Well, not actually your pets…. “Cuy” is spanish for guinea pig, which is a high delicacy of highland cuisine. There are two standard ways of getting it: “al horno” which is backed and “frito” which is fried. We had it fried.
To play with the delicate palettes of the foreigners, they bring out the cuy… whole. I had been okay with the idea of eating guinea pig (”Hey, I’ll try it. It’ll probably taste like chicken.”) I just wasn’t expecting to see, well, all of it. It’s a similar issue that I have with fish. I don’t want to see my meat look like, well, a dead animal. (I know, I get the irony.)
There’s a photo before this that didn’t turn out. Let’s just say it was the cuy & me… and my eyes are close and I have a look of dread on my face.
About 5 minutes later, they took it back to the kitchen and cut it for us. And, removed the head from the plate. 
Cuzco, hands down, was the most charming city in Peru. Its old colonial feel is enough to sweep you off your feet. We had two days in Cuzco to wander around before we started in the Inka Trail…
Also, if you’re ever in Cuzco, I highly recommend Hotel Corihausi. It was a beautiful quaint hotel seated on the hill behind Plaza de Armas. Our “panoramic room #20″ had a beautiful 180 view of the plaza and the city.
me, above plaza de armas
cuzco’s plaza de amras from afar
local chidren
local woman
boys will be boys
the view from our hotel room at hotel corihuasi
me
local woman
We took a (11 hour!) bus ride from Copacabana, Bolivia to Cuzco, Peru. It was exhausting.
We had one transfer in the city of Puno, Peru. Just from the bus ride, Puno looked like a rather built-up but not very pleasant town - the exact opposite of Copacabana. (The local floating islands, I’ve heard though, are supposed to be very interesting).
The large windows on our tourist bus enabled some good shots of the streets…
As if La Paz wasn’t high enough, our next stop was Lake Titicaca at 3,812m (12,507 feet).
We stayed in Copacabana on the Bolivian side (not to be confused with the other Copacabana in Brazil.) Unfortunately, a combination of rain and me feeling the altitude prevented us from exploring Isla del Sol. Still, Copacabana was a very pleasant if sleepy place to spend a few days.
The morning of our last day, I was feeling a bit better and was able to venture up to the summit of Cerro Calvario. There was some puffing through the thin area to make it to the top, but I eventually made it and it was beautiful.
approaching copacabana
the city from atop cerro calvario
through our window…
local sheep
church
atop cerro calvario
i made it!
atop cerro calvario
Incan stonework is known for its large, well cut stone, mortarless construction and expert precision.
Many different architects & builders worked on the different parts of Machu Picchu. Some walls have a jumbled feeling. Others, have an eerily modern “concrete” perfection to them.
Different Incan walls in Machu Piccu:
In our taxi tour of El Alto, we were able to catch a lot of locals through the window….
a Paz is high. At 3,600 meters (11,811 feet), you’re definitely up there. And I felt it. Even though i was talking Acetazolamide for altitude sickness, I had dizziness, blurry vision, shortness of breath, and migraine. The first morning we took it very easy. My boyfriend, the bastard - yes misery does love company - felt fine.
In the afternoon, I was feeling a bit better and we ventured up even higher by taxi to El Alto, the upstairs neighboring city. At its highest point, El Alto is 4150 meters (13,615 feet). El Alto is much poorer than La Paz. It’s this unending expanse of shanty towns, extending and growing as far as the eye can see.
looking down on la paz
el alto shanty towns creeping up the hill & continuing (on and on) to the plateau
me
the shanty towns
the shanty towns
Those who know me know that I know nothing about soccer. I played one season in the 4th grade… and then to everyone’s relief, I went back to softball.
Not surprisingly, I am clueless about international soccer. But the day we were in Lima, Peru was playing Brazil. (Which made walking around the city on a Sunday even quieter… except for the periodic collective shots or groans at corner TV shops & bars.) Peru ended up tying Brazil 1-1…. which I’m told is huge for Peru and a bit embarrassing for Brazil.
On our flight out that night, we were at the airport and a flock of people were chasing after this one guy. My boyfriend, a soccer player & fan, recognized Ronaldinho leading the pack and getting swarmed for autographs & photos. We followed them… and found the rest of Brazilian soccer team waiting at the gate next to ours. They were on the way home.
I grabbed two good photos. The first is of Ronaldinho. The second is of the “random cute guy” on the team who caught my eye. A few minutes later, I found out his name was Kaka. Kaka just won the European Footballer of the Year last week. Ironically, no one at the airport was asking for his autograph or his photo.
p.s. After this, my new Nikon telephoto zoom lens was officially dubbed the “stalker lens.
ronaldinho
kaka
I have fond memories of reading Paddington Bear as a kid. But I guess I didn’t actually remember much of the story.
In Lima, I was surprised to see Paddington Bear in Peru… until a friend reminded me that Paddington Bear came from Peru.
From Wikipedia:
This gentle bear was found at Paddington railway station in London. … He has arrived as a stowaway coming from “Darkest Peru“, sent by his Aunt Lucy (his only known relative, aside from an unnamed uncle who gave Paddington his hat), who has gone to live in the Home for Retired Bears in Lima. He claims, “I came all the way in a lifeboat, and ate marmalade. Bears like marmalade.”
He tells them that no one can understand his Peruvian name, so the Browns decide to call him Paddington after the railway station in which he was found. Bond originally wanted Paddington to have “travelled all the way from darkest Africa”, but his agent advised him that there were no bears in darkest Africa, and thus it was amended to darkest Peru, home of the spectacled bear.
Paddington Bear in a shop window
