Peruvian Food

"...oh for a life of sensations rather than of thoughts!" - John Keats

Food is a core component of life. It gives us energy, it gathers us around a table and makes us social. We didn't consciously plan to take photos of all the food we ate or encountered so far, so this post was more of an after-thought, using the photos we had that matched the food theme. 

Food in Peru can be either very tasty or very flavorless, depending on where you eat it. Lima is known for its amazing restaurants, ceviche and pisco sours, but we sadly didn't have the time, nor budget, to explore any of that. As far as the rest of the country, they eat a lot of deep fried stuff, rice, potatoes, bread and corn dishes. This place is starch and carb central. We are now craving veggie salads, and veggies in general. Eating bread and potatoes (boiled, fried, mashed, etc.) can get really old after a while. The upside of eating so many carbs is that it helped us with energy during the Inca trail hike and it prevented us from getting sick. 

The photos below are a small selection of some of the things we ate while in Peru. Enjoy!

Our first meal ever in Peru was in a mall close to our hostel. I got Arroz con Pollo and Anne got Lomo Saltado, two of the most common dishes of Peru.

Escabeche de pollo (chicken stew cooked with onion and tomato sauce)

Chuleta a la pobre = poor man's meal, includes fried pork meat, rice, french fries, fried plantain and one fried egg. All this for 15 soles (5 USD)

Lunch in Barranco (a cute neighborhood in Lima) : tiradito de aji (raw fish marinated in a garlic and lemon juice), chupe de camarones on the right (soup with little pieces of fish)

Dinner served on the 22-hour bus ride from Lima to Cusco.

The cui (guinea pig) cook.

Cui, aka guinea pig, is a local specialty and delicacy in the mountainous area of Peru. We gave it a try, but we disliked it. There is no meat at all on this little guy, only legs, claws, internal organs, skin and fat. Plus, it looks really unappetizing on the plate. The locals however were eating every little bit of it.

Roasted guinea pigs. As you can see, they cook these little guys whole, with claws, teeth, eyes, internal organs, everything still on. I have to say I found this a little gross.

Food on the Inca Trail. Sadly, this is the only photo I took of the amazing food our cook prepared for us (and our porters hauled for us) during the 4 day hike on the Inca Trail. We had pancakes every morning, fried fish, cake, lasagna, mini pizzas, salads, rice, etc. My favorite thing was the Quinoa porridge they served for breakfast. On the left in this photo there's an Ensalada Russa with boiled beets, carrots and sweet potatoes. On the right, there's fried fish with some creamy sauce on top.

The train from Macchu Picchu village to Ollantaytambo village costs around $38 for tourists. The train has a special wagon just for tourists, with glass ceiling (so you can see the mountains), swanky seats, coffee and snacks and Andean traditional music blasting from the speakers. The rest of the train has shittier wagons for the locals, at obviously a cheaper price. The class difference and obvious differentiation between locals and tourists really bothers me, but I guess this is what they need to do here to satisfy the comfort levels some foreigner travelers are used to. In any case, the salty beans they gave us were super delicious.

Love at first taste! This was by far my favorite meal of our entire stay in Peru. The irony is that we were trying to find the Coca museum (history of Coca leaves and culture) in Puno and asked a cop where it is. He kindly walked with us to the museum. Anne asked him about his favorite food place, and he pointed to this Api place, where locals go to a lot. We tried it and absolutely loved it! For 2 Soles (60 cents of a dollar!!) you get a glass of Api and an Empanada. Best deal ever! Api is a hot creamy beverage made of corn, lemon juice and cinnamon. It comes as white or black, depending on the color of the corn it was made of: Api blanco and Api morado.

 

The floating islands of the Uros are made of totora reeds. Totora is a plant that grows on lake Titicaca and is used to build houses, fishing boats and pretty much everything. The soft white bottom part of the plant is edible and has a spongy taste. Totora can also be found on Easter Island. You can read more about it here.

 

Most restaurants in downtown Cusco cater for tourists and are insanely overpriced. To escape the tourist trap, we looked for joints where locals eat and found this fixed price menu (almuerzo):  a bowl of delicious chicken soup, a side salad, french fries with fried chicken- all this for 5 soles (about 2 USD).

Anne eating a piece of chicken feet found in the soup included in her fixed price menu. The soup had all sorts of chicken parts, such as gall bladder, neck, feet, cartilages, none of which had any meat on them, but gave the soup a great chicken-y flavor.

In Puno we splurged and got alpaca steaks at a nicer restaurant. Alpaca meat is very lean and supposedly contains only 50% of the fat found in beef meat. It was very delicious and tasted a little bit like lamb chops.

Mixed fruit juices were a staple on the menus of many restaurants. They usually mix apple, banana, papaya or passion fruit (maracuya) juices, blended either with water or milk.

Expanded corn, in the mercado in Puno. I tried to find out how this is made, but couldn't quite understand the entire explanation in Spanish. You basically throw huge corn kernels in a huge iron container over fire. You also add some sugar. Sounds a lot like popcorn, but without the oil. The size and sweetness level of the expanded corn determines the price. It's usually around 4 Soles for 1/2 a kilo.

Fruit stand in the mercado in Puno.

This type of woman is called Chola or Cholita. It means a peasant Quechua woman dressed traditionally (bowler hat, shawl and giant pleated skirt) who moved to the city. The term was used derogatory initially, but now it's used just to refer to women who dress like that. Most of the grains (flour, pasta, sugar, rice, wheat, etc.) in the mercado are kept in big sacks and you buy by the kilogram.

We slept one night in the house of a family on Amantani island. For 30 Soles, the family provides you with a bed for a night and 3 meals. This was one of the meals they offered us: boiled potatoes and a big chunk of fried cheese. They can't grow fruit or vegetables on this island due to the high altitude, cold weather and dry soil, so all veggies and fruit has to be shipped in from the mainland and are more expensive. That's why people here eat potatoes and cheese for almost every meal.

This is muña tea,  a medicinal plant restricted to the South American Andes from Venezuela to Bolivia. It grows in a big bush all over the mountains here and on the side of the roads and it smells a lot like mint. Add a tiny branch to a cup of boiled water and you have a great flavorful cup of tea.

Inca Trail

It’s Tuesday, November 29, 8:25pm and I’m lying in my tent, inside my sleeping bag, wearing my headlamp on my head and writing this as it pours outside. There are thunders and lightnights every ten minutes or so. Tonight we are sleeping in the Pacamayo valley, situated at 3600m altitude in the Andes. It’s really cold in the tent, and I’m wearing all my clothes on top of each other, inside the sleeping bag. 

Today we climbed 12 kilometers, gaining 1200 meters in elevation from the previous night, to the highest pass of the trail at 4200 meters. Then we descended to 3600 meters, where we are camping now. It was the hardest day of the hike and by all means one of the most strenuous things I’ve ever done in my life so far. 

Dead Woman's Pass, 4200 meters.

Made it up in one piece. It was all downhill from there, literally.

Anne and I at the top

Group photo at the top.

How the Inca Trail Hike Works

The Inca Trail is a 43km hike over the course of 4 days that ends at Machu Picchu. I would call it a difficult hike, unless you’re in excellent physical condition. There is an option to hire porters to carry your personal belongings, but Anne and I (and most of the people in our group) carried our own gear, which made it a bit harder. The hike is particularly difficult due to the long and steep uphill sections (hours upon hours of climbing thousands of rock steps) and the lack of oxygen in the air at this high elevation. That aside, it’s totally worth it, especially if you’re into backpacking and outdoorsy stuff. 

This hike is now heavily regulated by the Peruvian government, it can only be done through a trekking agency and only by a maximum of ~200 hikers per day (not including porters). Because of that, spots fill up fast and you have to make your reservation months in advance. 

There are about 4 agencies that organize this trek and the cost is around 500USD. The fee includes trail permit, entrance fee for Machu Picchu, bus and train to get back to Cuzco, camping gear, food, guide and wages for all the porters that carry all this stuff. The company we chose is called Peru Treks, mostly because it was highly recommended by one of my coworkers and we also heard it pays porters a fair wage. And let me tell you, these guys have the hardest jobs ever. I’ll talk more about them later. 

Stranded Paranoia

Last night something interesting happened that I’d like to talk about. In hindsight, it all seems so stupid now, but at the time it felt like my worst nightmare come true. After I finished writing down some trip thoughts, I lay down to sleep in our tent. Anne was already asleep next to me. I closed my eyes and realized I wasn’t tired at all, so I just lay there, focusing on my breath and waiting to fall asleep. I then noticed that I was having a hard time breathing (which is likely to happen at this altitude, especially at night time.) I felt as if I was starting to get a case of severe altitude sickness. Which didn’t make any sense, since we’d been in Cusco 4 nights before starting the trek, and had no problems with the altitude whatsoever. I then started panicking, feeling nauseous, out of breath, my heart was racing and it all got completely out of control. All this in the middle of the night, in a campsite, in the middle of the mountains in Peru, far away from any form of civilization, with everyone else in the surrounding tents already asleep. The whole thing turned into a full-blown panic attack, the second one in my life after over 4 years since the first one, when I ended up in the ER in San Francisco. 

I shook Anne multiple times to wake her up, as I was afraid I would pass out. We went outside trying to find the tent where our guide was sleeping. We woke up the poor guy and got an oxygen tank from him.

The oxygen tank didn’t really help, as the real problem was not altitude sickness, but my stupid and completely unexpected anxiety attack. I feared the worst, being stranded in the middle of nowhere with no access to medical care, not being able to continue the hike and all these fears snowballed into that ugly episode.

Anne was a total champ, stayed up with me during this entire moment and encouraged me with positive and logical statements. We ended up chatting for over an hour about all sorts of things that took my mind away from worrisome thoughts, until I passed out. The next day I was totally fine and ready to continue the hike. Saul, our guide, also known with the nickname “Coca Man” came to check on me in the morning and when I told him my story, he said: “This place has a lot of energy. The Incas call it the Sacred Valley.” 

The Porters

The whole porter situation is bugging me a lot, so I’m dedicating a whole chapter to them, these unsung heroes of the Inca trail. The porters are poor, weathered men who carry really heavy loads (25kg) on their backs, wear rubber sandals made of old car tires, and look a lot older than their real age. They live in the villages nearby and are hired by the trekking companies to haul food, tents, cooking gear, gas tanks, etc. on their backs up the Inca trail. While trekkers go up on this trail with their fancy expensive hiking boots, Goretex gear and small backpacks, the porters fly past them with huge loads, often not properly or ergonomically strapped on their backs. They wear open toe sandals. Their feel and toenails are rugged. They never smile. 

Porters at the beginning of the trail getting their cargo weighed, so it doesn't go over the legal allowed weight.

Today on the trail a porter approached me when there was nobody around (I assume they’re not allowed to hassle trekkers) and asked if I had a bit of chocolate. He said he was very hungry. We still had a long ways to go until campsite. I gave him two of my fancy, overpriced San Francisco energy bars and told him they’re not that tasty, but they’ll give him some extra energy. He thanked me several times and gulped them down in a hurry. After he took off, I almost cried. 

Porters drinking chicha (a traditional Peruvian drink made of fermented corn) inside the house of a peasant living on the side of the Inca Trail.

The porters carry our tents, our food, dishes, gas to cook the food, tables and chairs for the big communal eating tent (which doubles as their sleeping tent.) While it’s nice to have a warm meal at the end of 8 hours of climbing, I HATE the fact that my comfort is obtained by these people exerting so much physical effort for so little money. I know it’s their job, and that my 1^st world class tourist money makes it possible for them to earn a living, yet there is something about it that deeply bothers me.

On ruins, stray dogs and guinea pigs

"Some experiences simply do not translate. You have to go to know." - Kobi Yamada

 

Saturday, November 26. Today we walked up to an Inca ruin located right above Cusco, at 3700m. Cusco is at 3300m. The ruin is called Sacsayhuaman (and that's a link to Wikipedia, if you want to know more about it.)

View of Cusco from the Sacsayhuaman ruins vista point.

They charged us 70 Soles for a “boleto turistico," which was valid for only one day. This would be $25, a ridiculously overpriced fee for what it is. And of course, as everything else in touristy areas of Peru, there is always a different price for tourists than for locals. The price for tourists is always double or triple of what locals would pay. We know we are getting ripped off, we sometimes try to bargain, but even if we manage to bring the price down a bit, we invariably lose. It will always be way more than the locals pay. But sometimes it’s ok, because these people are so poor that a few dollars for us make a lot of difference to them. 

When we were about to leave the Sacsayhuaman ruins, this cute Quechua grandma and her alpaca were on the side of the road and we couldn't resist the temptation to take photos with them.

The “sexy woman” ruins were ok, not too impressive. Layers of terraces made with meticulously carved stones. If there’s anything memorable about Inca constructions, it would be the stone walls. The way these huge blocks of stone are so perfectly carved and fitted is mind-blowing to me. I don’t believe in aliens, but seeing these structures makes me think of super-human forces. 

Being whiter-skinned and taller than most women here, we can’t escape being singled out as “gringas” everywhere we go. So, while we were visiting these ruins, a group of school children of about 10 years old of age saw us and asked to be photographed with us. What we thought was going to be one photo turned into a 30-minute long photoshoot. Every kid in the group wanted to be photographed with us. Even the moms accompanying the group wanted their own photos. The teacher diligently took all the photos with the same camera and thanked us countless times at the end. A girl started crying, we assumed it was because she was filled with emotion that we hugged her while we were taking photos. Just when we thought we were done with our moment of being in the spotlight, a group of local teenagers approached us and asked if they could take photos with us as well… 

Stray Dogs

Peru must win the record for number of stray dogs. But then again, I haven’t been to India yet. I thought Bucharest was high up there, with about 60,000 stray dogs, but Peru definitely trumps that number. If there’s one thing that terrifies me about walking around on the streets here in Peru are the hoards of stray dogs. They seem to be peaceful  and even little kids walk carefree around them, but I can’t get past the fear that one of them will attack me. Many of them wear a blue collar, which means they were vaccinated by a non-profit, so I take it that Rabies is not an issue in Peru. Some of the stray dogs seem to be nice breeds, like cocker-spaniels, and I’ve been told that they are not all stray, but that their owners leave them loose, pretty much like all other animals around here.  It is not unusual to see chicken, piglets, ducklings, donkeys, cows, sheep, etc. walk around freely on the side of the road. Somehow, all these animals know where their home and who their owner is. It reminds me a lot of the cows in my grandparents’ village, that would come home from the pasture in the evening and stop in  front of the gate of their owner, mooing and waiting patiently to be let in. 

Visiting Tipon and eating Cui

Sunday, Nov 26 – we decided to go see the Tipon ruins, located about 30km outside Cusco. A British girl we met at the hostel told us about these ruins and how to get there. There’s obviously guided tours for everything, but they are always very expensive, so we decided to do it on our own for a lot cheaper. We first took a cab from our hostel to an intersection where we could catch a “collectivo” towards that direction. The cab was 3 soles (about 1 USD). Then, we took a collectivo, which is a minivan filled to the brim with people. Local men and women are sitting anywhere they can. A woman was sitting with half her ass on the stick-shift area near the driver. Kids sleeping on people’s laps, other people standing in the isle, a warm sweaty ooze in the air, but not too bad. We had to stand the entire 40 minute ride, but for 1.2 soles (40 cents) a person, you can’t complain. 

Tipón, located east of Cusco, are Inca ruins that may have been a park for upper class or agricultural centrum. Still today, water is rushing though the channels, which is seldom, and the wide terraces, masterpieces of mortar-less walls, are in perfect condition. (from Wikipedia)

Once we got to Tipon, we had to find transportation to the ruins themselves, as they are perched up a steep hill, 8km away from the village. A guy with a car asked 15 soles to take us there, which is a lot of money, so we said no. No local in the right mind would ever pay that. We ended up sharing a cab with a Peruvian family. The cab contained the following people: driver and visiting Peruvian grandma in the front seats, Peruvian husband and wife, Monica and Anne on the back seat, young Peruvian couple in the trunk. So cabbie and 7 passengers drove up a steep, windy and unpaved road. For this, we paid 3 soles (1usd).

The Tipon ruins were absolutely amazing and totally worth the effort to get there.

The ancient Inca irrigation system at Tipon is still working even today. You can also see the steps made of over-sized pieces of rock, used to move from one terrace to another.

The amazingly perfect carved stones that make up the Inca irrigation system at Tipon.

Towards the end of our visit it started to rain and we couldn’t find any cars to take us back down to the village. We ran into a few other gringo kids in the same situation as us and we decided to hike back together. We were 8 total: a guy from Austria, 3 girls from Holland, one girl from Berkeley and the two of us. The girl from Berkeley was Japanese, one of the two Dutch girls was of Carribean descent. I love how you get to meet diverse and interesting people when travelling.

Our little group decided to take a different path down the hill than the main road, which ended up being an enjoyable 1h hike.

Once back in the village, we all got cui at the local restaurant. Restaurant is too big of a word to describe the dirty little hole in the wall on the side of the road. It was overpriced (we were charged “tourist” price, of course) and kind of disgusting. Cui means guinea pig and it’s a specialty and delicacy for this area.

They either roast or deep-fry the entire animal, including feet, claws, head, teeth, eyes, internal organs.

Needless to say, these little guys don’t have much meat on them, we were hungry still and disappointed at the end of the meal. Between Anne and I, one fluffy and cute little guinea pig would have been better alive than on our plates. At that moment, I really contemplated becoming a vegetarian. We both decided this was going to be our first and last time we tried guinea pig, same as with Inca Cola, the national Peruvian fuzzy drink that looks like pee and tastes like bubble gum. Two Peruvian staples that unfortunately didn’t resonate well with our Western palates.

Titikaka and Island Life

Here are a few more photos, catching up from the Inka Trail.

One night in Aguas Calientes after the hike. This was the view from our swanky hotel room, which we got for free through Airtreks travel agency. Holler!

This exceeded our expectations one million times over. The hotel (El Mapi) also gave us a free pisco sour upon arrival, free dinner and free breakfast buffet! We couldn't have asked for any better.

The Inka king statue in the Plaza de Armas in Aguas Calientes (each city seems to have its own Plaza de Armas).
 He looks like a bird trainer with those pigeon friends of his.

On the road again, headed to Puno on the second floor of the bus.
We got the best seats in the house, panoramic view, front seat.

In the middle of nowhere.

Sunset in Puno.

On a boat on Lake Titikaka.

Uros, a collection of 44 manmade floating islands in Lake Titikaka. They've been inhabited for thousands of years.

Boats made out of the dried natural grasses in the lake. These were built for tourists, but they are
simply fancier versions of the traditional boats they use for transportation here.

The grass is used for everything, even a nice cool snack.

Inside one of the huts (built with the grass). There were clothes piled everywhere,
but they seem to be doing okay. That radio was playing...

They of course tried to sell us their handicrafts. It gets very old after a while, as you can't buy something
from everyone and you start to feel bad. Even the children are salespeople.

Floating on the island. Bench made out of grass...

On top of the tourist boat, which Monica and I didn't go on.

We stayed overnight on an island called Amantani. We roomed with a very nice English woman. There were tons of flies, but otherwise quite comfortable. The mattress was made of the grass. The family was quite poor and only gets running water on Tuesdays. They have solar panels for electricity though, which they use to light a couple lightbulbs.

Sheep owned by our hosting family.

A chick on the loose.

Fried cheese and potatoes lunch made for us by our host family. They eat tons of potatoes.

Muna (there should be a tilde over the "n" but I can't figure it out right now). A delicious plant they use as an herbal tea. It tastes a lot like mint and it settles your stomach.

Monica explaining what tres is. The little girl said she was tres (years old), but she held up four fingers.

View from the top of the island we were on.

Sunset was so peaceful here.

Look closely at the way they constructed that arch.

Leaving Amantani for our third island, Taquile (not tequila!).

Our new friend and roommate, Lulu, and a pup from the island.

The small market on Taquile.

Monica bought these traditional Peruvian sandals for herself. They are made out of recycled rubber from tires.
Size four was a big as they come; Monica's foot barely fits in it. Speaking of the size difference, Monica and I are tired of hitting our heads everywhere we go...

Here it is traditional for boys and men to knit along with the women. It is customary that when a man wants to marry, he must pass a knitting test. He knits a hat (as tightly woven as he can), and it has to be able to hold water without dripping any before he can wed. This boy is already practicing.

That's Monica with the shirt over her head, walking alongside our guide. The sun is so intense here (because of the elevation) that it's easy to get sunburned and also heatstroke. Everyone in Peru wears a hat (or some sort of head covering), but surprisingly, never sunglasses.

Monica with three buddies in the history museum in Puno.

Okay, only one of us can be online at a time, and Monica is ready to make a blog post. We are in Copacabana, Bolivia, now and we have much more left to update... I'll save that for a future post.