Corpus Christi

The past two days we have been celebrating Corpus Christi. Yesterday was a parade that carried statues of the Saints to the main cathedral in the square. It was a pretty amazing sight to see these massive statues getting carried down the streets followed by brigades of marching bands playing traditional music. The sights and sounds were great but the most interesting part of yesterday was the food.

As we walked to get lunch we came on upon tents that lined to streets. Underneath the tents, crowds of Peruvian festivarians were housed eating mounds of food. Looking more closely, I realized people were eating an array of things, with the most striking being the local favorite cuy, also known as guinea pig to us in the states. As hungry as I was there was no way in hell I would be going into one of those tents. Almost as soon as that thought went into my mind, we went directly into a tent thanks to our tour guides (nurses as the clinic). There was no turning back, especially seeing how excited they seemed to be about getting to eat. I decided to do my best Anthony Bourdain impression by trying out the local food. I can’t remember the name of the dish, but it is traditional Peruvian festival food consisting of; fish eggs, sea weed, pork sausage, chicken, cuy (guinea pig), cheese, and bread. We sat eating this massive plate of assorted (really salty) meat with about 5,000 other people in crowded tents downtown, all the while drinking the alcoholic beverage of choice, Cusquena. I can honestly say yesterday was the most adventuresome meal of my life. I can thank the nurses that work in the clinic for the experience because had we not gone with them there is no way I would have knowingly sat down at that tent.

After the episode of the food channel, we walked around and took in the sights of the festival. Today was more of the same but I took some time to take more pictures.

 

10 centimos game. I won!

vegetarian