Sleep with the cuy & get up with the chickens pt 2

Trip Start Aug 31, 2008
1
20
59
Trip End Feb 02, 2009


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of Peru  ,
Wednesday, October 1, 2008

So here we are on a dirt floor in a stranger´s house, a little strange, and I´m starting to think that I would´ve been alot more comfortable camping. Then I hear these noises. If you´re not familiar, cuy are guinea pigs, and they are quite the delicacy in peru. I get the impression that eating cuy is like eating turkey, something one would only do on a special occasion, like a holiday or birthday or wedding. The main difference being, of course, that you can fit a great deal more guinea pigs in an oven than turkeys, and the same goes for your house. So most folks raise them; I think I may have mentioned in an earlier entry that the family that ran a guest house where we stayed had a cuy pen up on the roof. This was a little more intimate, since the cuy had free reign over the floor, which was also where we were to sleep. I´m personally a big fan of small creatures, but I was concerned that the small creatures might be big fans of our 200 dollar down quilt, our principal method of keeping warm. We´ll get to that later, though.
At this point, Sonia came down and introduced us to her son, whom she carried on her back in a blanket of course. She was quite amused by our inflatable air mattresses, and pretended that she thought that sleeping on an air raft on the floor in sub freezing weather was a sensible thing to do. She also explained that the village children were awfully curious about foreign visitors, and that if we camped out in the open, they would likely pester us a bit while we tried to set up our equipment. At this point, two such inquisitive children showed up, were given pencils, and enthusiastically showed me to the town outhouse (this seems to be the most common configuration, a small village shares an outhouse or two.) Mario told us to help ourselves to the chlorinated water (quite exciting as I haven´t been able to drink or use any tap water without irradiating it with our ultra-violet gadget for a month) and asked if we needed a meal prepared. I hope my refusal wasn´t considered rude, but we had trucked about 10 pounds of food over a mountain and back, so I felt it reasonable to eat it. Mario chatted with us about the Quishuarani community, and how his wife worked with the village children at the school/community center (about 20 kids.) He explained also that he worked in the tourism industry, cooking and guiding for various adventure tours in the Sacred Valley. His mother is Quechua, and he spoke both languages fluently. Anyone considering a trek through the area should look him up in Quishuarani, I think he could offer you a unique cultural perspective about the area and it´s people. He had some progressive viewpoints about tourism, and how the industry must be handled responsibly in order to provide a long-lasting benefit and not a detriment to the village and surrounding areas. He again invited us to have dinner, but we were pretty worn out, which he seemed to find quite amusing (we´re talking going to bed around 6pm.)
The cuy actually turned out to be pretty good bedmates. They went to sleep around the same time we did, and left us and the quilt to our own devices. In the morning (around 4:30 am) the radio upstairs came on immediately, the chickens started pecking at our door, and it generally became apparent that the countryside felt this was an appropriate time to start the day, even if we couldn´t be quite as enthusiastic. We bought an incredible handmade weaving from a Quechua woman (Mario´s mom, I think, even though I never officially introduced myself) who spent a month spinning, dying, and weaving it. On our exit, we took a few photos, said a fond farewell to everyone, and were led to Lares, the nearby trading town, by various friendly folks on the way. Quishuarani was definitely the highlight of our trip so far, and if you´re too wore out to walk there, a bus can be taken easily from Calca. So go check it out and tell Mario and Sonia that I said hello.

Please take the time to click over here and see some pictures.
Print this entry Lima hotels