garyandpearl

After another satisfying breakfast, we walked back downtown to spend the day. Nine of us signed up for a Peruvian cooking class, and the others had a free day of shopping and sightseeing. Our chef was Javier, and he took us to three different markets to purchase our supplies. We were grateful to purchase our meat from an actual supermarket with refrigerated meat. Our next step was the market where the locals shopped called Ccasccaparo. What a culture shock we had, and so overwhelming. Fruit was piled high on the sidewalk, in tubs, and on tables. Various organ meats along with raw meat of many kinds could be purchased. We found guinea pigs cleaned and ready to cook, but the most interesting were the Quechuan live worms. Javier said that they eat them with roasted corn on the cob, and when you cook them they taste like hot dogs!!

We visited the potato vendor where we learned that there are 3800 varieties of potatoes grown in Peru, and in the market you might find 30-40 types. Javier chose one that appeared to have a pink heart on the inside surrounded by white when you sliced it.

While we were shopping, we heard some vendors laughing at us and calling us “gringos”. Javier explained that this was a term to describe the white man because they didn’t know anything! Gary started taking pictures of the offenders, and they stopped laughing. 🙂

We returned to the cooking school and learned how to make a Peruvian meal with a traditional Peruvian drink, an appetizer of pepper sauce on potatoes, the main course of stuffed peppers, and rice pudding for dessert. It was delicious, and we were stuffed!

We had a few spare hours until our next cooking class, so we went our separate ways. Some had a haircut and shave, some shopped, we toured churches and monasteries, ventured into the local’s territory, enjoyed coffee and dessert, and some just rested.

At 7 pm, 10 of us enjoyed a chocolate making class along with a history of chocolate where we actually got to process cocoa beans and drank the final mixture as a spicy hot chocolate.

Rhonda led us all back home as we hiked 30 minutes back up the mountain at the end of the night.

We smelled many smells today, and sometimes we wished we had clothes pins for our noses: urine (don’t get too close to the stone walls), dog feces, slowly decaying meat, garbage burning, diesel buses belching out their fumes, and the general smell of a garbage dump. We also smelled fresh bread baking, fresh flowers, garlic frying, and cocoa beans roasting! We heard babies crying, children laughing, cars honking, firecrackers popping, vendors yelling, and chickens clucking. We saw masses of people, toddlers sleeping on sidewalks wrapped in colorful wraps, countless fruits, vegetables, and spices, and many young people playing Pokemon go in the town square. We felt various fabrics as we shopped for sweaters, socks, toques, and hoodies. We tasted many delicious flavors as we sampled food that we and others had made. It was a very good day!