Before the trip, we had read that Cuy was a delicacy in Peru and one of the strange food items that Cat and I have been looking forward to exposing to our taste buds. Aldona, not so much. At the very least, we could add it to the list of "The grossest things you've ever eaten". We take pride in that list. Have you ever wondered what cuy (guinea pig) tasted like? Chicken...honest to goodness chicken just a little fattier, no lie. Ok, minus the chewy leathery skin and if you can get over the little T-Rex claws and the tiny teeth in an eternal grimace that looks like it died in a horrific fire accident. Did I mention the big skewer protruding from it's mouth? If you can overlook all that, it's not too bad. Tender in fact if done right, and you're really really REALLY hungry.
I am Cuy! Hear me RAWR!!!
It's morning and I'm freaking tired, like the honest to goodness my head aches and don't talk to me or I'll rip your face off tired. Aldona is a morning person, a real chipper one to boot. I could barely focus much less think. She started running through the plan for the day, I stopped her. Please don't make me think right now. I literally said that. She took one look at my face and was like ooookay.
The hotel in Lima was decent. The best thing about it was that it was across literally across the street from the airport. In fact it had a walking bridge right into the terminal. Suweet. Great idea Cat! We had a power breakfast and it was off to the airport to check in for our 9:30am flight from Lima to Cusco. The flight was short and uneventful. We land in Cusco and the travel guide was at the airport to pick us up in a private car. Another bonus. This is how we roll folks! Aldona asked them to take us to Cusco via the scenic route which let us visit the Pisac market. After some discussion, the guide and driver agreed. We went to the market and stopped off at a silver shop (saw a beautiful peruvian torquois ring and almost bought it, didn't and spent the rest of the trip looking for an equivalent and not finding it) and some alpaca artifacts. But we were still tired and none of us were ready to buy anything having just arrived and not knowing how much things cost. We met up with the guide 15 minutes later and mentioned we wanted to try cuy. He looked at us. "Are you sure?" A resounding "YES!!!" from me and Cat. I think he smirked but I'm not sure. The driver took us to a little town that was known for cuy. It's literally all they served. Aldona asked if they had chicken. Ummmm....no. The entrance was even welcomed by a statue of a guinea pig. It tasted like chicken! Aldona was very suspect but gave it a try, you go girl. The cuy was stuffed with what we discovered was a local herb called huacatay. It tasted like mint, dill and a few other herbs rolled into one. It was a bit over powering and we couldn't eat anything that contained huacatay after trying the cuy for the rest of the trip. Everywhere we went, we told the waiters and waitresses...NO HUACATAY!!!
Guinea pig on a stick, we were starving! Pictures are worth a thousand words. I think Aldona looks a little green here but she's putting up a brave face.
Poor cuy, it didn't stand a chance. Where's the sriracha?!!!
We stopped to buy about six liters of water on the way since the water there was not something you want to try. We finally get to our beautiful hotel. It was like a resort and just beautiful. We even had our own alpacas!
Our rooms weren't ready so we went to lunch at Anaina, a little place that Aldona had found on tripadvisor. It was amazing. We had beef tenderloin, trout ceviche (this area was known for its fresh trout), a veggie dish and chocolate souffle.
And of course a nice bottle of wine.
We get back to the hotel, our room was ready and we settled in. The hotel is a beautiful old converted monastery. It felt peaceful and serene.
We still had a half a day left but we just all laid on our beds, too tired to move. No...we must push on! Too much to see. There was a bowl of coca leaves on the table to help with altitude sickness. Aldona and I were both definitely feeling it. We all chewed on a leaf and it was time to get moving.
We decided to get the Ollantaytambo ruins this afternoon before it closed since it wasn't too far. The receptionist said it closed at 6 so we called a taxi and headed up. It turned out they stopped letting people up around 5:30 but the guards let us in to walk around and take some photos.
Photo...check. Ok let's go. We had climbed up a little and decided we didn't need to come back tomorrow. We walked around the souvenir stalls right outside the entrance but didn't find anything noteworthy. Just very touristy kitschy stuff. The plan is to visit the agriculture circles and the salt mines the next day. The driver that dropped us off offered to give us a ride back so we had asked him to come back at 7 before we found out the ruins were closed. Grrrr... We looked at some souvenirs and hung out at the Coffee Tree. This place had amazing hot chocolate, ginger honey lemon tea and passion fruit juice.
Requisite duck faces
We were all exhausted from the late night flight in from DFW to Lima the previous day, the early flight this morning from Lima to Cusco and the trek from Cusco to our hotel in Sacred Valley, Yucay. We decided to call it a night. Aldona had purchased some snacks and decided to surround herself in her goodies.
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