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Becca, Zoe and Katy's Peruvian Adventure
Hello, Rebecca here (mum would kill me if I called myself Becca, Becky or anything else)!!
This is a continution of our weekend of cultural encounters! After the Niche concert we all slept quite well, especially Mark, one of our housemates, who was salsa dancing till 3!! In the morning, the 3 of us, Mark and Sian got in a taxi and headed to a small village called Tipon on the outskirts of Cusco. The sign upon entry into the village said "Welcome to Guinea Pig Heaven". Now i'm not entirely sure that any guinea pig would count this place as heaven!! Maybe their hell! Tipon is the main place around Cusco to go and eat the traditional Peruvian dish of cuy (baked guinea pig)! Supposedly, if you order it in the main city of Cusco, you're more likely to get rat! We got out of the cab on this little dirt track in the middle of nowhere, and proceeded into what looked like someones front garden. It was a patch of grass in front of a house, with a few plastic chairs and tables, and a big, what looked like a pizza oven, in the corner. We sat down, somewhat nervously, and waited to be offered a menu. There wasn't a menu! All you could have is guinea pig, much to Sians dismay, as she is a vegetarian! A Peruvian woman came over to us, asked how many we wanted, and then disappeared. You couldn't even buy drinks at this place, and instead had to go to the shack across the road, and buy your own! Classy joint!
The smell coming from the oven wasn't too unpleasant, although Zoe was quite worried about what was to come, being a huge guinea pig pet fan! We saw the lady carry out a plate of what looked like skinned rats from the house, and at this point, Zoe looked decidedly pale!! 20 minutes later or so, our dinner was served, and what a dinner it was!!!
On our plate was a whole baked guinea pig, head and all! It even had its teeth and eyes!! It was stuffed with some kind of herb, but they hadn't removed all of its internals, and to our slight dismay, we found its kidneys!! It was a little like an anatomy lesson at uni!! With the meat was some pasta, a stuffed pepper and some baked potatoes. All very traditional! We tucked in, and I will say that I wouldn't have guinea pig again. You have to use your fingers, as they only give you a fork, and you can't get the meat off with that, and guinea pigs are skinny things, and there is hardly any meat on them. It was quite a challenge to get a meals worth, and at one point I had to resort to holding it by its little legs, and nibbling its back!! The meat is quite gamey, and unlike anything i've tasted before. I've been told its somewhere between chicken and rabbit, but I must admit I wasn't a fan. Zoe quite enjoyed the flavour, but I think she may have been the only one! So much for being a guinea pig lover. I think she may have been converted to the dark side!!
Anyway, enough of putting you all of your dinners! After our meal, we headed up to the ruins at Tipon to try and burn off our dinner, although we may have slightly cheated and got a taxi up the mountain! The ruins were quite amazing, with stunning views all the way back to Cusco ( where it was sunny, and we were standing in the rain and clouds)!! Tipon is meant to be the most impressive ruins for showing the Incas use of water channels and irrigation. We walked for about an hour or so to the top of the mountain and all around the ruins. We found some quite exciting little Inca houses, with the windows still intact, and thinking of the photo oppurtunities, Zoe climbed into the window! Not to be outdone, I did the same in another window, but managed to dislodge one of the rocks that had been there for thousands of years! Safe to say, I ran away pronto, and won't be trying the same thing in Maccu Piccu where it is likely that I would be shot by a security guard!!
As the weather got progressively worse, we descended the mountain, and then got a taxi back to Cusco. We were all quite tired after our cultural day out, and we also all had bits of guinea pig under our nails, so we all showered, and then headed out for some more culture in the clubs!!! First was Paddys Bar (Irish culture!) for bread and butter pudding and beer, followed by a night of dancing in Mama Afrika (!!). It was all good fun, and Mark, Zoe and I particularly enjoyed the culture of dancing on the stage! We crawled into bed around 3.00am ready for the next day of frenzied shopping in Pisac market!
Pisac is a small market town about 1 hours bus journey away from Cusco. We all got up earlyish in the morning and headed to the bus stop near our house, where we boarded our first local bus. It wasn't as bad as we thought it would be, although it was cramped and we had to stand most of the way. We did meet a crazy Peruvian man though, and an American, who we enjoyed chatting to on the journey! After about an hour we all got off the bus, and headed to the joy (to me and Zoe, although not so much for Katy!) of the shopping heaven called Pisac market!! It was huge, and sold everythink you could imagine, from alpaca goods, to all manner of jewellery, chess sets, rugs...you name it! Zoe and I headed off on our own for most of it, and enjoyed haggling for presents and soaking up the atmosphere. I bought a scarf to replace the one I lost earlier in the holiday. We all met up for lunch in a little restaurant, and then after we split up again. Zoe and I wanted to continue wandering around the market, but the others, being much more cultural, headed up to the ruins. Katy tells me they are the best she has seen, so Zoe and I will be heading back another time to visit them. I think they had a memorable time at the ruins, being chased by crazy Peruvina people! However, I will have to leave Katy to tell you that story a little later!!
After a tiring day, we all met up again at about 6.00pm, and got in a taxi back to Cusco. We were too tired for another big night out, so we headed to Mama Afrika, where we watched Superman Returns on their big screen. Zoe was so unimpressed she fell asleep, but I must admit I quite enjoyed it. Not brilliant, but possibly worth seeing. We then all headed back to the house, and fell asleep pretty quickly!!
It was a wicked weekend, and we saw and sampled a lot of Peruvian culture and life, even though some of it I am not too keen to sample again!
This week is our last week of hospital placements, as on Monday we are off on our week long trek to Maccu Piccu. We are all really looking forward to it, although maybe a little worried about our levels of fitness, and our ability to walk for 12 hours a day up a mountain! Should be great fun though, and make an interesting journal entry when we return.
Hope that everyone is well wherever you are, and thank you for all your emails and messages.
Love the three of us
xxxx
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