A Peru Tale
Show photos by Julio Aguilar/Maria Fernanda López
All others by Massimo Inzoli
On Wednesday, March 16, I departed for my trip to Lima. When I got to Newark, I had never seen the airport so busy, due to spring recess. It’s a good sign that tourism is back in full swing again. It is good for the economy in many areas, with airlines, hotels, restaurants and others benefitting.
I imagine many of the passengers were going to Ireland for St. Paddy’s Day. Three years ago, I was in Dublin for the St. Paddy’s Day show. It’s amazing how many people go to Ireland to celebrate the holiday, even though the airfares are really high for the holiday week.
There was a three-and-a-half-hour layover in Houston en route to Lima. Many of the people on my flight to Texas were also on the same flight to Peru. I shared an entire row with the same people on both flights.
International travel requires a lot of documentation to enter other countries. Not being a whiz with the Internet, I had to have the United agents assist me with getting all the documentation into the system. Two weeks ago, it took only one agent to help me. This time, it took three: First a young man got me through the process until even he had to get another agent to get something else done. Then this second agent did not know how to use an Android phone, so a third agent was needed to download with an Android. Finally, after about half an hour, everything was documented, and the three agents were so helpful and pleasant. Hopefully in the near future international travel will not be so time consuming and difficult.
Wednesday evening around 9:30 p.m., we landed in Lima. We had to wait a short time for a gate. There was a special line for immigration for senior citizens; actually, many countries have these special lines. But as fast as immigration went, it took a long time to get our luggage – about 30-plus minutes at least. As I exited the airport, a driver holding a sign with my name was waiting to drive me to the hotel, which was about a half-hour away. The hour being so late – around 11 p.m. – traffic was not too heavy.
Thursday at 2 p.m., a driver and a tour guide came to the hotel to take us to a seaside district of Lima called Barranco. There are many beautiful private homes and museums, but some of the large, beautiful homes have been abandoned and are just shells of their past glory days. Lots of little stores sold homemade items. You always get the culture of an area by walking it, and we walked for several hours. Several streets are being restored by citizens volunteering their services, usually one day a week.
We were back to our hotel around 5:30 p.m. The Los Delfines Hotel and Casino is rated a 9.2 on a scale of up to 10, and is in a beautiful section of Lima. Across the street are a beautiful park and some lovely shops, as well as a Starbucks. The lunch in the hotel was quite delicious, and there are several beautiful gift shops there as well. In the States the clubs could not afford to host judges in a hotel this luxurious. In the glory days of Santa Barbara, the Stevensons put the judges up at the Biltmore. Now it costs $600 a night – and up – to stay there.
Happy to say I was able to sleep until about 8 a.m. on Thursday morning. When I went to have lunch, Massimo Inzoli of Italy came into the dining room and introduced himself. We enjoyed a lovely lunch and great wine.
Our super hostess, Ilaria Biondi de Ciabatti, president of the Peruvian Kennel Club, had a wonderful tour planned for Massimo and me. At 8 p.m., Ilaria came to the hotel and the driver drove us to a magnificent restaurant. José Mello from Portugal was not arriving at the hotel until later in the evening.
Friday morning, José, Massimo and I met for breakfast, and then spent most of the day touring many great attractions of the city. On Friday evening, Ilaria and her husband had us for drinks at their beautiful home. It was so nice to see “Ricky” the Poodle, who won the World Challenge and Best in Show at Crufts. At 11 years old, he still looks great. We then proceeded to the most beautiful gentleman’s club. It looked like it might have been a palace for the president of Peru, but, no, it was built as a club more than 100 years ago. It would be difficult to build this anywhere today, because of the extreme cost of building and land. It was such a wonderful setting to enjoy a great meal.
Saturday at 8 a.m., the driver picked us up to go to the show. Depending on traffic, it’s about an hour drive. The traffic was quite heavy because of people going to the beach. The show had actually been scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. When the entries closed on Wednesday, they realized that the three shows could be easily judged over Saturday and Sunday.
Recently, the Kennel Club of Peru bought land and built their show grounds. The grounds are very nice, and there is still work to be completed. There were three large rings totally covered by tenting, as well as covered tenting for the grooming. We presumed the tenting was permanent, but actually it is erected for each show and then taken down. Permanent tenting will be installed in the near future.
Adjacent to the show site is a large hotel and resort area. Saturday and Sunday we enjoyed a relaxing lunch at the resort with good food and a Pisco Sour, the national drink of Peru.
The show’s stewards and organizers were wonderful. They are all full-time employees of the kennel club. We had one small glitch on Saturday after lunch: The stewards work off iPads, and the system went down. After a short break, we continued with back to doing it on paper, as we still do in the U.S. Judging abroad, we do not do paperwork, and there are no judges books. The stewards do all recording of the placements. This certainly makes the judging go much quicker. Even back at the World Dog Show in 2018 everything was done by the stewards on iPads. When I wanted to know the age of a dog, I just asked the steward and immediately the age showed up on the iPad.
Being we all judged two shows on Saturday, it was about 6 p.m. when we finished. When all the breeds are finished within the 10 FCI groups, you immediately do the Junior Group and then the regular group.
Sunday we didn’t have to leave the hotel until 8:30 a.m., since traffic would not be as heavy. We all had a lot fewer dogs to judge on Sunday, since it was one show judged by all three of us.
On Sunday, before the three Junior Bests and three regular Bests, we all judged puppy competitions from all 10 groups. Around 3 p.m., we were scheduled to start all the final Bests. The quality was very good for both Junior and regular Bests. All three judges were quite consistent. Like always, there were some breeds that could be argued two or three different ways.
By far the largest entry was 32 Bulldogs, followed by 13 Golden Retrievers, 10 Rottweilers, eight each for Russell Terriers and Labrador Retrievers, seven each for Dobermans and Siberians, and six Bull Terriers. The total entry, I believe, was about 275. I was surprised there were only 10 French Bulldogs, since when I did a specialty a few years ago the entry was close to 50. That same weekend the Bull Terriers had around 35 for a specialty. A large breeder of Bull Terriers was able to buy all the greatest BTs of Europe a few years ago, and other breeders could not compete against this kennel. Besides the dogs winning all over the Western Hemisphere, they win big at all the World Dog Shows and in Europe. Breeds do go up and down in different countries.
What was amazing was not the 32 Bulldogs, but rather the depth of quality. Even the least ones were still very good. Several years ago I judged a Bulldog specialty in Mexico, and my Best Male was a Junior from Peru, as was my Best Bitch. Later in the day, I put a Doberman from Argentina Best. But for Best Junior in Show, I put the Bulldog over the Doberman. This bitch came to the States and did well at our National. I knew the quality at this show would be good, but it was better than I could imagine. The other two judges, José Mello and Massimo Inzoli, felt just as I did.
In some of the breeds there was not good depth of quality. But when we got to BIS and Best Junior in Show, we had many top dogs. There were only four Standard Poodles, but all four were top quality. The Standard Poodle Ricky is behind all of them. There were several good Frenchies. There were only two Shar-Pei, but both nice. The bitch was so correct, with a lot of virtues. Such a pleasing, feminine head, with great pigment, eye and expression. She would do very well in the States. Several nice Dobermans, but, being so close to Argentina, I expected more depth of quality.
I judged the first Best Junior and Best in Show. My Best Junior was a white Standard Poodle. Beautiful eye and expression, with the proper underjaw, which the breed is lacking. He stood on great feet, and went around the ring covering ground while staying tall and short. I predict a very good future for this young dog. The Juniors that placed behind the Poodle were all of high quality.
My BIS lineup was exceptionally strong. BIS was a Bulldog that is as good a male as I have judged. To me, he has tremendous virtues and no glaring shortcomings. His head has everything needed to give him a beautiful expression. Overall nice size and outline. Moved so nicely while holding the proper shape. I understood he was the World Winner at the last World Dog Show. Actually, Massimo put him Best Male, but put his mother Best of Breed. She also is of top quality. Hopefully, he will be a great sire.
Reserve Best went to a stunning White Bull Terrier owned in Peru but bred in Italy. He is a world-class dog and can be a big winner anywhere in the world today. He did go BIS under Massimo, and was also Reserve under José, who also gave the Bulldog BIS. José felt as strongly about the Bulldog as I did.
My third BIS was a beautiful black Lab. Fourth BIS was a very lovely white Standard Poodle bitch. She makes the most beautiful picture and is so feminine. Fifth BIS was a Russian-bred Pom with a great outline, wonderful head and expression, and the proper texture of coat.
Sunday night we had a lot more pictures to take than we did Saturday. Luckily, the traffic was not too bad, and we were back at the hotel shortly after 7 p.m. At 7:45 p.m., Ilaria came to pick us up for another exceptional meal.
Monday was a tour of a great museum and a fabulous lunch in the lovely museum gardens. Tuesday morning a young man came to my hotel room to give me a Covid test that Ilaria had arranged for me. I had breakfast and lunch with José, and rested for the long trip home.
I have been so fortunate to have enjoyed so many, many wonderful assignments all over the globe. This assignment was truly so memorable. We got to spend so much time touring, and the dining experiences were as good as it gets. Peru has to be at the top of the list for best cuisine.
Ilaria and the kennel club were the perfect hosts. Ilaria gave us several unique and special gifts from her famous gift stores. The Ilaria stores are so beautiful to visit. They carry top-of-the-line jewelry and unique gifts. Spending time with Massimo and José was delightful, and a learning experience for me, since they are experts on some of our newer and rarer breeds.