Chronicles of the Wayward MootWELCOME TO THE MOOT, oh world-wanderers and word-whisperers. After two years of Peace Corps. After 2,200 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail. What. Comes. Next? |
28 May 2006
OK so I've been getting into a rhythm with this blog posting thing as you may have noticed. Not sure if it's because these days I just have a lot more interesting stuff to post than I did during training (An example of what THAT would have been like: Umm, today we had potatoes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They were pretty much as good as the potatoes we had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner yesterday, and the day before for that matter...), or because using the internet here is free, or because I really don't have a sweet castillo of an apartment and frankly, the tourism office is a more comfortable place to spend my lonely nights than that rusty abandoned Mini Cooper with a tree growing out of it that I've REALLY been using for a home this last month. So whatever the reason, here's some more scoop on the goings on in Ecuador.
Yesterday was a wild day. Of course there were the splendid photo opps that I tried to take advantage of, but there was also that Belgian TV crew that wanted an English interpreter. Yeah, so basically this gang of four very European-looking guys (what does that mean you ask...well dude sometimes you can just TELL, OK?) came into town and there was only one of them who spoke any real Spanish, so my counterpart arranged for me to wander around with them and help with translating if necessary. They were filming an episode of some absolutely unpronounceable Belgian TV show which roughly translates to "Tierra de Vacaciones" which roughly translates to "Land of Holidays." Basically it's a weekly show airing in Belgium and Holland that promotes places for tourism but also has a bit of an interest in fair-trade style industry. Anyways, that's all the really interesting parts of that story ... they got here pretty late in the day and so only had an hour and a half of light in which to shoot their footage. To be perfectly honest, I think the most fascinating thing they encountered here was the statue/fountain in the Parque Central of a little kid taking a piss. I had only noticed it in passing before yesterday, but immediately they set upon it and I think spent more time filming their show's host walking past it and making faces than anything else here including the santuario and the antique houses and mountain vistas. I must say though, once I took a real look at the statue, it was pretty intriguing. The little person depicted has the body of a three year old, but the dangly bits of someone much older. I don't think three year olds are even supposed to HAVE dangly bits, but this little man had them and more. I'll have to post a pic one day. Anyways, the Belgians asked me why he was so -ahem- big. I didn't have an answer but reminded them that we are in a supposedly machismo nation. That satisfied them I think and they exchanged knowing nods and chuckles. They explained that the legend in Belgium is that there was a big fire in Brussels once upon a time and a quick-thinking little tyke had the bright idea to whizz on the fire and therefore save the city. So that's how the image of a kid taking a piss became the beloved symbol of Belgium, or something, and that's why there were so fascinated by the statue HERE. Riiiiiight. So anyways, the night ended in me getting free dinner at one of the nicer restaurants around. My meal cost $4.50, WHOAH NOW! Let's not get CRAZY or anything!
Today brought a different form of entertainment. Sueño Azul came to perform. They did not disappoint. I want to correct an error I made though - they are not from Cuenca as I'd thought, they're from Guayaquil. Which explains the tans. Anyhoo, not much needs to be said about this group. They're four women who sing and dance without many clothes. They don't play instruments... all of the music comes from pre-recorded tracks and they just sing over it and shake various parts of their bodies while some lackey messes around with a smoke machine in an attempt to make them more dream-like I suppose. It was still fun though. The music is catchy, the bodies in the crowd were bumping, and the Ecuadorian drunks are endlessly entertaining. The concert was up in the swimming pool complex and by the time the show was over and the girls were leaving the stage, I counted 24 empty beer bottles, a plastic beer crate, and a drunk guy floating in the pool. Not bad for only an hour and a half. Now it's raining and I have a cold night in the rusty Mini Cooper to face. Ciao.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home