Ecuador vs. Peru

Quito, Ecuador

Hello once again, everyone. Here’s another friendly email from your friend just south of the Equator. Well, today is Thanksgiving, or día de accion de gracias, as they call it down here (not that they actually celebrate it or anything), but I have the day off of school, so I thought I would try and get you caught up. So let’s see, checking my notes I see that, gol durn’ it, we haven’t even covered my birthday yet, which was more than a month ago (I really should try and be more diligent about these things). Well for my birthday, my parents threw an entertaining party. All my fellow students came, as well as the other gringos and Ecuadorian friends that we had made up to that point. We cleared the living room floor and my brother brought some salsa music that we could dance to. I made sangria and white Russians for everybody. It was lovely. Afterwards, my sister took us all out on the town, and we danced until the sun came up.

The next week we had something even more exciting happen. It was the Peru vs. Ecuador world cup qualifying match. Now I had wanted to go to an international soccer game, ever since I watched the world cup in ’98 while working on a British cruise line, and this promised to be a beaut, as Peru and Ecuador are huge rivals (owing to the fact that they’re neighbors and have had wars off and on for 50 or 60 years over border disputes). We were able to finangle tickets for the ten of us, so we all bought Ecuadorian national jerseys and head to the Estadio Olympico for the match. Walking into the stadium was like walking into a sea of yellow and blue. We made it there 2 hours early and it was already half-full. By the time that the game started, there wasn’t even standing room available. Trying to go to the bathroom was like trying to crabwalk down Bourbon Street on Fat Tuesday (which, because we were seated conveniently 2 rows behind the beer chica, I had to do quite regularly). When we came in the crowd was already at a low murmur, which grew to a dull rumble, and finally, by the time the game started, a crazed roar. As the game started, I realized that I had never been to a sporting event quite like this. There was a genuine hatred for the Peruvian players, that was infectious, I sat next to a guy and his five-year old son, who taught me all the local, regional, and hemispheric obscenities that I didn’t know all ready. For each situation, the crowd had a song ready. I even got to learn some of them, though my favorite still went like this: (clap) (clap) (clap) (clap) (clap) ECUADOR! (clap) (clap) (clap) (clap) (clap) ECUADOR! (repeat), I mastered that one fairly quickly, and was able to chant with confidence (though I had to put my beer down for it). Everyone in the entire stadium hung on every dribble, pass and shot. It was the most exciting game I’ve ever been to, and the score ended in a 0-0 tie. I can’t imagine what it’d be like if someone actually scored. There’s another match in January, I think against Argentina, so I’m sure I’ll have a chance to find out.

We’ll ladies and gentlemen. You’re still not caught up (you should really try and hurry), but at least you’re closer. You’ll probably be getting another email soon about our adventure in the Orient rainforest, but that will have to wait until the next installment. I hope everyone is happy, healthy, wealthy and well, until next time. Moe.