Cuenca Updates: Sunday July 8, 2012

Sunday July 8/12 update

I got a few more movies of Tom yesterday that I finally got around to compiling. Enjoy.

Last night, at Rommie & Charles going away party, we met a lady named Miriam who said she had a group that gets together regularly for potluck suppers and dancing. Naturally that perked our ears up but she said they probably wouldn’t start up again until August because many people were away on holidays. Bella told her that she was leaving at the beginning of August so we likely wouldn’t be able to join them for a few months. Today we got an invitation for a shindig at their place on Saturday, with a request for people to bring some country music! She was indeed listening to us…

Bella is off to play bridge today with Joe & Joseph & North and will bring Joseph all my photos taken at the dinners this week.

I texted then called my little buddy, Juan, for help as I had been informed there was the most important soccer game of the year happening today in Cuenca. The favorite team in the country called Barcelona, from Guayaquil, is in town with multitudes of supporters. Heck, at least ½ of Cuencanos support this team.

We picked a spot to meet near the stadium, one hour early, and it was already wall to wall people wearing the Barcelona yellow colors. A person was hard-pressed to find a red jersey representing Cuenca. I think the Cuenca supporters must use a different gate. Order was maintained by a phalanx of police, on foot, on motorcycles, and on horseback The police on horseback commanded a lot of respect, and room. The one fellow was particularly adept at moving the crowd in line by spinning his horse and motioning with his riding crop. Before anyone got past the gate they were quickly frisked and all belts were taken away! I had never seen anything like this. What do they do in England to control the hooligans? Probably not enough.

http://youtu.be/X5qOYJ6fvGU

Juan said the tickets had gone from $5 for the cheap seats to $25 and we likely would not get in. I only had $20 available on me… We found out later that it was indeed sold out in advance.

We just decided to go wander downtown or something so we headed up Solano. Just at the Tomebamba we saw a jersey seller and when he said the jerseys were only $5 I bought us each one. Then above the stairs we saw people gathering to watch the game on TV so we decided to catch the #3 to Monay Mall and watch it there, which we did. On TV it was pretty easy to see how they separated the supporters into different sections as riots have erupted in the past with even deaths involved. Cuenca scored on an outside penalty spot with a beautiful “bend it like Beckham shot” that the Barcelona goalie looked pretty foolish on. In the second half, Cuenca took a penalty inside the box so we all feared the worst. However the Cuenca goalie miraculously stopped the easy shot and we all rejoiced. That is how the game ended 1-0, despite constant pressure by Barcelona who could not solve our goalie’s wizardry. In the end it seems that Barcelona clinched a division title in spite of the loss. I apologize for not catching some of the action on TV. I was hoping they would have some replays at the end and I was waiting for that but they never materialized.

Then I brought Juan home with the promise that he could get to meet Tom Thumb. He was so amazed when Tom came almost right away and ate from my hand. Then, using Juan’s camera, I took 2 videos of him feeding Tom Thumb while he was grinning ear to ear. Now he has a great remembrance of our day today.

Enjoy the pics and videos.. That was today’s excitement. Hugs to all.