Back in Ayacucho

 

I'm in Ayacucho, having arrived yesterday for a two-evening colloquium on "Class, Gender, and Building of Peace in Peru".

I'm staying at the rather pleasant ViaVia Hotel, right the main square.

The hotel is located in Colonial  mansion that has been fixed up with funds from Belgium and is run by the ViaVia traveller's cafe and hotel chain  - they even have Belgian beers on sale in the restaurant.

Normally, I'd stay at the family home on Garcilazo de la Vega street, two block from here, but it's never that comfortable -despite being free- so I opted for the hotel and hot showers on demand.

Not much sooner than I had arrived than the power went out and remained out through lunchtime and on into the late evening.

That meant that I missed all of the Argentina-Holland soccer game in the World Cup except for the addiional time added on because they were tied at the end of egulation time.

The game went to penalty kicks, which I had to miss as otherwise I'd have been late to the colloquium. Fortunately, like sio many others, I could keep up with the progress at any shop doorway and window!

In Lima!

We arrived in Lima late last night, and pretty much just settled in for the night without even unpacking, as it was well after midnight by the time we got home.

Today, we had a lazy Sunday with the family.  Willy picked us up in the morning and we headed to the San Jose Market in the "downtown" part of Jesus Maria, where we picked up the ingredients for a North Coast-style lamb stew (seco de cordero a la nortena).

The lamb and mutton butcher's stall. Note the tuft of wool left on the carcass'
tail in order to show that it is indeed lamb, and not goat.

We then went to Jacho's apartment in Los Eucaliptos to fix the lunch, where we were joined by Mito, Pali, Jose, Carlita, and Tono.

Liz and I took the opportunity between Wordl Cup games and before everyone arrived to head to the Metro supermarket here in San Felipe to get some necessities, some wine for lunch, and to get SIM cards for our phones.

After lunch Liz and I adjourned to our apartment to take care of stuff -unpacking, taking stock of the pantry, and so on- and to watch the USA-Portugal game.

The Octopus was right

Turns out that the octopus was right.  And so was the guinea pig.

Today was the day that Spain played Germany to determine which team would advance and play against The Netherlands for FIFA world champion, and which would play against Uruguay for third place.

I wound up having lunch at my aunt Betty's again, and we had settled in to watch the game in the living room, but I was still itching to go out, so I corralled Chapo into coming downtown with me to watch  the game at a soccer bar called Estadio, in the Plaza San Martin.

Estadio was full, so they directed us to their other locale, the Rincon Cervercero, around the corner on Jiron de la Union, half a block from the plaza.    Traffic had been heavy so, despite leaving well ahead of time, we nonetheless missed most of the first half.

I ordered myself a 1 L chopp of Cristal beer and some apetizers to share, and we sat back to enjoy the game on an HD plasma  screen.   Most of the crowd was rooting for Spain, but there were two young women  who were given many pains by the constant Spanish attacks on the German goal line.  They kept covering their eyes and bit their fingernails throughout the whole game.

The bar itself was kinda cool.  It was decorated with beer posters and signs, the staff was dressed in mock German clothes -corduroy lederhosen for the guys, and short dirndl-like dresses for the gals- and there were a number of amusing life-sized figures posed throughout.

After pressing hard for the first half, Spain managed to score on the Germans, and the pulled back to a defensive strategy. 

Paul, the oracular octopus, who resides in a German aquarium, had correctly predicted the outcome of every match that Germany played in this Cup, and this time he had selected Spain.   As had the "Magic Guinea Pig" in Lima's downtown.   When we learned of this, despite Betty's scoffing, we knew it would not go easily for the German national team.

The Germans did try hard but neither they, nor the Spanish, despite some good breakouts, managed to score for the rest of the game.   Thus Germany went down 1-0, and a Spanish team advanced for the first time ever to the final game of the World Cup.

The octopus was right.  And so was the guinea pig.

¡Clasico!

VS.

Today there is a soccer game that is captivating all of Lima: a showdown between Alianza Lima and Club Universitario de Deportes.

Alianza and U are among the oldest and most established soccer teams in Peru. Alianza has always been located in the working class, and largely Afro-Peruvian neighborhood of La Victoria, while U was originally a university team. These origins in time lead to Alianza being identified with workers, blacks, and mestizos, while U has appealed to a whiter, more moneyed crowd. These, of course, are not absolutes, and each has fans in all segments of society, but that identification has meant that U - Alianza matches have been surrogates for all manner of tensions and struggles in Lima, and Peruvian, society since their first meet in 1928.

Theirs is now the quintessential rivalry of Peruvian soccer, and any match between them is referred to as a "clásico" and is a flashpoint for hooligan violence in the stands and on the streets.

Today's Clásico -of which the 1st half has just ended with Alianza up 1-0 - is being played in the U's Estadio Monumental on the outskirts of Lima, and everyone connected to it in an official capacity has gone out of their way to assure everyone that it will be peaceful and sportsmanlike, on the field and off.

The stadium is full today, with the Alianza fans occupying their usual southern sections of the stands, and the U taking up the north and eastern sectors. If U wins, it may be OK, but it doesn't seem likely that the barras bravas will take kindly to U's being beaten on their own turf.

As for us, we're comfortably esconced in front of the TV at home...

Fútbol

Last night we went to a soccer match between Club Universitario de Deportes, La "U", of Lima and Cusco's Club Cienciano. The U was playing for the title of Champion in Peru's Torneo Apertura so it made for an exciting match and a boisterous crowd, specially since it was being played at the U's own Estadio Monumental.

It took us over an hour to get there as the traffic was so bad and the cops had closed the streets closest to the stadium. The authorities had granted permission for the stadium to be filled to its 70,000 capacity, so the lines to get in were long. We got in after the game had started and had to negotiate our way through the crowds to get to our seats, which were among just 500 numbered seats for this game. We had excellent seats: 16 rows back and right on the midfield line.

The game was a good one, with Cienciano keeping the U's goalie quite busy throughout the match. However, the crowd was way more fun, with the chanting and singing going on (70,000 voices can get quite loud), and the constant flares being set off despite reminders over the loudspeakers that "pyrotechnics of any sort are prohibited."

The U defeated Cienciano 3-1 and won the championship.