Churros in Cusco

Avenue de la cultura, Cusco: Valentinos cupcakes.

This is a warning to not bother trying churros anywhere else in the world before you get the chance to come here.

Without any hesitation, I boldly claim that if you have taste buds and try this dessert elsewhere, it’ll just be a waste of money and full of disappointment. Trust me.

I waited a month to return to Valentinos and it was as blooming incredible as when I was completely out of it from altitude sickness and exhaustion upon our first visit.

The shop is too close to our hostel so rules have been set to stop ourselves from visiting every day. They’re that good.

Also 1 sole is equal to GBP 25p. It’s that good.

Weight loss

A note about portion sizes in Peru: during the country’s economic downturn, many locals had to downsize their food intake to one large plate a day. Since, in line with their economic improvements, however, portions have remained just as large and carb heavy, but are tripled in terms of breakfast, lunch and dinner.

This came as a shock to us, having just come from a society obsessed with being summer body ready… and as we have little self-control when it comes to good food (esp. fresh bread readily available to us)- so we regret to say that we muttered under our voices in regret after successfully licking every dish given to us clean…

It was just too good.

Typically, the following foods were served:

Breakfast:

• Flavoured yoghurt and Andean granola (like puffed grain, but with raisins. These are popular in bar form also).
• Quinoa and oat porridge
• Bread (‘bun’ in Quechuan) purchased exclusively and in bulk from a lady in one of the local Quechuan villages, topped with thickly spread salted butter (Peruvian branded) and locally sourced jam. (We snacked on this throughout the day). (At one point we became brave enough to ‘steal’ it from the kitchen when no-one was looking). (I put steal in quotation marks. We did steal it). (We weren’t even hungry. Just bored. Sorry John). (Their bread spending must’ve dropped as soon as we left). (It was so good).
• Sometimes, Peruvian rice (which some of us loved straight away, and others had to get used to. I’m no food critic, but from what I remember, this was a short grain with a bit of bite and a little stickiness, like Japanese rice…  kinda? I miss it) with two boiled eggs and some Andean purple potatoes which are oddly shaped like massage balls.

One of many species of Andean potatoes [Source: http://lisabsf.blogspot.com]

Snacks:

• Canchita (Andean popped corn): Imagine the soft part of popcorn being inside the hard shell you find inside, normally. It’s really good, especially when still warm and salted. Upon reflection, I also ate most of this as soon as it was put out for the staff… If you’re reading this, I’m sorry guys.
• Pan con mantequilla y marmalade

Lunch and dinner were often the same, with very few vegetables other than potatoes:
Always a serving of Peruvian rice with a side typical of the country’s traditional dishes, for example:

• Caigua rellena which is like an omelette with cheese, a whole olive and some beef strips inside.
• Lomo saltado: beef, softened tomatoes and thick cut potato chips.
• Aji de gallina: chicken shreds in yellow, creamy sauce. Served with a single black olive and a halved boiled egg.

There was no pollo a la brasa (roast chicken), chifa (Chinese food with a Peruvian twist, as a result of the country’s large Chinese immigrant population) or ceviche (spicy fresh fish?) up in the mountain, so I made sure to try those in Cusco upon return. For the former, I cannot stress enough how worth it is going to Los Toldos’ restaraunt for this. Roasted to perfection.

Regarding the meat at Wayqecha, it was interesting to note that, as previously mentioned, as the electricity was only turned on between 6-9pm daily, the other exception made was when John returned from Paucartambo with groceries and had to freeze the fresh meat. After that was achieved, they turned the electricity off again and trusted that, if the freezer chest was kept closed, the meat would stay safe to eat.

In relation to the title of this blog post, thus, our weight fluctuated during our month in the mountain. After hiking Rainbow Mountain upon visitation to Cusco however, I returned to London having noticeably lost weight. Shame I couldn’t keep it up- what an excuse to hike to that extent on a regular basis eh?!

 

To conclude, Peruvian food is grand. If you ever find yourself excited to go, having just booked your flight tickets, I would definitely recommend watching Series 14, Episode 23 of BBC One’s Masterchef to give you an idea of the consistently high quality food is served at in Peru, one of the world’s foodie hotspots. The show, although insanely dry and aged in terms of television editing and the show’s American counterpart… has the remaining three contestants fly out to Lima, Peru, to experience working with the decorated chef, Virgilio Martinez, who at one point, demonstrates a dessert made with every component of a corn of cob, ‘hairs’ included. I’m still stunned, to this day.

 

Rain in dry season

22.7.18 Touchdown England!

Our three flights to get home were a bit of a blur but we started off the return journey with a city-wide power cut and delays at Cusco airport which was a little nervewracking and ultimately expensive for Wanx, who had to miss her connecting flight.

After having a lucuma and mango smoothie with Aline in a gem of a local market we hadn’t realized was literally only round the corner from our hostel (Hospedaje Turistico de Recoleta, Cusco. Highly, highly recommend), we waited outside the hostel unaware that the doorbell we had pressed multiple times was, in fact, not working as a result of a local power cut caused by the rain.

This infrastructural lapse confused us because the country manages through wet seasons, and although we had noticed it had been raining relatively heavily in Aguas Caliente the night before and had continued through the morning, it wasn’t torrential. Of course, being Londoners definitely numbed us to this. Apparently, such amounts of rain in Peru’s dry season is catastrophic and shocking for locals. Aline explained that once, Peru’s dry seasons were truly so- not even a drop would fall and so reliance on fog water would increase (justifying our research).

Our flight was thus an hour late, which meant we had to pace through Lima airport to catch our connecting flight. It was impressive that I was able to do so without even breaking a sweat in such low elevation conditions, I think I might try to see if running a few blocks tomorrow is easier… This would’ve been fine had Cusco airport not just consisted of 5 high end alpaca wool clothing shops, one subpar coffee shop and no Wi-Fi connection available to guests, but we made do of a bad situation and were thankful our flight even departed.

It is worth mentioning that Cusco airport’s security belt is incredibly strange, however. Of the two available, there was only one stand open, which in any other country would have been a bottleneck, but for whatever reason, people here, both young and old knew to strip off every item to be scanned in record times. It was almost ingrained and expected even though no one was necessarily pushing any pace. This, to some extent, impacted the quality of the security, as my friend’s lighter passed through without mention. A man also walked straight through the disused sensor into the departure lounge and was only brought back to be redirected, rather than scolded. I suppose these were the perks of being in a small airport where there are few security risks!

I had the best time in Peru. I’ll be back to write about things we neglected to mention whilst working in Wayqecha. Thanks for your patience!

Final day: an overdue update

Sorry won’t cut it, but sorry for how late this is. Academics reading will be glad to hear that time not spent in the field was scarce. Albeit not entirely productive, but still, we tried our best.

On the other hand, there were days when two of the three of us were flying around worried for the health of the remaining team member. Wanx’s hands have been swollen and blotchy for so long I can’t remember what they looked like when we first arrived. She’s theorised that it could either be hoardes of sandfly bites or a reaction to a mosquito bite… It looks painful. The morning after a pisco sour treat we woke up to her suffering with a loss of breath which was scary. She trooped on through that was ok by the end of the day. We know she’s ok because her insatiable bread consummation habit resumed by dinner time.

On the same day England suffered a disappointing loss against Croatia in the semi-finals of the world cup (that’s right, even I watched intently. And I’ve fallen asleep at a live game before because I didn’t understandthe point of football), Alice peeled herself out of bed to fulfil her duty as a patriot- then almost immediately went back to bed to sleep off at least a fraction of the exhaustion resultant from months’ worth of travelling. She was repeatedly asked if it was truly fatigue or just sadness about their loss…

All in all though, we’re ok, I think. Sad to experience our last sunrise, last breakfast, last walk to and from the plot. As one of us pointed out, it was a pity our last breakfast was the rice with a side of macaronicombination because the chefs here are generally amazing and that one makes little sense… but I still scoffed the whole portion. We’re returning fattened on Peruvian portions and still with happy spirits. Next stop, Cusco for a day, then Rainbow mountain the next.

First, a final trip to the field to collect some GPS data and to retrieve my weighing sensor though. Talk later!

Animal Crossing

Hi all, sincerest apologies for the radio silence; we’ve been busy working on our respective projects in the field. On days ‘off’, time is spent power-reading relevant documents, inexpertly hand-washing piles of dirty clothes, analysing further tests in the lab and waiting for the electricity to come on at 6pm, or the Wi-Fi to work at all… Some of us also draw and read manga to pass the time… There’s also been a lot of snacking…

There’s been so little free time that we have neglected to even explore the orchid trail just ten minutes away from our dormitory!

I’m dropping in to share about how similar our lives here are to that of characters in the Nintendo game, Animal Crossing. For those who were unfortunate enough to have never been sucked into this virtual reality game, in which all your character ever does is fish, catch bugs and dig for fossils to be exchanged in return for coins that can eventually be used to pay off your expensive house expansion loan (upon reflectance, maybe I was the sad one) and talk to other characters until they get annoyed with you and give you a gift to sell for more coins…, here’s what I mean (upon hindsight, it’s literally only the fact that there’s so many passing faces, sorry for the build-up):

Every few days or so, a new character appears on our site. They’re all avid nature lovers with stories to tell- some more engaging than others, so one quickly develops favourites… At the beginning of our month here, two bird-watching groups appeared in their masses. I initially scoffed at their passion- but have since succumbed to the same respect and awe for birds. (Sidenote: in the past week, two birds have flown into the window with high impact. One, a palm-sized green beauty, died. The other, a patterned brown specie with magnificent (woah she used the word magnificent check out this reformed anti-birder) plumage had to rest the tip of its beak on the bench Claudio, the chef, placed it on, after we heard the loud thud. Scarred from the death of the first bird, we shaded it, offered it water and made noises to keep it from closing its eyes forever… to the extent that it got so annoyed with us that it flapped off the bench and onto the floor- as far as it could get with what made it look like it had a banging headache)…

Researchers, young people on school trips and families have visited, as did a taxi driver working for ACCA last week, who sat down for lunch and engaged in a conversation about potential business utilising only hand gestures and Google Translate (arguably the most important gadget throughout this trip). We’ve, so far, met people from Birmingham, U.K., Texas and San Fran, U.S., Cusco, Peru’s self-labelled Cusco-nians from downhill and tourists from all over South America.

Albeit, the food Blanca and Claudio cook is absolutely impeccable- but when tourists visit, the dishes are always noticeably better due to the higher prices they pay for their accommodation; so we try to plan our fieldtrip (packed lunchbox) days around them… Last week, an excess of fried fish was cooked for a tourist group of six who left the dinner table early. I have never run so fast to a dinner table or been so happy to scavenge…

Talking of frugal lifestyles, it’s also quite humorous how despite the rule that the electricity generator is strictly only turned on from 6-9pm… whenever there is a football match on, an exception is made. This is partnered with a sudden show of passion from the staff, who, united share such kindness and gentleness… The other day I walked past the TV room and jumped at a sudden, almost abusive, shout that punched through the peace and quiet at the site. Had I been in England, I might have alerted authorities… Later I found out it was someone being opinionated about a football player’s performance. One thing to thus take away from this trip is that Peruvians love football. One staff member told us of stories of people selling their homes and cars in exchange for a ticket to the Russian World Cup. Reports of seismic activity was also noted in Lima when news broke that their national team had made it to the games. I’m actually currently sitting alone in the lab whilst everyone else onsite is gathered watching the England vs. Colombia game. There was a roar half an hour ago. The room with the TV in it is a good walk away up the stairs…

In all, we’re well, well-fed and engaged, despite our environments remaining the same. Two weeks left! Keep us in your prayers! Until next time, hasta luego!

the showers

There’s a temperature your water turns and you know the hot water tank is losing its last drops. That’s the hottest the water gets here. The bill payers of our households will be pleased to know we’ve become experts in 2 minute showers.

Day 1

I have a good feeling about today

Hospedaje Turistico Recoleta: So good we’ll be back upon return! Blog post to follow

We are leaving for Wayqecha at 10am today! The journey down from Cusco is due to last 5 hours, so Aline has recommended we stop by in Paurtocambo market for some fresh coca tea leaves and fruit. Excited!

Cold

How blessed our journey was on the way here will be covered in a post soon, I just need to note down my dream before I forget it.

Last night, Aline very kindly showed us around Cusco, and amongst the cheerful conversation threw in some fun climate facts about how low the temperatures in both Cusco and Wayqecha can drop to. Wan Xin and I have worryingly, severely underpacked… (I stupidly brought more shorts and short sleeves than their longer counterparts).

To the point that between jetlagged stirrings in my sleep I had a dream I was back at home in London, throwing in all the thermals I didn’t pack into a tote bag, then at the airport discussing luggage with our supervisor, Mark Mulligan, who recommended a sturdier bag.

We’re off to Wayqecha in an hour, pray we can find thermals in the market at Pautamcambo (Google doesn’t even understand my spelling so I’ll correct it when I clarify. It should be a small village on the side of the mountain) because we don’t have enough time to dig around Cusco today!

That fake gopro

So kudos, eBay- the delivery arrived two days before the estimated time and the camera came with a waterproof case in addition to other components! Had the camera had a zoom option and I, time to test the footage, I’m sure it would have been a welcome tool on our trip!

I unfortunately left it at home though…

Vamanos

And we’re off! If I had written this post 5 hours ago, however, there most definitely wouldn’t have been any hint of excitement.

Look at these poor sods- desperately trying to balance tessalating numerous projects and the issue of overweight baggage at the last minute, before being whisked away by an Addison Lee to the airport through the thick of rush hour traffic. To add to this, the lack of posts as of late were due to the frustration linked to software issues plaguing all of the FreeStations we had so cheerfully deployed on Friday.

To try and fix the problem, our bud Martin and Bruce stayed with us in the lab until 9pm on Thursday. The issue, unfortunately still remains as a result of potentially outdated firmware which Mark will fix for us come Monday. Fortunately, we were also given kestrel climate sensors so will be able to make do in the meantime/ gain comparative data when they are indeed fixed!

We’re about to take off now, so we’ll update you whenever possible. In truth, I’m nervous, more than excited despite my never having been to South America and being an avid adventurer. I reckon we’re all the same. We need to ace this dissertation and have been kindly funded to help in this goal, so it feels like there’s a lot lying on it!

To calm us, our fellow scientists in JBT lab and family members all pitched in with reassuring messages regarding how much we’ll develop throughout the period, how to retain a PMA (positive mental attitude) to problem solve our way out through difficulties and, as a side note, highlighted the importance of noting down everything well. We hope to keep their encouragements at the forefront of our minds throughout the next month- especially during the most testing times!

Buenas noches xx