Visiting Peru

[Guest]

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[B. Right]

Could you try to get some good guineapig recipes, while you are there?

[Paula-from-NZ]

I used to love Welsh/New Zealand lamb.  (To be honest, I still would like to eat some, but my conscience has stopped me!)

Lamb in New Zealand is all free range so you just need to be more concerned whether they are transported live and in what conditions...  lambs are free here to run around large paddocks so they have a good life, up to a point.  New Zealand beef is also free range - we don't have grain fed here to the best of my knowledge.

[Diane R]

Well I'm back now, B, but I think you can google for some recipes if you're interested.  You can learn a lot about the tradition of raising and preparing cuy at this about.com page:  http://gosouthamerica.about.com/od/cuisine/a/cuy.htm

Traditional Andean people rarely purchase cuy. A mating pair is a very typical household gift, especially to a newlywed couple, special guests, or to children. Despite the fact they live in the household together with their owners, individual cuy are never named nor are they ever considered to be pets. They are viewed in much the same fashion as are chickens. Women and children are the primary caregivers, charged with collecting the feed and cleaning the floor and cuyeros. Children can own individual animals within the family herd, where they are used as personal cash for purchases or gifts, somewhat similar to the way American kids use allowance money.

Cuy were traditionally raised solely for subsistence consumption within the household, though they are now often traded or sold since many remote regions of the Andes have entered the market economy. But despite their recently acquired exchange value, cuy are still primarily used for personal consumption at the household level.

Please note, friends, that I have not and will likely not eat any, but again, I now comprehend the cultural differences that make this quite commonplace in the Andes.

--Diane.

[abc]

Lamb in New Zealand is all free range so you just need to be more concerned whether they are transported live and in what conditions...  lambs are free here to run around large paddocks so they have a good life, up to a point.  New Zealand beef is also free range - we don't have grain fed here to the best of my knowledge.

Am I right in remembering from my
visit to NZ in 1984 that NZ lamb is
anything up to about one year in age?

Once again, we assist in loans depending
on our own particular value systems.
My feeling is this: I eat beef. I did not
always but I do now. Same with chicken and
the occasional bit of bacon. I feel awkward
and hypocritical saying that others Ought
Not eat other animals. Not to say that I would
plow into a plate of cuya, but it's just not
my business. I do not equate gps with
foie gras or veal calves. Others might, and
that is their right. Just not mine.

I am pretty sure this subject has been talked
to death in a thread that was active before
I joined this spring. Let's move on to
the important thing: Diane's travel pix
and stories.

[waywardcats]

Thanks also from me Diane, great photos and great information as well.  I agree completely with you on loans to Peru, I probably won't fund any specifically for cuy, but I will not worry about it so much if I happen to learn someone used a loan I was on for cuy either.

I am curious about the house though, given all our conversations here about home improvement loans.  Can you please share with us your sensory perceptions of the home?  Was it cold or hot?  Were there strong odors?  How do you think the house would be in weather, rain, snow, high winds?

What a wonderful and enriching experience this must have been for you, thanks so much for sharing with us!

-Kerry-

[Paula-from-NZ]

Am I right in remembering from my
visit to NZ in 1984 that NZ lamb is
anything up to about one year in age?

My understanding that here in NZ, lamb is up to 1 year, hoggett is 1-2 years and mutton is 2 or more years old.

I'm vegetarian and I see little different between eating a lamb or a guinea pig...   

[Diane R]

I am curious about the house though, given all our conversations here about home improvement loans.  Can you please share with us your sensory perceptions of the home?  Was it cold or hot?  Were there strong odors?  How do you think the house would be in weather, rain, snow, high winds?

Thanks for the questions, Kerry -- one of my plans had been to include a post with some photos about houses and businesses that reminded me of things we'd see listed on Kiva, so that's a perfect entree!  To answer your questions about the home I posted photos of above, it was cool inside despite the warmth; I suspect the rock walls were effective for that.  It smelled a bit musty and earthy to me, but the odors (say, from cooking or the guinea pigs) were not strong at all.  There is no snow there, and very little rain, so this particular home in this particular area would not suffer from either problems.  In fact, in some of the areas we visited, there is so little precipitation that there are many homes WITHOUT ROOFS at all: it only rains a maximum of 6 days a year, so they mostly don't need one to keep out the rain.

Some of the homes we saw had tin-sheet roofs (like Sofia's), some had thatch, some had bamboo with thatch over it (like this family's)... and a few had none.  Here are a selection of house photos we took, including some of housing settlements.  (Click the photos for larger versions.)

   A housing settlement on the outskirts of Arequipa.

   A home near Colca, with a partial new construction next door.

   Thatch-roof home by a high lake near Colca, with stone pens for llamas behind. The residents are washing clothing in a small lake.

   A house with a really small door (Charlie is really tall).

   Sofia's home in Chivay (tin roof, earthen walls and floor).

   The amazing home and ceramics workshop of Pablo Seminario, in Urubamba. (This is for contrast with some of the other homes.)

   A street in Ollantaytambo just like the one on which the family home I visited was located.

   The inside of the home we visited in Ollantaytambo.

  Housing in the town of Aguas Calientes, at the foot of the mountain atop which perches the Machu Picchu sanctuary.

   Very upscale housing on the hillside above Cuzco.

So that's a pretty wide set of housing photos, again, clicking on any of them should take you to a larger version of the picture.  I'm happy to answer any questions, and I hope I didn't just blow out someone's dial-up line!  MY APOLOGIES if I did!!

--Diane.

[P, B and J]

Wonderful, wonderful photos Diane!  Thanks so much for posting them, along with your experiences and info!  I didn't realize they got so little rain there throughout the year!  Is this considered their winter at this time of the year?  The doll is beautiful!  The guinea pigs are cute (!), although the thought of them as food does leave me somewhat squeamish too.  It's good to know that they are well cared for and all.  I can see how being able to just keep them in the house with them like that makes things so economical.  They really seem to permeate the culture (and even the homelife of the owners) more than I realized!

~Jackie~

[wind5001]

Astounding, breathtaking. Am totally awed, Diane.

Thanks for sharing.

[Diane R]

More pictures!     (Let me know if y'all get tired of these, OK?) 

Businesses we saw in Peru that reminded me of Kiva businesses.  Click any photo to see a larger version.


  Street vendors in Arequipa. See the hats for sale at left, and the llama dolls on the right? The man with the blue basket is selling bread.


  General store in Arequipa.


  Glass shop (windows, pictures) in Arequipa.  (Why does it say "My Store" in *ENGLISH*??)


  Clothing and doll makers/vendors near Colca.


  The Chivay market: cheese, fruits, vegetables, flowers, grains, potatoes... what else would one need?  (I will refrain from posting the photo I took at the butcher's next door.)


  Street market scene in Chivay.  I bought some excellent Incan-equivalent to kettle corn here, the kernels were about three times what we're used to seeing!


  The local hardware store in Chivay!


  The best little general store in Chivay, hands down.


  A weaver and her daughter.


  A very intense weaver.


  A chicken seller in the market in Ollantaytambo.


  Mototaxis in Ollantaytambo, including one down the street.  (We rode in the red one.)


  A young weaver in his parents' workshop.


  A big smile from a street weaver.


See some familiar sights in those photos?  I sure did!  It made me want to run back to a computer and fund every loan from Peru that shows up on the site! 

--Diane.