Or at least, it's proto-chocolate - I.e., this is ripe kacao.
Today's focus was food. Peruvian cuisine apparently has become a "thing" - as well it should, because it's amazing. Perhaps only surpassed by the French.
Anyway this morning we rushed just a little, thinking we needed to be at the "hospitality desk" by 9:00 for an orientation. Turns out we just needed to pick up our name tags, confirm out return flights, and also confirm food requirements (as in: no pork or shellfish for either one of us, and for me most importantly - no cilantro!).
Leaving us with some time to kill. Nap time!
We met the group in the lobby, but there was no meet-n-greet (somehow I thought there was supposed to be something?). Our tour guide, Danny, said that we had assigned seats that will be rotated during the course of the tour.
Today's them was indeed food. Our first stop was the local market, where we met Ignacio. Ignacio is a local chef. He talked about the foods available at the market - a stunning array of things, most of which I've never heard of and will not remember. Well, I've already forgotten them.
First was the fish guy. -here he is doing his thing displaying an octopus:
Yeah, not appetizing to me.
Here's the owner of the fruit/vegetable stand where Ignacio gets most of his produce:
After the market, we went to Iganacio's kitchen, where he holds cooking classes for non-professionals.
He's a very animated guy:
Talking about quinoa (apparently originally spelled "quinuoa") and how it originally was grown for chicken feed.
He made a quinoa salad with a hand made salad dressing that sounded really good. Until he added the cilantro.
Have I mentioned the cilantro thing? Yeah, it's a problem. Took me many years to figure out why I couldn't stand Mexican food. The aftertaste would linger for days, upsetting my stomach, and the soapy aftertaste that I just can't get rid of.
So, for the record, folks, this is a real thing: for somewhere around 10% of the population cilantro tastes like soap. Something about aldehydes in soap and bitter vegetables. Here's a link to some info:
I also can't stand arugula, water cress, anything that is super bitter, but cilantro is by far the most vile of them all.
No, I can't get used it or "learn to like it", cover it up, blend it in, yada yada - any more than I could get used to sipping on dishwasher detergent. A mere trace of it will ruin an entire meal.
Here's the challenge - cilantro is pretty much ubiquitous in Peru. It's in just about everything. The 3 days in the jungle required never ending vigilance - at our last dinner at the lodge, the kitchen ended up having to make a completely different meal for me.
And Larry. Remember Larry? He and his wife were stranded with us at the airport in Puerto Maldonado on Jungle Day 1? At least there was someone who understood the problem.
So here we were in Ignacio's kitchen, just that morning I had told Danny about the cilantro problem, and Ignacio dumps cilantro in the quinoa salad.
The idea is we are going to eat the quinoa salad and a couple of dishes that Ignacio will prepare for us. Off to a great start here.
Sooooo as we're heading up to the dining room, I ask Danny if there's going to be some cilantro-free quinoa salad. And of course, the look on his face tells me that he's already forgotten about the cilantro issue.
Ignacio of course does not have quinoa salad without cilantro, because Danny didn't tell him about it.
"Try it! Try it!", says Ignacio.
Heh, so sorry, Ignacio, that won't make a difference. BUT it is in time for him to do something about the main course.
I do pick around the cilantro for a bit of the quinoa salad and what I can taste is excellent.
The two main entrees he prepared is Aji de Gallina and Lomos Saltado - my third time for Aji de Gallina (still excellent) and my first for Lomos Saltado (a new favorite!). Lomos Saltado is basically stir fry - I have some chance at actually making that. Aji de Gallina, as much as I like it, is a bit complicated. It's the Aji sauce that's the problem - requiring chili paste, and knowing how to add the other ingredients at just the right time without ruining it.
After lunch, a new local tour guid joined us - Isabell. we head to downtown Lima to the Convent of San Francisco, which sounded so very familiar. We were convinced we had been there last December.
But then, not - we weren't allowed to take photos (and we knew we did the last time), and then there were the catacombs. Nope, no catacombs the last time. So no photos. Of creepy bones arranged artfully in a circular pit.
Also, for sure we've not seen this particular thing before - Jesus with feminine, um, attributes. As in, um, boobs. Yep. Really.......different....
And ah yes, an exciting bathroom adventure - I'd forgotten about the "ginormous roll of toilette paper on the wall of the bathroom instead of in the individual stalls" thing and the "no actual toilette seat" thing from last time. Yey, reminder!
I asked Isabelle about maybe another convent? Or monastery? Also with a library? Maybe better preserved books? And no catacomb?
She said it was probably the Dominican convent. The Domincans ran the Inquisition, which meant they had more power and more money and could afford to better maintain their buildings.
Next was a short walk to the Plaza de Armas. Last time we were there in December, it was decorated for Christmas with stylized reindeer - while it as 85 degrees out with bright sunny skies.
And now the fountain is under repair. The clump of people in the middle of the photo is our group.
The ride back to the hotel, though not far in distance, took forever because of the traffic. Along the way Danny explained how it was going to work for the next few days.
First thing first - we get to fly to Cuzco again! This time we do get to get off the plane and get on a bus to the Sacred Valley. Apparently Trafalagar has figured out how to avoid altitude sickness for the most part - fly to Cuzco but don't stay in Cuzco at 11K feet. Instead head immediately to a lower altitude - the Sacred Valley is about 8K. And then to Machu Picchu, which is a bit lower. And then come back up to Cuzco - with no problem at all.
So we'll see how well this works.
In the meantime, we're packed up again. We're off to the airport by 6:00 a.m. In an attempt to beat the traffic.
Tomorrow - starting the trek to the main event: Machu Picchu.
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