What’s worse, Tasmanians: being left off the map, or being mistaken for Some Other Island?
In the reception of our hotel in Guadalajara, the DoubleTree by Hilton, there is the expansive mural as shown above.
It even includes Tasmania…but not labelled as Tasmania.
An explainer next to the art work New Neighbours by Octavio Abundez says that it draws names from mythology, history, literature and so on rather than using the modern political names.
Thus Tasmania is named Aepyornis Island.
Wait what?. It’s darn easy to so a search on the term and come up with the following:
Aepyornis, also known as the “elephant bird,” was a giant, flightless bird native to Madagascar that went extinct around 1000 AD, likely due to human activity. The largest species, Aepyornis maximus, is considered one of the biggest birds to have ever lived, with eggs larger than any other known amniote.
Madagascar?! Not even in the same ball park, thank you very much. We might have had a few emu species that are now extinct but no elephant bird. I am unimpressed by your amniote and its super-sized ovulation, sir.
Anyway if you had to come up with a mythical/legendary name for Tasmania, what would you choose?
Thursday was another ‘lay day’ so we headed out to explore more of Guadalajara. We found a local market that had lots of interesting stuff, including lucha libre wrestling masks. I was looking for one in Socceroos colours, and found one, but the lady said it was a high quality one ‘for semi-professionals’; at 60 plus, I am not about to embark on a career in the ring, suffice to say.
I did find a modestly-priced one in Hobart Hurricanes purple so you just might see that character haunting the outer at Bellerive Oval later this year. And a Mexican one for our appointment in Mexico City at the round of the 32 game that is now confirmed as Mexico v Sweden in the Azteca Stadium.
Not semi-professional. Absolute damn amateur.
After lunch and a coffee we took the metro train to Zapopan. The stations were practically spotless and, being around peak hour, there was a train every five minutes. With the Guadalajara Centro station being right next to our hotel, and the Zapopan station being just across the road from where we were heading, it was both convenient and very fast.
At Zapopan there is a very impressive bit of official yarn-bombing with a crocheted walkway cover. The extremely detailed work features the colours and flags of the countries who are playing World Cup games in Guadalajara.
Zapopan is suburban hub in its own right. Think Glenorchy without the bogans in black track suits. We enjoyed a pleasant walk along the pedestrian mall where there were all kinds of things going on.
Eventually it was time for Australia v Paraguay. Inside the giant marquee there were three screens which…were all showing the USA v Turkey game that was on at the same time. We begged the organisers to switch at least one over to the Socceroos game to please the four Australians there.
While the Turkeyanks played out a rollicking 3-2 game that was never going to affect the standings (highlights here), Australia and Paraguay battled for a gritty 0-0 draw, highlights here. The result suited both teams with Australia clinching second place in the group and progressing to the elimination round for only the third time in history. Paraguay finished on four points which should be enough to also get them a ticket to the round of 32.
In other games Curacao bowed out with 0-2 loss to Ivory Coast (highlights here) while Ecuador upset Germany 2-1 (highlights here) to snag third place in the group.
In group F Japan and Sweden drew 1-1 (highlights here) while Netherlands sent Tunisia packing 3-1 (highlights here). The Dutch topped the group followed by Japan, while Sweden as mentioned earlier will face Mexico in the round of 32.
Friday in the Americas sees another three groups to be decided: Norway v France, Senegal v Iraq; Cape Verde v Saudi Araba, Uruguay v Spain; Egypt v Iran, New Zealand v Belgium.
We are heading to the Uruguay-Spain game here in Guadalajara, kick-off 6pm local time. Both sets of supporters seem quietly confident but Uruguay desperately need to win to guarantee a place in the next round.
Showers are predicted for the evening so we might be singing in the rain again.
Enjoy the football and have fun!
Alan Whykes is a Tasmania-based writer and an ex- too many things to list.
This blog is the start of a new section called Tas At Large which showcases stories of Tasmanian diaspora let loose upon the world.
References may be made in this blog to various other publications, bloggers, columns, services, businesses, government departments and so on. Tasmanian Times has no commercial relationship with these entities; links if included are there on merit and relevance.
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