Eating guinea pig: A pet at home, dinner in Peru
An old saying begins, “If you love somebody, let them go.” If you’re traveling to Peru and you’ve had a guinea pig as a pet, a more fitting expression may be, “If you’ve loved something, put it in your belly.”
Cusco, Peru travel guide – The YEH, MEH, NAHs
Cusco, Peru is a town teetering on a precipice of unpalatablility. Touts interrupting private moments, taxis careening through small streets, tourists drinking to excess, smutty air pollution, and slutty corporatization threaten to bury this otherwise charming town. And the charm…
Wetting my whistle with someone else’s spit
“Chicha de jora? Isn’t that the stuff they make with spit? Eww.” Such was the typical reaction when someone heard chicha de jora in the list of foods and drinks I wanted to try in Peru. That or a confused,…
Call me “Captain,” because I’m eating beef heart
Marinated, char-grilled skewers of cow heart schmeared with hot pepper sauce, bought from a smoke-shrouded street food vendor. If that vision of Peruvian anticuchos doesn’t get your lips smacking, you may not be ready for this.
Soroche suffering: How to prevent altitude sickness in Peru
After visiting Cusco, Peru and the rest of the Sacred Valley, I am now all too aware of the fragility of human beings. Specifically this human being. I’m a sea-level creature — childhood through collegehood spent on the New York…
Cusco’s offally interesting Mercado Central
Though I’ve explored the aisles of markets all over the world, the meaty bits on display at the Mercado Central (Central Market) in Cusco, Peru challenge even my steady stomach.
The hard-to-find street art of Cusco, Peru
While nearly every block in Lima, Peru had street art in the form of stencil, a mural, or tag, in Cusco, street art is a rare thing. Most of the town has been cleaned up for the tourists. That or…
Here are the people in the neighborhood
I can’t resist a good bout of street photography. If it’s ever offered, I’ll be first in line for a computerized camera in my eye so I don’t miss a thing. In Cusco, Peru, as we explored the Plaza de…
What’s revealed around the corner in Cusco
If you wander deep enough into Cusco, Peru — away from the Plaza de Armas and generally in an uphill direction — you can escape the touts and the tourist traps. In the side streets and alleys, the city starts…
The cult of saints, live and in person
Back in a college class about early religion, I read The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity by Peter Brown. Stay with me here…
