Always keen to get my priorities straight, the first thing I sought to discover about Trujillo – once I’d received confirmation of my job here – was the name of the local football team. Fortunately, in São Paulo I had my good friend – and walking encyclopaedia of South American football – Euan Marshall to consult on the matter, and quicker than you can say “R2, fire up the converters,” he informed me that the team you are looking for is Club Deportivo Universidad César Vallejo.
Master Euan then went on to provide an evaluation of César Vallejo’s current squad, although I must admit I lost track when he recited the name of Peruvian goal machine (apparently) Andy Pando. I was distracted, not just because it is unusual to hear of a namesake of mine of South American origin, but because the last thing you expect is to find a Peruvian with kinship links to a puppet from the UK.
Pandy / Pando: separated at birth by a phoneme (and a sky blue stripe).
Upon arriving in Trujillo my next concern, obviously, was to locate Vallejo’s stadium, a problem that was resolved soon enough during my tour of the NGO’s staff house when I spotted the tell-tale sign of floodlights from the terraced roof:
