The Dangers of Overheard Conversations (part II)

A Big Game?

I really don’t know what happened here. I was in Baños in Ecuador and overheard someone tell a friend that, “Boca va a jugar esta noche”. I took this as meaning that the famous Argentine football team had a game on in town. It did strike me as strange at the time but I guessed it must be true. Anyway, the other Brits who were there to learn Spanish with me all went along eagerly to the tiny stadium in town. We bought some snacks and eagerly settled down. I had my first serious doubts when a couple of overweight 40 year olds starting warming up gingerly in front of an otherwise empty stadium. It turned out to be a training routine for a local pub team and they must have been bemused to see a group of popcorn munching gringos watching them from the sidelines.

Last Stop

I was on a long bus journey as usual and was heading to Lima. The buses here have a driver and an assistant who takes tickets, unpacks bags and keeps the driver supplied with alcohol and coca. Anyway, this assistant said to a fellow passenger, “Ya estamos in Lima”, so I rushed out of my seat, grabbed my rucksack and hopped down the stairs into a deserted one horse town. Fortunately I knew that Lima had more than 10 houses in it and so got back on the bus before it pulled out again. I spent the rest of the journey trying to figure out what he had actually said and couldn’t manage it. I might have managed to learn Spanish but I haven’t yet learned how to overhear conversations properly.