All over Colombia the game of TEJO is played. Over the past few years tejo has proved to be very popular with tourists and is a great opportunity to meet and mix with the locals.

The game involves throwing a metal weight (usually 500g or 1kg) underarm into a wooden packing crate (15-18 inches x 24-36 inches). The wooden packing crate is filled with clay and inclined at an angle. Inside the packing crate and imbedded in to clay is a metal circle approximately 12 inches in diameter.

The idea is to get your metal weight to stick in the clay as close to the circle as is possible.

If you get your metal weight to stick in the clay and you are the closest to the metal circle you score one point. If you get your metal weight to stick inside the metal circle (effectively a bulls eye) you score six points.

Then just to make the game a little more interesting and a lot more Colombian there are folded paper triangles of gunpowder placed at the top and bottom of the metal circle. These triangles are touching the metal circle and obviously if you get metal hitting metal with gunpowder between them you get a large bang. For the bang you get three points unless of course you get a bulls eye and a bang and then you get nine points (six points for the bulls eye and another three for the bang).

You don`t pay for court time you simply pay for drinks to stay on the court.

The locals play on a court that is over 80 feet long. There is a beginners or childrens court that is about 15 feet long. The court (known as a gancha) is under cover and can be found at Carrera 4 Calle 3-32. General hours up to 20.00 any night except for Thursday night - if no-one shows up they close around 20.00. If people are there then they usually close whenever.