October 3, 2005
Day 5
I started out my day with a trip to the Museo de Antropologia in the center of Huaraz. Like the museum in Lima, there were lots of artifacts from the prehispanic civilizations here. I'm so fascinated with the various cultures. It's strange how the Incas basically enslaved the other cultures of this continent and forced them to change their cultures, only to have the same thing be done to them one hundred years later by the Spaniards. A taste of their own medicine I guess. This time, I had a guide who showed me the whole museum. We chatted a lot about life in Peru and the US, the similarities and the differences. We talked entirely in Spanish, and surprisingly, I was able to understand 75% of it. It's weird how fast you can pick up a language when you are actually travelling in a foreign country (of course, I knew a lot of Spanish before my trip, but I hadn't used it in seven years).
After the museum visit, I met with Morad and we went to get breakfast. It just so happened that the owner of the shop we went to was from France and everyone in the place spoke French except me. It was a very bizarre experience when I had to think about two foreign languages at the same time. I eventually just zoned out and watched the boob tube while everyone else was chatting away.
In the afternoon, we walked to a lookout point near the city. It was a long hike up, but I held my own. The only problem was that we went around 4:00 PM. This time of year, it always rains at 4:00. I didn't get very good pictures, but the view was still pretty good, despite being so wet.
On the way back down, we noticed an interesting restaurant. We decided to get lunch and discovered that one of their main menu items was "cuy," which means "guinea pig" in Spanish. Both of us wanted to try it, so we each got 1/2 of a fried cuy. There wasn't much meat on it, and it was a little dry, but believe it or not, it tasted like chicken. Luckily, I got a huge soup, or I would've left that place hungry.
After doing some shopping around, I decided to go with Morad on a 4 day, 3 night trek in an area called "Santa Cruz." We'll be going with 3 other people I haven't met yet. It should be an amazing experience, as the area I'm in is home to the world's highest tropical mountains. I won't be able to get on the Internet until at least Thursday, probably Friday, so I'm just getting caught up tonight. Check back in a few days. I'll probably have lots of great pictures and stories to tell.
I scanned your new pictures I thought - Dan just ate a chinchilla...then I read the caption and saw that it was Guinea Pig. When I read through your blog I noticed that the dish is "cuyo" which is just one letter off of Cuco (the name of Katie's chinchilla). Needless to say I will probably recommend to Katie that she not look at that picture :-)
Take care and have fun on your trek.
I showed my study hall kids the guinea pig. They kinda freaked. It's perfect b/c I will show my soc. class. Today we are talking about taboos so that will work out really well. Have fun in the mountains!! By the way I'm loving the pictures.
Dan, wow, this is a great way to capture your stories and pictures! I had to read them all and catch up today--guess I'll be visiting every couple days so I don't have to spend so long catching up. Rochester has gotten very cold--30s last night and 20s tonight. I'm pretty sure I saw a snowflake yesterday. I'm sure it's cool in the mountains too. Your photos remind me of my trip to Guatemala--so much culture. Keep writing, snapping, and enjoying! Cindy
Urrv - Actually the word is "cuy." I was going off of memory and got it wrong, so nothing to worry about.
Hellow Dan, I'm reading you with a special interest because next November 19 I will be landing in Lima for a trip of 20 days to Machu Picho , Lake Titicaca, La Paz, Atacama Desert and Santiago. I'll have a quite travel because we (8 people) are older then 50,but is very interisting for me to watch your adventures.
Take care.
António
Porto, Portugal
Hi António, I´m glad you found my site. I haven´t made it to any of those places yet, but I will at least get to Machu Picchu before your trip. Good luck with your travels!