever we hit gunpowder. This guy had something of an outdoor menagerie: clucking chickens, tiny kittens, and a collection of dogs trotting around, yet none of them seemed concerned by the sound of explosions.

A major plus point about playing rural ad-hoc tejo at someone’s house was that this enterprising Colombian had shrewdly remembered to install an outdoor fridge in close proximity to his cancha de tejo. We duly paid for a couple of beer bottles each, at his request, and then spent the next few hours taking turns to step cautiously through the chicken coop to a rickety outdoor toilet as the beers rushed through us.

Sadly I have no photos of this experience. I guess I was enjoying myself too much! We had no idea what we were doing and invented our own tejo rules because our host didn’t seem all that bothered – and I guess neither were we.

Result: A pretty easy and non-pressured first experience of tejo on the Colombian coast! 

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Read more: Exploring the Colombian coast in Palomino

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How to play tejo in Salento – intermediate level

My second experience of tejo was much more traditional: played at night at a real cancha de tejos at the Los Amigos Club in Salento.

I was still amongst foreigners though.

At some point during my stay in Salento, this flyer somehow made its way into my possession. I can’t remember now whether I picked it up in the hostel or someone gave it to me in the streets of Salento but one sentence stood out above all else:

“Beer is mandatory for the game!”

With my coastal tejo experience firmly under my belt, I gathered up a keen group of backpackers at our hostel and together we headed for Los Amigos in the centre of town. I sauntered in confidently – and then was confronted by dozens of tipsy Colombian cowboys.

All my confidence ebbed away.

Luckily, Los Amigos wasn’t half as daunting as my mind first interpreted. Once the obligatory staring had occurred (not a huge amount, either, seeing as most of these men were drunk), we established ourselves at our designated cancha and attempted to play.

Of course, barely any of us knew what we were doing, which soon became overtly obvious to the Colombians around us. And if you know anything about Colombian hospitality, it won’t surprise you to learn that they stepped in to help.

The night dissolved into a combination of being directed by other players, listening to shouted Spanish advice from across the hall, and general merriment between gleeful cowboys, elderly farmers and excitable backpackers. Eventually we were playing just like the tejo pros. Or it felt like we were, at least.

Result: a new understanding that Colombians love to help foreigners with playing tejo! 

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Read more: Cowboys and coffee farms in Salento, Colombia

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How to play tejo in Bogota – expert level

My third and final attempt at tejo was one afternoon in Bogota. I’d been driving around the city while working on a filming project with my Colombian friends, and after a somewhat boozy lunch they suggested we head for a tejo game.

I was in the hands of experienced tejo players, and it showed. One of my friends went straight off to buy the requisite beer crate (it was about 3pm at this point) and I watched in awe as the others set up the gunpowder packets, stood back, and took aim.

No messing. We were in real tejo territory here. So much so that the camera was completely forgotten about in favour of our game.

It was one of my last days in Colombia – actually, one of my last in South America in general – and the afternoon quickly became a blur with every new Aguila beer I drank. My main memory from this final tejo match is of a lot of laughter, although I don’t know if that’s because I played particularly well, or particularly badly.

I’m going to pretend it was the former.

Result: a game of tejo can be taken seriously when played exclusively with Colombians. Tejo will, however, always involve getting drunk. And that’s the beauty of it.

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Have you ever played tejo in Colombia? Would you like to throw metal at gunpowder?