I ate a guinea pig!!!

Afternoon all!

I made it back from Peru in one piece. I travelled out there with my new collegue to teach him the ropes of commissioning. We had travelled the week before all over the US and this time we went straight from the US to Peru. After a 7 hour flight from Atlanta to Lima we got to our hotel at around midnight. As there was no bar in the hotel we got one of the porters to show us the way to a bar and we found a nice little samba place just around the corner. We had a few beers, yes, only a few, as we had to travel the next day to Arequipa.

The next day after some confusion where to take the plane from, we got to Arequipa around 5 in the evening. Mr Juan Fransisco was there to take us to the appartment. After we dropped our cases off he took us into town to see the centre of Arequipa.

Arequipa is a big 2 million person town. It is unique due to the fact that it is surrounded by three active volcanoes. But according to the locals it is completely safe, the last eruption was in 2002...

This is one of the volcanoes, I can't remember which one as I have the memory span of a goldfish. This was on the way to the cement plant, which was in the foothills of the Andes.
This is me posing in front of some other volconoes...

This, my friends, is special! Before I went out to Peru I knew that they ate guinea pigs. As I am quite adventureous (I ate goat in Indonesia, crickets in Mexico, snakes in Hong Kong...) I was determined to eat it if I could find it. So the first evening in a restaurant just of Plaza des Armas (The main square in Arequipa) when I was perusing the menu I was thrilled to see Alpaca and Cuy (guinea pig) on the menu. The first night I had Alpaca which was stunning. It is like a cross between really good beef and tender lamb, absolutely brilliant. The next night I went for it and ordered the 'whole guinea pig' from the grill. It comes with its head still on and all its claws etc...
This is it, laying on the plate with its little head on a potato. It tasted like a cross between badger and golden eagle. Only kidding... It tasted quite like chicken but a bit more fatty. It was also quite tricky to cut up. When you eat a chicken you know were the bones are and you know where to cut. In the end with this thing I just broke legs off and nibbled away. The meat on its tiny head was quite good too!

By the way, the pictures of the guinea pig are shite as I forgot my camera phone and my mate has a new Motorola flip phone which is a piece of shite. Its got no flash, no light, no space for memory cards, if you are looking for a good phone give this bastard a miss.... You can sortof make out the front teeth of the rat in the piccie if you look closely...

This was one of the main churches around Plaza des Armas, dunno which...

This is the front of the main cathedral in Arequipa. The left tower was knocked off in a recent earthquake but it was restored beautifully...

This is the menu that shows I am not lying. Cuy a la parilla is guinea pig from the grill and Bife de Alpaca is hairy Lama meat.
This was the Alpaca steak, blooming marvellous! There are some people around my way that keep alpacas for their wool. Maybe I should try to find out if they would be interested in eating the buggers when they stop giving wool. I would be happy to help them eat the buggers!
This was the local drink at the cement factory 25 km north west of Arequipa. It is a cross between RedBull and Irnbru. As it was full of cafeine it probably wasn't the best thing to drink just before going to bed, as I found out to my discust hahahaha...

If you are looking for a good nightclub in Arequipa go for Club Queens on Avenida Ejercito. Just knock on the door, if they like your mug they will let you in. Beer is reasonably priced at 8 soles per bottle and the staff is very friendly.

All in all we had an ace time in Peru. I would like to go back and actually spend some time in Lima as this time we only slept there for a few hours. Certainly the place to go to if you are into old piles of stone as they have Machupichu and Cusco and all sorts of other old stuff. They also have some unique wildlife there with the condor being the most famous.

OK, gotta go, busy busy busy, back to The Philippines in a weeks time,

Cheerio,

Alex.