Hello!!!

We are in Cusco and have met up with the fantastic Allison, Mike, Zak and Bobby for this portion of the trip.  We have been here for 3 days and have packed them as full as possible.  Highlights include our tour of the sacred valley (scenery out of a movie, amaranth blowing in the wind, llamas nibbling at our hands, vendors trying to sell us everything from choclo (corn on the cob) to weavings.)  We have seen two of the sites with ruins around cusco (Ollantaytambo and Tipon) one with our planned guided tour and the other with the front desk man from our hotel that recently graduated as a tourism student but is still without his official license.  His tour was incredibly interesting though and he took us off the beaten path to eat two of Peru´s delicacies.  Hannah, take it away.....

We ate guinea pig dudes!!!!! It is known as Cuy al Horno here and you eat it at a Cuyeria where they cook it in a big adobe oven and serve it whole. Yes, there were faces on our lunchmeat today. I must say, that if you never try it, you will be missing out on some fine red meat (didn`t know it was red, did ya?)

We also ate tac tac (fried pork skins) and Chicharron (fried pork). When I say we, I mean the rest of the group, cause ya`ll know we don`t eat the piggies.

Pictures will be coming soon. We thought it might be fun for each of you to imaging the open jaw of a broiled guinea pig, rather than show it to you ala Kodack. We are off to a very small dinner. Hopefully including helado (ice cream!!!)