Thom and I took an overnight bus from Ica (Huacachina) to Ariquipa. I mentioned before how nice busses were in Peru, but the overnight busses are like flying in first class. First of all, they show movies - I got to watch Just My Luck in spanish (you know, that movie with Li Lo in it...don´t tell me that you´ve never seen it!). But, more inportantly, the seats recline all the way back and they have this sort of reversed foot rest that lies behind your knees and supports your legs, bascially to create a Lazy Boy experience. I totally passed out on the bus and the next thing I knew, I woke up in Ariquipa.
Ok, first things first, Ariquipa is about 2335 meters high, or 7660 ft (at least that´s what google tells me). So, if any of you have been to Denver and experience that most wonderful altitude sickness, then Ariquipa is the mile and a half city. If you don´t know what altitude sickness is, check this out. Well, the first few hours of walking around the city and finding a hostel, I already could feel myself getting a little winded. Thom and I eventually stop into Colca Trek and immediately book a whitewater rafting trip ($25) and a 2 day hike to the summit of El Misti. These are perdy too. Anyhoo, that left the first day of the entire trip for Thom and I to relax and check out Ariquipa.
First things first....we ate. Get ready for the first picture from Peru, just to make sure you all know that I wasn´t making this trip up. Yes, kids, that is Cuy, otherwise known as guina pig. Yes, I am biting that cuy´s foot and yes, it is starring at the camera with its big toothy smile. As many of you know, I love food and I´m willing to try everything once. Let me first describe how the whole deal was prepared. It looks like they basically take the cuy and split it down its back, much like how you´d split a chicken. However, the head is split too, so basically its jaw is split in two too. Yes, the head is left intact, as well as the feet and hands (I guess its all feet, but I digress). But what was a little disturbing that all its innards are pretty much left intact too. So, we´re talking liver, stomach, intestines, all the way down to its little guinea pig asshole. That was where it took me a minute to carve out all of this out - normally, if this were the US and I wasn´t afraid of pooping all day and night, I´m all for the offal and would have totally ate it (except the asshole itself, even I have limits). Ok, so now that I´ve described it - oh yeah, it was served with a side of fries too, which were surprisingly good - let´s talk about eating it.The first challenge was how to break this whole thing apart. It looks like it was fried, and the skin had a really lovely fried fat flavor with an ultra crispy, brittle texture, not unlike a pan seared duck leg or something like that. So, like a chicken, I started with its leg. Its good, kinda tasted like duck but even a little less gamey than that. Maybe closer to pork than duck, but either way, its was good. But like eating any rodent, there wasn´t much meat on the bones. Once I broke into the rest of the body, I was basically eating skin and that was about it. I was tempted to try to ears and maybe try to scoop out the cheeks, but I figured that was really pushing my poo luck, so I just left it. I have this great photo of the finished cuy starring back at me, sitting on top of his bones. Alas, you kids will have to wait for me to get home to see those pics.
After that, we found our beautiful hostel right near the Plaza de Armas (center square) and set off for more adventures....
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