Soccer and Ingapirca

This past weekend was full of adventures…

More Water...
A couple of us spent Saturday exploring Cuenca further while actively dodging bombas. We were pretty successful. Within four hours we were only squirted three times and drenched when a teen in the back of a moving pickup dumped a massive cement bucket full of water on top of us. We have become much better at realizing when we need to cross streets and duck into little stores.

El fútbol...
On Saturday night my host family took me to the soccer game between Cuenca and Quito. As you may have guessed, soccer is easily the national sport. The streets were super crazy and my host mother took a hold of my hand and didn’t let it go until we entered the stadium. There were no security checks involving brush downs, just the presentation of your ticket and “Buenos dias”. The pre-game took forever! When each Cuenca player was announced, he was accompanied across the stage by a female model wearing stilettos. Not gonna lie, it was pretty entertaining to watch these poor women march up the stage stairs and cross the stage with all of this poise only to awkwardly and treacherously make their way down the stairs to pick up the next player. Silly shoes. Anyway, I was surprised by the super chill crowd. Yes, the people certainly had plenty to drink, but they didn’t get as riled up as I anticipated. My host mother explained that this was because a friendly rivalry exists between the two towns and there’s no need to get too upset. The crowd was decked out in red and yellow as those are Cuenca’s colors. When I was younger I would associate towns with colors because of Little League. But other then that, never. One section in the stadium was full of people cheering with torches! Unbelievable. Obviously, I was sitting in the boring section. Unfortunately, there were a few smokers around us and man can that ruin your enjoyment level. There was also a sweet display of fireworks and officials lit several mini hot air balloons and let them off into the sky. During the game this little girl about age 13 was selling beer. So weird to see. The game itself was pretty exciting simply because I was sitting next to my host family’s 12-yr-old granddaughter and holy cats does that girl get excited. The game ended with a tie and there was no shootout. When we exited the stadium several men were taking a leak into some hedges across the street.

Ingapirca...
On Sunday our group visited Ingapirca, Ecuador’s most important Incan archaeological ruins. The main attraction is the Temple of the Sun, a stone structure that was built without mortar! The stones were carved to fit together perfectly. Such precision. Its elliptical shape corresponds with the movement of the sun because the site was used for astronomy purposes. It was quite the sight to behold. Our guide took us on a beautiful hike around the countryside where one student from Manhattan saw a bull for the first time! Wowsers. It was so WONDERFUL to be surrounded by nature again. Cuenca is quaint and all, but this country girl is suffocating.