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Home » Rayuela – a Traditional Chilean Game

Rayuela – a Traditional Chilean Game

Rayuela or tejo is a traditional Chilean game typical of rural Chile that has been played since colonial times. The game of Rayuela most resembles the game of horse shoes.
It is important to note that there is another game called rayuela played by Chilean children which is really just hopscotch. However, the traditional Chilean rayuela is very different from this childhood version.

The objective is to throw your tejo, a disk or marker like a rock so that it lands on the target.

The target is a wooden box less than a square meter in size and about a board’s width high. This box is filled with mud and a taut, white string is stretched across the surface in the middle.

This picture shows the target box (with string) and a scorekeeping board:

rayuela

A player will stand a designated distance from the box and throw the tejo trying to get it to land on the string.
The most points are awarded to the player who lands closest to the string or on top of it.

rayuela

Rayuela is a game that you’ll most typically see outside of Chilean cities but it definitely makes an appearance during the annual fiestas patrias independence celebrations.

Pictures by catminante

Comments

  1. Mike Marquis says

    August 12, 2010 at 9:27 am

    Another similar game, played in rural southern states, is the game of washers. The object is to stand a certain distance and pitch large flat washers into a 13-16 oz “coffee can” buried flush with the ground’s surface (like the hole in a golf green). closest to the hole gets points – again, similar to horseshoes.
    And then, in cities, there’s the game of pitching coins. You stand on a concrete/paved surface, a certain distance from a wall, and pitch coins to see who gets theirs to land closest to the wall. Winner gets the loser’s coins tossed on that try.
    This style of game seems to be universally enjoyed and has unlimited design potential.

  2. Pepe says

    August 12, 2010 at 12:39 pm

    @Mike – Thanks for sharing these examples of other traditional games that are similar in nature.
    It does seem that the principles are universal and that necessity is the mother of invention used by players to determine how exactly the game can be played.

  3. Grant says

    September 13, 2010 at 11:54 am

    I remember playing this with an older Chilean gentleman living in the town of Castex in La Pampa, Argentina when I was visiting a few years back. When I came back to the States, I tried to find some info on the then limited internet, but never found it. We’ve got a family gathering coming up next month and I was looking for more outdoor games than the standard horseshoe and bocce, and went looking for this.
    Thanks a ton for providing me with the name of the game! Now, I’ve got to go find particulars. Really enjoyed it then. Looking forward to building a box for my back yard.

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