Superbowl Action

The big event yesterday was the Superbowl, being played in Tampa, Florida. My friend Casey and his wife Lara stayed in Cuenca an extra day to watch the game before heading back to Jima in the morning, and our plan was to watch in a bar down the street. The TV downstairs gets ESPN International, but lately it hasn't been working well and blacks out frequently. It started getting really bad during the Inauguration.

So our plan was to go to a gringo bar called "Wunderbar" where we watch the Presidential debates and election. But we were let down when we saw that they were closed on Sunday, just like almost everything else in the city. Next we decided to watch at a restaurant called "Cafe Eucalyptus" which is also in the center. Casey and Lara got there first at 5 o'clock, but the satellite wasn't working for the TV there. In a scramble, we started running around the center trying to find a place to watch.

Then I remembered a cafe/hostel where I'd gotten coffee a few times. They had a flat screen HDTV and had ESPN International. We headed over and asked them to turn on the TV and search for the game. With success, we found the pregame and were able to breath easy. It was a very expensive place, $4.00 for a sandwich (which was good), but it was worth it to be able to watch the game. Hardly anyone was there watching, and eventually my friend Jamie showed up for a little bit too.

Nothing is open late on a Sunday night in Cuenca, and we were pushing it by keeping the staff there until 9:30 p.m. They were essentially trying to kick us out, but were also watching the game with us, hoping the clock would run out sooner. We were about to leave until the Arizona Cardinals came back and made it an interesting game. From then on we knew we were staying, and I was just hoping it wouldn't go into overtime. I really had nothing invested in either team, but I was rooting for the Cardinals to win so they could have a championship to be proud of. It was close, and very entertaining towards the end, making it worth the trouble of going out for it. But the game finally ended and we thanked the staff greatly for letting us stay so late, and then headed home, careful for other people out on the street. It's never a good idea to be out late on a Sunday night.

But hey, at least we got to watch the Superbowl in Ecuador, which isn't something you get to do everyday.