Today I went to watch profe Guido's soccer team play on their home turf. I can't really do their field justice using words, so instead I will use some media:
This is the view from behind one of the goals. The land beyond that road is the next province over--Imbabura. I'm told that there are a few waterfalls within a few kilometers of here, and one of them is swimmable. I plan to investigate this soon.
This video pretty much sums up the awesomeness of this field. The lady runs as fast as she can across the field, during a play, loaded down by yucca. You can see how the road cuts through one of the goalie boxes, and near the end another lady crosses on the road, almost interrupting the play. There are no lines painted on the field, so the ref guesstimates when the ball has gone out of bounds.
Afterwards, we played some voli. I lost $2. Pretty much every voli game is played for some amount of money, even if it's only the cost of a bottle of soda. The saying goes "se gasta mucha plata para aprender como jugar voli bien." You gotta spend a bunch of dough to learn how to play. The ballers in bigger towns spend $10 or $20 per person per game. In an area where the basic wage is $10 a day, you can make a living off the sport if you're good.
On a side note, the process of starting a voli game is quite interesting. All the interested parties mingle on the court for a while. Finally they figure out what the two teams of 3 people each are. Then they pair off the players and discuss their relative abilities. For example, let's say it's A, B and C against D, E and F. Let's say that A and D are at about the same skill level, as are B and E. But C is much better than F. In order for F's team to agree to and bet on a game, they will demand that C play with a handicap. A handicap can take the form of: use-one-hand-only or always-use-both-hands.
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