Back in Peru again

Change of Language

From now on, I will write my blog in English. The reason is simple, a lot of the people I know are able to read English. For instance, people from tadaaa England, The U.S., but also from The Netherlands and a lot of people in South-America. Dutch only works for people for the Netherlands, and in my country basically everyone speaks and reads English. By the way, never been a grammar junkie, so if you’ll find big errors, keep it to yourself or let me know!  Here goes…

Lima revised

A lot of travelers and Peruvians say Lima is not what you would call ‘heaven on earth’, this might be true, in comparising with Cuzco and its ‘holy valley’, but cheer up the city with on third of the population of the whole country has more beautiful sides and sites than people try to make me (you) believe!

In the beginning, as most Gringos know, there is the historical centre with it’s plaza de armas and the places around. But also the well known Miraflores and Larcomar are the places most Gringos visit. But a lot of people forget to visit the adobe pyramids, or for instance Huaca Pucllana, the beautiful fountains, or the beach with its opportunities to paraglide. (Which I haven’t done up until this far). And of course training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

AJ @ Huaca Pucallana

 

Martial Arts in Peru

As most people already know, one of my biggest passions is Martial Arts. This was the main reason I visited Brazil in the first place. Brazil is in my humble opinion, the best country for Martial Arts, or better in Mixed Martial Arts, followed by Holland as a good second

country and Japan and the U.S. following on the third and forth place. But what about Peru? Peru is known for their ancient in heritage of the Incas and the beautiful lines at Nazca. Some will even tell you that Peru is the country with the most different microclimates, and that it also has a big coastline with a lot of beautiful beaches and a good places for surfers, which occasionally produces worldchampions in surfing. But Peru is also a country with a lot of Jungle and the mysterious Lake Titicaca. The basic knowledge about Peru usually stops here. But what about Martial Arts in Peru?

Tony de Souza a (post)modern & traditional warrior

The origins of Brazilian Martial Arts, comes form Brazil and the family the Gracie’s. But as this variant of Martial Arts proved to be more effective in MMA than Kickboxing, for instance the sport spread as virus around the world. As it also reached their neighbor country Peru. As far i can oversee there are only three Peruvian black belts in BJJ (correct me if I am wrong!!). But it is growing! In my humble oppinion I think I trained with the best Peruvian Fighter, called Tony de Souza. Tony is an remarkable man, in the beginning because he called his style ‘Cholitzu’, witch has it roots in American Wrestling, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Boxing. The famous ‘Peruvian necktie’, for example, is an invention made by Tony and used a lot with one of his best friends BJ Penn. If reincarnation turns out to be true, I would not be suprised if Tony was the last General who fought against the Spanish infaders at  Sacsayhuaman.

Tony & AJ in Cuzco

On top of his unorthodox fighting style there is Tony’s unorthodox or very orthodox  appearance. I guess like all things this depens of the eye of the beholder. To begin with he has a big beard as an eastern philosopfer or wise man and makes fun at all times and all places. He seems to lack a respect of what is the standard way of living and doing. In him I found a real friend with who I can share a lot of interests with, stuff that have to do with the mind, personal development, spritual stuff, historical and world political stuff, and most of all ways to enjoy ourselves. Tony fought in the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), but, currently prefers to life in Peru and fight in Brazil in the so called Jungle fights. I guess, less politics of the UFC and less of the MTV rockstar stuff one of his friends Cuck Liddell seem to prefer. This days Tony lives way up in Cuzco near the mystical ruins of Temple la Luna. He showed me, unintentionally, how to be and live in a more humble way.

This time I trained specifically with Tony because he possesses a technique called the Box-guard. This technique seemed awesome to me, so I had to learn this . Thanks to Tony I am learning this technique. Also he started to explain me how a base is important in wrestling. So on top of what I wanted to learn I got a lot more!

Other Peruvian fighters

It was funny to watch the TV to see a fight of Kina, the Peruvian Fightster, who beat here Brazilian opponent in a world championship title, and how Marcela beat his Mexican opponent in boxing. Funny that Marcela trained MMA with Tony and that Tony also knows Kina. The fight of Kina turned out to be a big deal in Peru, a lot of people watched it. Hopefully in a few years they will also have eye for other Peruvian (Martial) Artist!

Lucky me

This time, in Cuzco, I lived again with two of his students and friends, Manuel and his brother Nicolas. Manuel was so kind to arrange a sleeping place with his mother in Lima.  So training with Tony gave me a lot of advantages, I otherwise would not have had. Also one of the guys turned out to be a cook at maybe the best restaurant (MAP) in Cuzco.  Luckily he (Patricio) could fix me up for a great deal! All in all a price that fits a European, but not yet as the Dutc
h man prefers, as in I was not going Dutch

Currently I am in Lima having  a lot of fun, and waiting for my mother to join me one a two week trip to the north of Bolivia, Chili and a little bit of the south of Peru. Or in other words what used to be Peru (Before Bolivia split of from Peru and Chili stole the coastline of Bolivia).

Hasta pronto!