Arequipa: How CUY´d you eat me??

Another night bus, another relatively sleepless night, and another city. We are now in Arequipa! We left Cusco to spend some time exploring the other two places in Southern Peru that we want to see, before we have to return to Cusco to hike the Inca Trail on the 8 of November.

The bus ride here crossed high Andean altiplano which consisted of short scruffy grass up high and a little lower down cacti. The land is dry and the mountains, although big, are not as tight as Cusco and they lie in the distance, their very peaks covered in a light dusting of snow.

Arequipa is another city that sits in the shadow of Volcanoes. The closest is El Misti, and it presideds majestically in the background. The city is modern with some colonial architecture close to the Plaza de Armas. Numerous buildings in the city are striking as they are constructed of volcanic rock that gleems white in the bright sun. The area sees 300 rain free days a year.

One of our main purposes in coming here is to go to Canyon del Coca, the second deepest canyon in the world. We have booked a 3 day, 2 night trip into the canyon that will also let us stop at Cruz del Condor where we will hopefully be able to see some Andean Condors as we overlook the canyon. Our trip begins at 1am tonight!!

Last night was noteworthy, in that we decided to splurge on dinner and treat ourselves to some traditional Peruvian dishes. The restaurant we went to was recommended in LP and prides itself on the traditional cuisine that it specializes in. In fact, there were three pages in their menu. Chris chose "Cuy" (pronounced: coo-ee), which was said to be stone roasted and served with french fries (not sure how traditional these are). For those of you that do not know, Cuy is definetly a traditional dish, and is considered a delicacy. Cuy is guinea pig. Justine opted to be very adventurous and got the stuffed hot pepper (as she reminised about her childhood pets).

We could go into great detail about the stuffed pepper, but we are sure some of you would prefer to hear about the guinea pig. When it arrived, it was obvious we did NOT get ripped off. It WAS a guinea pig. It was splayed out in its fullness on the plate; head, teeth, paws and claws. The Cuy was not stone roasted as reported, but had been fried in different oils at varying temperatures (we had seen on a movie back in Canada, this is a "traditional" method of preperation).

After a couple of deep breaths, and some photos, Chris dug in. Being able to get his mind out of the situation was key. Having done this, he was surprised to find out that the Cuy is very similar to chicken and rabbit. It has more flavor than chicken, but has a texture and taste somewhere between rabbit and chicken. The meal was much more bone than meat, but was good none the less. It should also be noted for posterity that Justine tried some too, and also gladly shared her pepper when someone had eaten enough of their meal.