I’m Lazy as a Man Can Be

Sunday 14 March
Canoa

I’m a fan of Formula One. I’ve barely missed a race since 1997. Except for 2002 and 2004 which were as boring as hell. The last three years have been great, and you really have to say that’s down to Lewis Hamilton and Ross Brawn. But anyway that’s another story. Today was the start of the 2010 Formula One season and unfortunately the race was at 7 am local time.

I had spoken to the guy who ran one of the bars in Canoa that had a TV and had the necessary sports channels. He said he would be open for the Grand Prix at 7 am. But I thought there was a good chance that he wouldn’t be, given that he was always drunk whenever I saw him. Not to reinforce cultural stereotypes or anything but the bar was called Shamrock (yes, an Irish bar in Canoa...) and he was Irish!

I woke up nice and early and checked ... the bar was closed. So I resorted to the internet. I managed to find some streaming video of the race although it was in (I think) Russian. But it wasn’t very reliable (not least because the wifi wasn’t the fastest) and every now and then it would stop and I would have to find another one. But with a combination of that and the BBC website live text updates I could follow the race more or less. Apparently it was quite boring but you don’t notice that when you’re constantly waiting for streaming videos to load. It was annoying that the confirmed cheat Alonso won on his debut for Ferrari but you can’t have everything. At least Schumacher was lacklustre. Who would have predicted an Alonso-Massa-Hamilton podium? Later I downloaded the BBC highlights and watch them properly.

There’s not much to do on Sundays in Canoa. Most places close down. I did a bit of sunbathing and there was a massive dog fight (as in a fight consisting of dogs, nothing to do with aeroplanes) on the beach. The barking continued sporadically for much of the rest of the day, and some of the night (see tomorrow’s post).

In the evening I went walking through town but there was nothing happening. I bumped into Carlos and we talked at each other in broken English and Spanish. He sang a song as he played on his bongos which was a bit strange. Where there is Spanish (speaking) people there is always music, as Henri Charrière said. He improvised it apparently and it was actually quite good, though I didn’t know what he was saying.

I spent the evening at the hotel which put on a roast dinner for Sunday, which was nice. I found myself talking to a grumpy old Englishman whose main concern was to top anything you said with something he thought was more interesting, but usually wasn’t. He was really irritating but he did tell me two interesting facts, one was that Quito is full of Elderberry trees, and that they are constantly in all stages of the reproduction cycle – shoots, buds, flowers, seeds – as there are no seasons to adhere to, so they do everything all the time. The other was that lorries and busses usually start in third gear and the first two are only used for going up or starting on hills with heavy loads. FACT!