Following Baseball is Not Easy in South America

UPDATED: 9:45 p.m. Local Time...

I forgot! I have AOL Instant Messenger. I logged on and have been getting updates in real time from a couple of friends back home. And, we are discussing the game and other fun topics at the same time. This is not nearly as good as being next to them, but at least I don't have to keep watching the tiny diamond (which is slow) the entire time. The only problem is that it's now 3-1 Tampa Bay. Hopefully this game gets wrapped up before the router is turned off.


Apparently the popularity of baseball only extends to Venezuela, because there is no place in Ecuador to watch, hear, or even talk about it. It's hard enough to think about it, being so removed from the whole process. But it's playoff season, and as a Red Sox fan, it's so hard to not be watching every game, especially now that they are in Game 7 of the ALCS, or American League Championship Series.

I can remember throughout my college days sitting in small, cramped rooms with dozens of other people, all silent while watching the playoffs, except for during the commercials when we would make fun of Joe Buck and Tim McCarver as much as possible. And of course, I'll never forget when the Sox actually won the World Series my freshman year, and those riots that followed.

But now I'm here in South America, and the best I can do is watch ESPN Gamecast, which is hardly a substitute. I've got no one to talk to about the game and it's extremely boring watching an animated ball slowly go to the fake plate on the tiny diamond. But it's the best I can get, and while the connection comes and goes and my laptop battery pushes the limit, I have to hope that I can make it through the game. Because of some strange blockage in signal, I can't pick up the Internet in my room, where I have access to an outlet, but rather have to sit in the hall where there are no electrical outlets, wasting my battery.

But this is the sacrifice a fan makes. I'll sit by and probably get a lot of radiation in the process, but as long as I can keep an eye on my Sox, it's worth it. And now, in the Top of the 3rd inning, it's 1-0 Boston. I'm not even sure how it got this far. The Rays were poised to beat them two games ago, and all of my information comes in slower than a turtle stampede through peanut butter, so all I know is that a game is on.

But enough of writing about this, I'm getting back to the game...sort of.

An Antique Car Show in Cuenca

Good news! Video is back on the blog. Hooray! Yesterday morning an antique car show wound its way through the center of Cuenca, and I was there to take some video of it. It was pretty interesting, because it though I didn't grow up in the 50s and have no idea what it was like, it sort of reminded me of it. The cars were basically parading around the girls who were competing for the "Queen of Cuenca" title. Some of the supporters of the girls would march by following the car with banners with the pictures of the candidates and chant their names loudly.

Some of the cars in the parade were actually just old, and not necessarily antiques, and didn't really belong in the show. I was told that this is all part of the festivals for the celebration of Cuenca's Independence Day on November 4th. There will be about five days of celebration and the town will pick a queen.

Maybe the most interesting part of the parade was a man in white, shown in the video, who really seemed to love the whole process, and cheered as much as he could. There was also a KFC car which drove by boasting the good name of the colonel. KFC is huge down in Ecuador, and there's one on just about every corner here. McDonald's and Burger King don't stand a chance against the fried chicken. It was actually my dinner last night. Sometimes you just get a plate of fried chicken and it turns out it's from the colonel. KFC should just set up their base of operations in Quito.

Later that night I went to a tribute concert for a band called Soda Stereo in the center of town. There were three tribute bands that played the music of Soda Stereo, and the place was going nuts. The music wasn't bad, but I was just tired and kind of out of it, so I just sat there and daydreamed for about 3 hours, with background music of course.

Here's the short video of some of the cars driving by, and the man in white, of course.

And The Tomebamba is Angry Today

Every day as I walk to the university I pass by the Rio Tomebamba on Avenida 12 de abril. It's a nice walk and really pretty, except for the fact that it's been raining hard on and off every day this month. When I first got to Cuenca at the end of September, the river was placid and rock strewn. The water quickly rushed by, but was not overbearing, and you could see the big boulders and rocks that cover the riverbed.

As October is one of the rainiest months here in Cuenca, the river has continually been rising and growing more powerful. Every day as I walk by I can see little changes, and slowly over the last week I've noticed that the boulders and rocks have disappeared as the water level has risen higher and higher. It's not that I'm worrying about there being a flood, but I wonder how long it will continue to climb.

You can't see the rocks anymore, but just the white water-like rapids that bounce around as the water jumps over the humps, and the river banks, already low and unprotected, have been losing ground. I was told by a local that further down the city some of the poorer people live too close to the river and when it rises they are in danger. I'm wondering now how they're doing in this rainy month.

The Tomebamba is an angry river now, flowing down from the mountains and through the city. Some people still wash their clothes in it, and occasionally I'll walk by and see a family on the grass, all of their laundry strewn out, waiting for a dip. Others choose to pee in it.

This morning I went to class and noticed the river was rushing by like always, but it didn't seem unusual. But two hours later as I left class I could see that it had dramatically risen, and was now a dirty, murky brown color. Nothing could be seen in the water, except for the occasional boulder that has some water cleared over it. I could see that the bank was starting to overflow, and then it started to pour again. How much longer before it reaches the street?

Above: Rio Tomebamba, before the rains

Sometimes Teaching Takes a Backseat to Soccer

Tonight there is a big game between Ecuador and Venezuela, and as a result, my night class was all but canceled. It's kind of funny. Normally I teach from 6-8 p.m. and was already planning on letting the class out at 7, since it's pointless to expect anyone to stick around. The game is part of the qualifying matches to play in the World Cup.

It wouldn't be fair to expect students to stick around for a night class for a game that's as big as the Superbowl or World Series. It wouldn't be fair, but every game is like that. When I walked into the office today the secretary informed me that I was to let class out at 6:30 and then proceed to the nearest TV and watch the soccer game. I had no problem obeying.

It's just kind of tough to teach a class in 30 minutes. You don't really get through much at all, and as soon as you get rolling, it's time to go. So all told, it was kind of a wasted class altogether. And tomorrow we're watching a movie. So I hope that by the end of the week the students have actually learned something.

After giving the first tests of the semester, I had to offer some extra points so that the students that failed won't fail miserably. Just kind of scrape the top of failing. It's tough to expect much when you don't really know what the educational system is like, but I'd hope that the students would have done better. It's just going to take some more dedication and attention to the needs of the students to see what they really need time on.

So right now I'm at home watching the game with the family. Ecuador was up 1-0, but Venezuela just scored while I was typing this, so now it's getting exciting. The whole country is watching. This is the most important thing going on tonight. Back to the game.

Tootin' My Own Horn

In another case of shameless self promotion, you can find an article I just wrote on Matador Travel.
The article runs as a brief explanation of the bus hijacking incident last month, and follows up with some tips that I think could help if you found yourself in a similar situation. It's got some good information in there, so take a look.

A Weekend in Baños, Part 4: Swinging with Monkeys

As we headed into Puyo, you could see that the topography was changing. It was much more lush and green as the vegetation became thick and lively. We passed by small towns and little tiendas all along the road, giving off the good smell of the tantalizing street meat. At Fundación Los Monos Selva y Vida, it felt a bit like entering Jurassic Park.

The 6 of us were a bit apprehensive at first. No one wanted to touch the monkeys and get Ebola. But as we saw the workers playing with them and they assured us they were tranquilo, we moved in closer. First we saw spider monkeys playing with a dog and fighting over a palm tree branch. Then some of the monkeys were wrestling with each other. We were warned that they would steal anything you had, so all we brought with us was our cameras.

Some of the monkeys didn´t want to play much, but others were swinging from ropes and jumping onto people. Some monkeys napped in the fetal position while a few others made a small girl cry hysterically as they jumped on her. We were shown different types of monkeys, then a couple of turtles and an ant eater, before we were lead over to the monkey swing.

A huge rope had been fastened to some trees, and you could swing, through the jungle, with a monkey on the swing with you. At first no one wanted to, but eventually we all took the opportunity to swing with them. The monkeys liked the women better though, and didn´t really want to ride with me. But as I swung back and forth I reached out for one, and he tried to grab on but didn´t make it.

After the swing, a couple of monkeys started to jump onto my head and shoulders, as they played games around us. It was an incredible way to end the trip, and as we left, it was clear that it was a great experience.

Back at the hostel, we rested up and showered and headed out for a final dinner. The town was active again, but we just wanted to have a little wine and hang out in the hostel before another big travel day.

I´d run out of money by the next day and had to start borrowing for everything, even just to get home. All told I spent over $80, but it was a great weekend that was definitely worth the experience. For the hostel, we only spent about $24 on two nights, two breakfasts, and some beers. The mountain bike excursion was $22 and we got to play with monkeys in the end. And getting to and from Ambato was about $8 each way. So all told, it was a pretty reasonable trip with some great results.

Coming back into Cuenca with thick fog and rain falling consistently, it was gray and tiring, but a definite relief to be back. It's feeling more and more like a home, and it was nice to get out of the "tourist" role and back into the "living here for a while" role. Back home, it's time to get back to the teaching.

Above: A monkey on my back, monkey's fighting a dog for a palm tree branch, a monkey with a stick

A Weekend in Baños, Part 3: Mountain Biking

Heading out on the small road, we took up positions as some people went out in front and others hung back by the truck following us. It had been a while since I rode a bike, so it took me a few minutes to get my bearings, but once the awkwardness was out of the way, it was smooth sailing. The old saying is true, once you learn how to ride a bike, you never forget. It felt great to be cruising down the hill with the wind blowing in my face and the sun on my skin as I weaved recklessly from left to right avoiding pot holes, cars, and occasionally people.

The scenery was absolutely spectacular, and the most difficult part of the trip was finding the balance between looking from side to side at the mountains and keeping an eye on the road. The bikes were nothing special, and in fact, they wound up breaking down as the day went on. First one of the tires blew out on Charlotte, and later her chain came loose. Shortly after that, my chain came loose, and later Charlotte´s chain broke again, so we had to ditch the bikes just as the biking portion of the tour was ending. But that wasn´t until later on in the day.

We went out with 6 of us, along with two other men and a son. The men worked on construction projects for U.S. Embassies all over the world, and the 11 year old son had already lived in Nicaragua, Cambodia, Japan, and now Ecuador. He said that he usually learned the language and translated for his dad, but when he left the country he would forget most of the language. The kid was really cool and mature for his age. I want to be him when I grow up.

We passed by waterfalls and tall peaks that you needed to stretch your neck up to see the tops of. We would take a few stops along the way, but just for a couple of pictures and to adjust the bikes. Most of the trip was downhill, and it was very easy and pleasant. As the day went on, the sun was getting hotter, and I could feel my skin burning without any sunblock. There was little I could do except borrow some from my friends and hope it held up.

After Charlotte´s bike had a flat, we stopped in a little rest area with a view of a valley and 3 or 4 tiendas for about a half hour while it was fixed. I sat down under a tent to avoid the sun and talked for a little bit with a professor from the University of Ambato, who was touring the area with his family. It was nice and relaxing, and just enough time to get out of the sun and rest up in the middle of the day.

Once the bike came back we pushed on, but trouble soon developed as the bike broke down again, and Charlotte was fed up with the problems. A short exchange with the guide left a dent in the bed of the truck, which he was not happy about, and soon after that, we had reached the end of the biking part of the excursion. Ending at a waterfall called Machay, we took about an hour to hike down the steep path and check it out.

It was probably one of the biggest waterfalls I´ve ever seen, and it was worth the 50 cents to get in. Once you got down there you could head down the path to the pools of water where the falls hit or just stand back and still get hit by all of the mist coming out. We stayed down there for a while until we were refreshed, but of course after hiking back up to the road we were hot and sweaty once again.

After wards, we piled into the truck, somehow comfortably fitting 7, and started driving the rest of the way towards Puyo, at the edge of the Amazon Rain Forest, also called the Oriente in Ecuador. Once we got into town we had lunch which was included in the cost of the trip. We all got a soup with every bit of the chicken, including the liver, feet, and head. We could then choose from grilled chicken, pork, or steak. It was delicious and extremely necessary, as we were all starting to crash after the long day.

After lunch we headed out to the animal reserve, where we would play with monkeys.
Continued in Part 4...

Above: Images from the bike ride, Machay waterfall