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Published: June 11th 2006
Last night I left Ecuador and flew to Lima. Before leaving I watched Ecuador´s first match of the World Cup at the school with some of the staff and students. When I asked people how they thought their team would do in this match they would usually say Poland were too good and it would be a miracle if Ecuador won. Even so, the yellow shirts were out in force in the morning on the streets of Quito and there was a real buzz in the air. South Americans
really care about football. So when the first Ecuador goal went in, the place went crazy. And again for the second. Nobody had seemed to believe that they could win but they did, and very convincingly, with a final score of 2-0. Towards the end of the match it started raining very hard and it continued to do so for most of the afternoon, but people were spilling out of bars with broad grins on their faces, and everyone on the road was tooting their car horns in celebration for hours. It was a crazy atmosphere and I didn´t really want to leave, but I had a flight to catch so I said my goodbyes to the people at the school, and to Matt who has been my partner in crime for the last two weeks and to Susana, her daughter and her housekeeper who have looked after me so well and made me feel so welcome.
I´ll never forget my time in Quito but it´s time to move on, so here I am in Lima. I´m staying in the Miraflores district on the coast. This morning I got up early to watch England beat Paraguay and somehow it didn´t seem anywhere near as exciting as the Ecuador match. Tonight I meet up with the other people on the tour and find out more about what we´ll be doing for the next 24 days, and tomorrow morning we set off to Pachacamac to see pre-Inca and Inca ruins and to Paracas and its National Park.
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Simon
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Our first game was'nt totlly convincing but historic nonetheless. We have only beaten Columbia in '98 in an opener in a major tournament out of 8 starts recently (World and European)! Not scoring in the second half is a popular English trait too. I spent the second half in the garden as it was Hedy's second birthday party yesterday and we have had our first heatwave of the summer over the last few days, 29C yesterday. She is now totally overwhelmed with toys if she wasn't before. Say hello to the Incas for me!