Guinea Pig & Salsa Dancing

Tom and I have lived in Arequipa for almost 7 months now.  It's strange to think, that in less than 2 weeks time we will have left what has been our home and where we have settled into daily life.

Aside from the usual routines of work and volunteering, we have spent much of March doing all of the things that we haven't had chance to, but really want to do, before leaving Arequipa.

We have sampled some interesting food.  First was anticuchos, otherwise known as beef hearts.  These were slightly fatty, but rather tasty, marinated in a delicious sauce.  Second was cuy (guinea pig).  Served whole, the skin was very crispy, like pork crackling.  The flesh underneath tasted a little like chicken, although there wasn't much of it.  We ate some of the organs too, but drew a line at eating the brain!  Thirdly, we have eaten adobo, a soup which is traditionally eaten on a Sunday morning.  The consistency of the soup is quite thin, and is not spicy but does have a warmth to it.  It contains what can only be described as a pork chop.  It sounds bizarre that this would be eaten for breakfast on a Sunday, but it is delicious, and also a good hangover cure.

We visited Museo Santuarios Andinos, which is famous for holding the preserved frozen body of a young girl who was sacrificed to the gods, named Juanita.  She is also known as the Inca Ice Maiden or Lady of Ampato.  She was sacrificed during the 1400's and would have been aged between 11 and 14 years old.  Her body was preserved in the ice near the peak of the Ampato mountain for around 500 years, before the volcano erupted and her body was subsequently discovered.  It is amazing that much of her skin and organs have remained intact.  Children were chosen at birth, for sacrifice during their lives.  If the Incas felt that a sacrifice to the gods was needed, the most intelligent children, usually from wealthy families, would be selected.  They would have trekked for days, in cold temperatures, to the top of the mountain, before a ritualistic ceremony took place, ending in the death of the child.

Something else on our list of things to do, is to take salsa classes.  So, we booked in for 2 week sessions, our final class this evening.  We have learnt steps from 2 styles, Bachata and On 1.  It has been a lot of fun, complicated at times and certainly requires a lot of energy.

We will be interested to see what our final days in Arequipa bring, before boarding the bus on the next leg of our journey on 30th March.