Toromatch

This past weekend kicked off the start of this very interesting activity called "ToroMatch", which is held annually at the Fundo Mamacona, which is like a huge hacienda that is still privately owned. Its to the south of Lima around 2o min on the way to Pachamac,the pre-incan ruins, and place to get good food. Mamacona has stables where they keep Paso Fino horses and grounds that they rent out for events. Its really pretty with older arquitecture and lots of green. In the middle of the desert of Pachacamac, it´s a little oasis of green.

The actual event of Toromatch is to bull fighting what intertube waterpolo is to waterpolo. Something done for fun with a slight lack of seriousness and is similiar in only a few key aspects of the game. In toromatch there are teams and a smaller bull. Do not get fooled into thinking the bull is a baby, as I was. This bull has horns, they call it a cow, and it´s head probably is around waist high. But, all things considered, it is not a full grown bull fighting animal. The teams are given different thing to do with the bull. Its kinda like the bull olympics and the spectators sit in the bull ring bleachers and gasp and laugh at what is going on in the ring.

Toromatch at Mamacona isn´t all bull goading games. Its an all afternoon event that has different activities like mini paint ball games, a hot air balloon, a place to shoot bows and arrows, jumpy castles and slides for kids, a dog show (or other event depending on the day) and food and drink for sale. All of these events cost extra money except the dog show that we saw. The bull games and the following cockfight and party happen after 4pm. We found the activity with the most bang for you buck-shooting bows and arrows! It was the first time either of us had done it and we were pleasently surprised with how much fun it was. Maybe it will convert itself into a new weekend hobby...

Anway, after we played our games and ate lucnh we settled downt to watch the games. One of the games is called Torogol (Bull Goals) and the point is the get the bull to chase you through two goal posts and score a goal (gol). This is achieved by basically making the bull mad enough to run after you. In the game we saw they bull seems trained to stop at the goal box. It would chase the person the entire way only to stop/or skid to a halt at the goal box. The winning team in this game scored just one goal.

From Toromatch

Other games/challenges/tests of *ahem* courage, included having to pass the bull through the bullfighter´s cape, twice. Once with a friend and then once by yourself.

From Toromatch

With friends.

In another challenge you had to try and get the little colorful sticks to stick to the bull. In a real bullfight, the colorful sticks have hooks in them that are used to debilitate the bull. The sticks in toromatch are supposed to have tape on them, so if you push hard enough, you should be able to get them to stick to the bull´s back. The same theory of getting the sticks to stick applies in both cases, however. You have to look the bull straight on while it charges you and reach over its head and place the sticks on the shoulder blade area. This is what happens to most of the participants-

From Toromatch

Very few participants who had to place the sticks actually kept their form...

From Toromatch

The last test we saw was one that didn´t seem to have a lot of sense except to subject the participants to being battere by a small sized bull. There is a circle of chalk on the ground and the team stands in a huddle inside and the bull rams them and they have to stay inside of the circle of chalk until the whistle blows...clearly this sport was thought up by men with beers...

From Toromatch

Between the commentary of the MC and the antics of the teams and the bulls, the audience is kept laughing and gasping and groaning at the misfortune of the teams in the ring. I found it thoroughly enjoyable, even if I wouldn´t consider it the one of the more classy/tasteful events I have been to.

But speaking of class, they did do a folkloric show at the beginning to kick off the season. They had dancers do a traditional Marinera Dance-the poor girls danced with no shoes in the bull ring.

We then saw some Peruvian Paso Fino horses do their thing. They are very interesting..the way they look it looks like they are a little duck footed and their legs kick out at the botton. It makes the look like they are always dancing. In fact, they do dance the Marinera and we got to see how it is done.

From Toromatch

From Toromatch

So I guess it wasn´t so uncultured...

It was nice to get out of Lima for a few hours and see some blue sky, coastline and green spaces. Hopefully with the slow arrival of Lima´s Spring and summer seasons, there will be more outings like this.

Keeping house in Peru

We moved out in mid July. It was very exciting and now we have our own little studio that we decked out with stuff from the department store. I was pretty lucky to find a furnished studio here for a pretty cheap price. We are paying less than half of what we had budgeted for a place with pretty much just the space we need minus a wall or two. When I was looking for places, you could find some really nice 3 bedrooms for pretty cheap, but they came unfurnished. And when I say unfurnished I mean, no finishings on the walls, no cabinets, no sinks and no countertops. Crazy. Peru takes "unfurnished" to a whole new level.

I finally found this studio on an expat site and after convincing the landlady that Carlos was not a random good for nothing Peruvian Hobo, we signed the lease and moved in! We decorated from the major department stores, but there wasn't a lot we had to do. We got some extra shelving for the kitchen and we put together an extra closet. We can now keep much of our stuff under control.

Preparing the closet

From Lima

The "bedroom" space

From Lima

Eating area

From Lima

Kitchen!!

From Lima

Entry and living space

From Lima

Completed closet

From Lima

A few things that I have experienced with keeping house in Lima:

-Clothes take FOREVER to dry. Like 3 or 4 days. I have found efficient ways of hanging Carlos´ dress shirts so they dry in a day and a half, but jeans and sweats are the worst. Good thing the softener and detergent keep things from smelling too bad. I am sometimes tempted to just take the stuff to a laundrymat, but then you have to deal with lost items, shrinkage and other generally ruined items.

-Mold. Along with Humidity comes mold. I recently found some nice fuzzy stuff on a basket by the door. I didn´t even think the basket was moist. Guess we will have to disinfect and dry out a lot of things and keep an eye on the musty corners of the house. Good thing I don´t have an aversion to mold-I actually think its really interesting all the different kinds you can get. The mold mostly crops up in the winter, and I have to count my lucky stars I don´t like next to the ocean.

-Food. Living with the BF means having to buy, prepare, and store more food. We share cooking responsibilities, I´m imposing North American standards here...:), but Carlos eats for 2 people. And we need lunch as well as dinner. I´m ok with sandwiches and sides, but he needs full meals so we always have to have a plethora of food. I am finding out that meat of all sorts here is expesnive, especially if you need to feed what equates to 6 people (C + me for lunch and dinner, C=2 people). As we are still recovering from equipping the house, money is still a little short. Yay for legumes. Something that is also niggling at the back of my mind every time we cook is the gas. The entire stove is gas including the oven and there is no way to monitor how much gas is being used so I am in constant fear that it is going to run out while we are in the middle of something. Since we don´t have a microwave, this could spell disaster. Carlos says the only way he knows about testing the gas is to lift the container and see how heavy it is.

-Installing internet. This was a three hour ordeal because the internet guys
couldn´t use an old cable from another company and so they had to look for another cable and it tood forever to feed the cable through the wall. After 2 hours, we finally had the service. Over all the was painless and the tech guys who install it make sure that everything works before they leave. You test the hardline internet and the wifi and the telephone. They also run the telephone cord and the internet cord wherever you want to put it and they tack it into the wall. All for free because we bought telephone and internet at the same time! All in all installing internet and phone was a lot less painful that I had expected, judging from the fact that we Peru. Props to Claro Peru our new internet provider!

I´m very glad that we have our own space now and that we are getting things set up and getting settled in. Its going to make my next 6 months in Lima that much easier.