The next day I finally bit the bullet and
decided to go for a cookery class. I hadn't done much cooking for a
while (and definitely nothing traditional since those arepas in Santa
Elena) and the session also involved learning how to make a Pisco
Sour so how could I refuse. I was joined by an Irish couple who lived
in San Francisco – Jon, an engineer-turned-neuroscientist and
Anne-Marie, who worked for Google. Betty, our teacher was,
understandably, a little taken aback when we all told her what we
did. We had a great couple of hours, visiting the market to buy
supplies and then preparing our own lunch in a tranquil outdoor
kitchen attached to an upmarket hostel. The starter, the name of
which I forget, was basically a tower of zesty potato, tuna and salad
while the main was a dish I'd seen being sold in virtually every
restaurant in Peru: “Lomo saltado” (literally “jumped
shoulder”) which is shoulder of lamp or pork fried in a pepper and
garlic sauce and so-named because you're supposed to toss the meat in
the air as your fry it (we were a little more cautious). As we sat to
devour our delicious meat the owner of the place came and taught us
how to make Pisco Sours which basically involves remembering the
magical 3:1:1 formula (3 shots of Pisco, shot of lemon juice, shot of
sugar and some egg white if you're feeling fancy). Although
delicious, a 70cl bottle of Pisco would set me back around £30 in
the UK, so its unlikely I'll be treating anyone to one these once I'm
back home.
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| And no undercooked burgers in sight |
Another note-worthy trip I made was to the
museum which was all about Inca sacrifices and, among other items,
housed the body of a child sacrificed by the Incas. The body on
display was one of many discovered in the last couple of decades all
over the territory known to have been occupied by the Incas, which
stretched from Ecuador all the way to southern parts of Chile. The
bodies of the children, who were sacrificed up in the mountains, were
well preserved due to being almost instantly frozen after the
sacrifice (as I found out first hand its pretty cold up there) and
were only found because a nearby volcano had recently erupted and the
ash fallout had melted the ice surrounding the bodies.
Apparently these child sacrifices correlated
closely to the La Niňa
Southern Oscillation climate pattern which occurs every 4 to 5 years
and, amongst numerous other things, brings drought to the coastal
regions of Peru and Chile. The Inca assumed that God was probably a
bit angry and that the only way to appease him was to kill kids. But
not just any old kids. Only special “pure, healthy and beautiful”
children who, once chosen, lived their whole lives in a special
preparatory school in Cuzco, could be sacrificed. Once the time was
deemed right they would set off with a convoy from Cuzco to their
sacrificial sight, the journey to which could take anything between a
few days (eg. Misti volcano) and a few years (Chile). Once atop the
mountain, the kids were given a strong fermented drink, bashed on the
back of the head and buried with all the stuff they would need in
their after-life with God (pots, plates, sandals etc). You can't
accuse the Incas of not planning ahead.
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| I'm gonna miss those Aussies |
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