A Little Peru Education

Whenever we have been talking about our travels, people have asked us great questions. I'm going to spend a few blogs talking about just a few things we learned or experienced from being in a foreign land.

Of course, the biggest one: FOOD! One of the biggest purposes of our mission was to help build a guinea pig barn. People were surprised to hear that guinea pig, or Cuy as it's called there, is a main source of protein for Peruvian people.

Fire Roasted Guinea Pig

Our First Meal in Peru- Potato Soup for me & A Potato Appetizer for Rhonda. We all loved the soup and used it for a dipping sauce for our bread. The potatoes weren't so good, in my opinion. They were crunchy and had a strange spice flavor to them. I do not like undercooked potatoes!

Pizza from Paucha Papas, our first meal. Pretty good reviews from all of us.

Welcome Dinner-- My Choice. I didn't eat much of the meat.

Abbi and I were prepared to be very hungry for the week. We do many trips on a tight budget, so it's not unusual for us to be hungry! Usually, we eat the free hotel breakfast, sustain on granola bars and small snacks and then have whatever we want for dinner. We brought three boxes of various protein and granola bars from home, as well as a few ready to eat soups, with us to Peru, just in case.
 

Welcome Dinner-Rhonda, Mackenzie & Abbi picked the vegetarian pasta dish.

Actually, our Peru routine wasn't that different, at least during the days in the hostel. Our hostel offered free breakfast. It was a yogurt parfait, choice of fried or scrambled eggs, and a very dry roll, with delicious strawberry jelly. And, most important to me- COFFEE! I really enjoyed the Peru coffee. It is more like espresso, and you add water to it. The parfaits were made with oranges and bananas and the granola on top was made with quinoa. Quinoa is used a lot there. I didn't try the eggs, but Abbi did. She actually tried both scrambled and fried, finishing each serving. The yolks are more brightly colored there than ours here, and the yogurt is not nearly as sweet as ours, which I liked. It was all very fresh.

We tried out a few different restaurants for dinner. Most nights, when I was given the chance, I ordered pizza. The one night I had a hamburger it went right through me, so from then on I was vegetarian. Abbi was vegetarian the entire trip.

Many restaurants advertised pizza and Mexican foods. Abbi LOVES Mexican food. She kept trying to order beans and cheese and tortillas in different combinations. She never did find "real" Mexican food. One place the beans were covered in kind of a spaghetti sauce. Another place they were very big white beans. And one place she ordered enchiladas, and whatever it was, we don't know, but it was certainly not an enchilada.

The night that we returned to Cusco from the mission fields, we went to Jacks restaurant, a tourist favorite. The menu was in Spanish and English (not always the case,) and we ordered indulgently from the American style selections. The next day we were to leave for Machu Picchu, our big finale. As we were waiting on our meal, Mackenzie said, "I'm so excited!"
"For Machu Picchu?" we asked.
"No! For my pancakes!" We laughed quite a bit about that, but inside I could totally relate! I was really looking forward to my garlic fries!

Carrot Soup in Chacabamba-the mud hut meals.

A sign in Chacabama for the different varieties of Cuy.

Part of our mission fees paid for cooks for the duration of our "Mud Hut Days." The food was very good and I think they worked to stay "Americanized," with a touch of local flare. One minor complaint: In three days, I only got a small cup of instant coffee once. I so love my coffee. To add to the situation, we were very cold all night long, so I could think of nothing I wanted more when our early morning alarms rang than a hot cup of coffee. It's a good thing I was entirely overwhelmed with a feeling of shame for our American indulgence, combined with an intense gratitude for our easy blessings, and a longing desire to be content with less. Actually, I felt silly for missing coffee so much.

Another mud hut dinner- mashed potatoes, rice, and chicken.

A feast prepared for us by the third village, Huacaycancha. Potatoes, Corn Bread, Veggies, and Guinea Pig

One thing we learned from Navidad, was that in the villages, guinea pig was reserved for special occasions. He said he felt very lucky when he was growing up to get his own guinea pig for his birthday, and not in the way American kids might get a guinea pig for their birthday! A few people in our group did try it. I didn't want to be rude, and I was very relieved that others tried the meal. They had given us a lot of food, and a major theme in our mission was food sustainability. Considering that, it was hard to not eat what they had generously prepared for us. However, throughout the mission, we didn't see what I would have perceived as hungry people. They eat a lot of potatoes, and perhaps nutrition is a concern, but I didn't see anybody that made me feel sad because of an obvious lack of food.

Our Meal Tent

More Soup! Soup was a staple in every lunch and dinner. Most of it had a similar flavor. Fresh vegetables, not too salty.

Our favorite item from the Mud Hut Kitchens. Flaming Bananas! Covered in bourbon and lit on fire, they were slightly caramelized and very good. The bananas in Peru were both Abbi and my favorite. They are much smaller than our bananas but sweeter and very flavorful. Yummm!