I spit at you

Today was a culinary type day for me. Everywhere I travel I like to take a cooking class and I always want to try the local food. I was able to do that today along with meeting some cool people.

As I was sitting at the train station for my trip to Machu Picchu, KB, the guy who owns the hostal I´ve been staying in passes me along with Pat and Joe, the couple from Colorado I met yesterday. They were on a mission I could tell, but I had no idea for what. KB said, ¨Grab your bag and come along.¨ Come to findout we were headed to a granite bench created by the Incas. The Rio Urdubamaba river is low right now(low season) sitting a good 6 to 8 feet lower than it does in say January. Many of the rocks and boulders would never be see certain times a year, including this bench. Again, it is a work of art. It seems that this bench would have been used by a king with two women on either side of him. There were cutouts that appeared to be for feet. The cutout in the middle was a bit lower than the other two. The bench was so smooth and complete-quite amazing.

I met a couple of British girls on the train ride up to Aguas Calientes. They had been trekking in the mountains for 3 days. We had a nice conversation and then got to AC which is a very small town. If I need to go to the bathroom it is just as easy to go back to my room as find one somewhere. It´s also the site of my getting into some good culture, with food.

Ever hear of an alpaca? I ate one today? How about llamas? Ate that too. Trout? Yep, raw! My day of food began in a little restaurant with the alpaca. These are in the llama family and they make winter hats, scarves and mittens out of their wool. Apparently, they also he these guys. It was like a steak, but a really tough steak. Isn´t it funny that I won´t touch venison back in the States, but here in Peru I´ll eat alpaca?

http://thoughtdistillery.com/gallery/d/639-3/alpaca.jpg

In addition to that, I took a cooking class. It was just me and three chefs, Oscar, Manuel, Julio (me and Julio down by the school yard-everyone sing with me). They were all cool guys. Oscar and Manuel both spoke better English, so Julio just told Manuel what to say to me. The meal started with ceveche(sp?). It is a traditional Peruvian appetizer type thing. During a war with Chile, I think Oscar said in the 1400´s, the Peruvian men would come home and as a celebration the women would make ceveche. It was basically a potato cake, but like mashed potatoes mixed with pureed yellow Peruvian chilis(key ingrediant in most Peruvian cooking), formed into a patty. Then there was a mixture of raw trout(or another fish of your liking but trout is huge in this part of Peru due to the Rio Urdubamba), onion, garlic, and lots of lime juice. That is placed on top of the potato, then another potato cake is put on top. To top it off is a mayonase make of pureed black olives, oil, and garlic. It was really good. THe mayonase was somewhat overpowering but good.

The next thing we made was quinua soup. Quinoa is a rice type grain that I discovered only two years ago thanks to Oprah´s Bob Green(as if she owns him but you know what I mean....ok, she does own him). The soup was delicioso! Finally we make a llama stir fry. YUM! It wasn´t as tough as the alpaca, which I enjoyed, and again was a lot like steak. It was really neat to have these three guys and me cooking and answering my questions, etc.

Well, I´m off to bed. I have a 4 a.m. wake-up call for Machu Picchu. I´m a little leary about the trip due to the clouds that were atop the mountains as we pulled in to AC. I´m telling you what, if there are clouds tomorrow.....maybe Oprah can move them for me. Kidding, you all know I love her.

Cheers!