After several days lamenting the lack of authentic food and drink in Peru, in the last few days I’ve finally managed to discover some of the local delicacies – and I can’t get enough of them. My hunger for raw fish has now been sated by a Peruvian speciality called Ceviche. Immediately after writing my last post on Saturday, I noticed a Cebicheria next door without a single gringo to be seen, and the food smelled fresh and tasty, if a very fishy. I shyed out of going by myself and went to see if anyone was around at the girls orphanage. One of the volunteers, actually another medical student called Maddie, was around nursing a hangover from the previous night. I managed to drag her along, but she still hasn’t forgiven me for the fishy smell from the restaurant sticking to her clothes!
Service in Peruvian restaurants reflects the very laid back nature of the people here and runs on ‘Peruvian Time’. The only exception to this I’ve found is a lovely tourist pot in the middle of town called Jack’s, where the service is so quick and the western food so great it’ll cure anyone’s homesickness, that it’s the only place here where you can rely on having to queue outside. However, at this local spot mere metres away from where I’m now staying at the girl’s house, the loooong wait for our meals was made easier by an interesting starter. I asked the woman to recommend me a local dish using my phrasebook, and she chose for me a dish called ‘ceviche cojinova’. Cojinova is a species of fish found on the north coast of Peru, and is white in colour. My friend played it a bit safer and went with fried trout – but it was still a far cry from the junk in town, and quite delicious.
The starter consisted of a plate of corn to share in the middle of the table called cancha; it’s cooked, but still quite hard, a bit like the popcorn that doesn’t get around to popping. This was served with a bowl of corriander soup called chilcanno, and I’m already a big fan. You receive some chunks of lime and a slice of hot pepper to mix in with it if you fancy, and I just drank it from the bowl, as is my instinct after spending so long in Japan. No one seemed to raise any eyebrows, though all the other volunteers have been drinking it with a spoon! That takes too long… Also, there are over 400 types of potato in this country, and a similar variety when it comes to types of corn. Peru is an incredibly rich country. Rich in agriculture, rich in history, rich in culture. It’s just the inhabitants who are poor.
When my main dish came, I was a bit shocked by the sheer quantity of food, but I guess I did have to compensate for several days of only nibbling at things. We went to a chicken restaurant with all of the children a few nights ago and whilst it was very tasty I wasn’t able to handle much more than the skin. Ceviche is basically a pile of raw fish that’s been marinaded in lemon or lime, which sits atop a pile of onions, sweet potatoes and more. I spent over an hour, I think trying to get it all down me and I almost managed! I think maybe it’s meant for sharing?
All the time we were waiting and eating in the restaurant we were the only gringos there. A little girl came up and just stared at us, probably thinking, ‘what on earth are these white people doing here?’. I tried to initiate some contact and said some of the stock phrases I’ve managed to accumulate like “we’re from England”, and “what’s your name?”, but the little girl didn’t even blink. I eventually got a brainwave and remembered that the night before I was exchanging tounge twisters with a girl from the orphanage called Shirley.
‘Tres tristes tigres tragan trigo en un trigal’, I said to her. ‘Pablito clavo un clavito en la cabeza de un calvito’. And then, she completely erupted with laughter! It was so satifying and left me smiling about it for the rest of the day. It’s incredible how much Castellano you can pick up by talking to the kids here – often by teaching them how to say something in English you learn in return how to say it in Spanish. Just like when I was in Japan, there are many people here who stay and don’t really learn much more than very superficial basics. I’m never going to tell anyone else how they should enjoy their holiday here or what they should do, but personally learning the language and speaking with the children here is easily the highlight of the trip. It’s the only real way to make memories that are truly unique.
It seems like I’m just talking about food today, but I like food; despite being a fussy brat who was convinced he couldn’t swallow meat when I was the same age as these children! Last night we all went out – the volunteers that is – to say goodbye to a girl called Ellen who’s going back home to England soon. Although I’m wary of gringo alley, I take back what I said about it earlier. We came to a really pleasant little place with a mixed Italian and local menu. Little restaurants are much nicer here; the ones with a 10 sole menu elsewhere on gringo alley have tonnes of room but we’re always the only ones in there and it feels dead.
I shared with another volunteer anticucho de alpaca; barbequed alpaca served on skewers. Since I shared it was only about 10 soles and it tasted, and looked, incredible. I’m now totally convinced that the ‘alpaca’ I ate earlier was just beef with a different label stuck on it, because the barbequed alpaca I ate last night was worlds away, and quite different from beef. A little more chewy, and though I can’t find the words the flavour differed quite a bit. Someone else had cuy, which is guinea pig. Apparently, the word ‘cuy’, from Quechuan (the native language of the area), is derived from onapatopoeia as the little rodents go ‘cuy, cuy cuy!’, before they get caught and fried in an oven.
After the food, comes the drink, and I’ve become so fond of the local beer Cusqueña that I’m going have to try and source it when I return to the UK. The large bottles have a pattern of many sided-stones around the bottom, embossed out. These represent the design used by the Incas when they built their walls, with a large, multi-sided stone (one with 12 sides here is famous and always has tourists getting a photograph by it) around which the rest is built. The people here are proud of their history and I’m sure I will hear much more of the Incan architecture in the coming days and weeks. Cocktails are popular and cheap here too, and after eating we went around some of the bars and clubs in the town centre. Being the tourist capital of Peru, Cusco has a bustling nightlife. Many of the bars, in trying to compete for patrons, hand out free drink tokens. I managed to get so many free drinks last night that I only had to buy two for myself, and well… I experienced my first Peruvian hangover today.
Another local drink, which I sampled for the first time today, is called 
chicha. The full name is chicha morada, as there are actually many kinds of chicha across the continent. It’s made from dark purple corn, which I’ve seen at the market. Apparently they crush it in order to make the drink – in the past they used to chew up the corn and spit it out in order to break it down, but I’m not so sure how authentic the one I drank today is – and furthermore not so sure I want to find out. It was very nice though, quite sweet and tasting a lot like a non-alcoholic mulled wine.
When I arrived in Cusco last Wednesday, I soon found out that the boys orphanage wasn’t that well organised – or to be more clear, the volunteers involvement in the orphanage was under no control. Two other volunteers at the house I was staying at, a young married couple from Isreal, were explaining this to me and saying it wasn’t what they had expected. I too expected more structure and thought I would have quite demanding, nine-to-five style days of work. The organisation is extremely laid-back here, as I said earlier, upon arriving at the orphanage for the first time I really had no clue what to do. Some of the boys go to school in the morning, some in the afternoon; so rarely are they all there together. That makes it quite hard to make a structured timetable for them.
Nevertheless, on Sunday night we had the talk. A couple of the guys here were brave enough to suggest we knuckle down a bit an commit ourselves more to the orphanage. It was never going to go down
well with everyone as the laid back system here really suits people going away for long weekends on treks and such. Indeed, I myself in about seven hours am embarking on a five-day trek to Machu Pichu! Still, it had to be said and now we have established a system of a sort. The basic idea is that we go there at half nine and teach them something fun as a group activity – and afterwards choose a child and teach them mano a mano; as they’re all at such different levels. The kids here are brought of the streets with all varieties of education; some know algebra whilst others struggle to count to ten. In Castellano.
We didn’t get going properly on Monday, which wasn’t a big surprise, but 
today was a huge success. I put myself forward to do the group activity and this morning I taught the children origami with an old set I received in Japan. I copied the instructions onto the whiteboard and showed them step-by-step how to make a pigeon, in spanish a paloma. Some of the guys took to it immediately, doing much better than some of my fellow volunteers; one of the boys actually making them better than myself! This occupied the children for around an hour I think, and then we went on to tutor the kids individually.
It’s not just origami that these kids are talented at though. One of the boys, Junio, seems to be a bit of a child prodigy. Whilst he is a bit older (14, I believe) he is excellent at football, quite adept at English and also a seasoned musician. The other day he was playing guitar and I tried to teach him Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You by Led Zep. I was amazed by how quickly he picked up the introduction, simply by watching me play it a few times. Today I was teaching him a bit of Pink Floyd.
He isn’t the only one there with a knack for music, either. Friday last week was the last day for two girls from Spain who had been volunteering at the orphanage for some time. They’d clearly made a significant impact on the kids as they threw a massive show for them, with a stunning display of Andean music and dance. I took a video of them for a while – and it was of such quality that if I’d heard it in a record shop, I’d probably ask somebody who worked there what it was called so I could pick up a copy. The picture below links to the video.
I moved into the girls orphanage yesterday with most of the other volunteers, and I love it already. I see the girls there often as they’re usually downstairs below the volunteer rooms, they’re a fantastic bunch and so independent. They’re very playful as well, one of the girls there keeps teasing me about everything from my poor grasp of the language to me not having a girlfriend! When the Americans leave tomorrow, I’m looking forward to spending more time with the girls, hopefully teaching them too.
The rest of my time has been spent exploring the town of Cusco with the other volunteers. It may be a little too touristy in parts, giving rise to hawkers on the street who try to sell ‘alpaca’ wool garments (though more likely synthetic), cheap paintings and all sorts. They only seem to understand a firm “no, gracias”, but I’ve had normal and quite interesting conversations with a few of them, and I’m sure they can recommend good places to find local foods and drinks. We usually get taxis into the town which with a few of us only cost 25 pence each, but recently I’ve been risking the local public transport and saving a few pennies, 
whilst taking in some of the culture. Most of the ‘buses’ are small minivans with often about twice as many passengers as there are places to sit – but it’s quite exciting and a man hangs out from the door as the bus drives past potential boarders, shouting out like a raging auctioneer.
In the city, almost every other shop is a local travel agency, coordinating tours to Machu Pichu and around. On my second day in the city, me and another new volunteer shopped around at the various outlets trying to find the best deal for a trek to Machu Pichu. We eventually settled on one recommended by some other volunteers who had just been and come back, and the bus is coming to pick us up to take us to the start of a five day trek in about six hours.
So, I won’t be updating anything until after I get back on Sunday. But then you should expect a splurge of pictures and stories from my trek. It should be hard work, covering around 80 kilometres at high altitude. I might look a little bit different in the photographs too, after stopping at a certain shop in town for an hour or so this afternoon…
¡Hasta luego!
Tommy
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