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  Esmeraldas, Ecuador
Monday, June 12, 2006

Here´s news that´s delayed a bit for those of you that keep up with the futbol (not football). Ecuador beat Poland in the World Cup 2-0!!!!!!!!!! I looked very stylish in my yellow jersey. They played on Friday, and by one, everything was closed for the day. Not even the taxis were on the road. I went with my cousin, Dianna and her new boyfriend, Dani to a bar to watch the game. It was actually pretty cool to watch. I´ve always been more of a football and hockey fan for all the brute violence, but with futbol you actually get to see the pain and exhiliration on the player´s faces! And there were actually a lot of injuries, I suppose since they´re not padded down two tons of armor. Oh yes, and the best part, they actually play for the entire hour and a half. None of this lets play for five minutes then break for fifteen while the commercials run. I never really could figure out the scoring in football anyway. I think I´m converting to futbol. And my god the excitement of the fans. We were in this tiny bar, but the second that first goal went in the room was shaking as everyone jumped up screaming and cheering. And by the second goal I was right there with them...hard not to get caught up in the suspense of it all. Awesome game.
It was actually just pure luck that I decided to come down to Ecuador at this time, but it was actually the best time to come. My Tio put it nicely when he said that this is one of the few happy days for his country. As soon as the game was over and we walked out of the bar, honking cars were speeding past packed full of yellow people waving flags. Here it´s very common, if you can afford a car, to have a camuneta (small truck). It´s always nice to be able to pack 25 or 30 people in the back of a truck, which was what all the streets were covered with. And then motorcycle gangs (not actual gangs but 10 or 15 bikes and atvs in one big group) stream by honking some more with the people in back trailing more flags. We hopped in the back of another camuneta. Dani sat in front with the boys and Diana and I piled in back with three other girls. Joanni (Diana´s cousin on the other side), Chella and Mari are friends of Diana´s and were laughing, screaming, and passing around a glass of wiskey. I was loathe to discover that on the coast, scotch wiskey is the drink. Don´t get me wrong, I´ll drink it, but who actually likes the taste of that?? Bleh! We sped through the city with open liquor (the boys of course had wiskey in the front as well). I´m curious where the police are. If there actually are speed limits, no one pays any attention, and their system of passing is great. Everyone drives like new york taxi drivers, in that they swerve in and out of other cars, pass between cars, honk non stop, and drive at absurd speeds. And since they all drive fast, no one drives in the right lane, yet it´s illegal to pass on the right. So half the time there´s an empty lane on the right, yet everyone is passing in lanes of oncomming traffic. Nothing like a 24/7 game of chicken, ladies. Did I mention where I have actually seen the cops? Laying on the beach in Atacames I see a police car pull right onto the sand. Cars can´t technically do that, but who´s going to say something? Three guys pile out of the car and I figure they´re there to arrest someone or as beach security, instead I see then strip down to their skivvies
and stroll out into the ocean.
So we arrive at Jorge Combe´s house. I´m always welcome once I´m introduced as Dianna´s cousin, but then Dianna mentions that I´m Chichi´s daughter. Good god it´s like their long lost daughte has returned the way they gush and chatter on and grab my face to see how much I look like my mother. This is actually pretty typical in Esmeraldas. My mother was a bit of a legend in that she was beautiful, vibrant, and the best dancer in the town. Jorge grew up with my mum and my Tio Jorge, his father and my grandfather were close friends. It´s actually fun to hear the way they go on and the stories they tell about my mum when she was my age. Aparently I look just like her then. He took me on a tour of his house and showed me some of my Abuelo´s paintings that I´ve never seen. He even made me call my mum long distance to chat with her. Then when I got back on the phone she tells me not to pay attention to anything that "boracho" (drunk) says.
She wasn´t being mean, that´s just how it is. Drinking to excess, especially for the older men, is the norm. And when I say that I hung out with my cousin and her friends drinking and chatting into the night, yes, they´re all in their twenties too, but they´re also all married with a couple of school-age kids. Jorge Combe is the father of Chella´s husband (the guy driving the camuneta), and we were all at the house because all of their collective children were running around playing futbol. By the end of the night we had to pour a few people, children in tow, out of the camuneta and back to their houses. Fun people though. Crazy, all of them, but fun.
Still, the most important thing is GANAMOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And we´ll kick the crap out of Costa Rica on Thursday!!!!

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