https://blogs.ubc.ca/runasimi/

First and foremost, that above blog is where I have learned so much about Runasimi and Quechua food. I will comment on ayni and ayllu in a separate post.

I went to Peru in 2018, and long story short, I got a fatty liver from eating everything I could for twenty days. We packed a lot into those twenty days, visiting a a huge family and taking 10 days to tour the country south of Lima by bus. Our trip took us all the way south to Arequipa, up to Puno, then down through Cuzco and back to Lima, and only as far north as Churin (Baths of iron, farmed trout and pachamanka).

I had no money during this travel, everything was a gift from the family I was travelling with. We saw the Paracas islands, we visited Ica where we tasted and bought pisco, we flew above the Nazca lines and visited Necropolis, I am making two separate blog posts: one on pre-incan archaeology and what dialogue I experience therein (A trip to Spiral Castle), and one on the food I ate with a critical reflection on globalization impact on Quechua foodways, the cebiche of Cerro Azul is the greatest thing ( I had ceviche at every oportunity and had to return to Cerro Azul in Pucasana several times to eat this particular dish made fresh on the beach.

Eat a fat cuy kymosaby, thats what the uncle who hosted my trip to Huacanna said. At night in Huacanna we had to wait for the one street vendor selling dinner to feed all the locals before he would serve us, during this time kids waiting for their food ran around shouting and laughing chasing off scrounging dogs, most of them had never seen a gringo and it was hilarious for everyone.

That was the night after I had my first cuy, the next day I would drink alchohol distributed from jerry cans while toasting salud with family at the mothersday market, my vission went blurry and before the end of that day I would take the oldest mans alchohol away, in the vain hope that he might actually remember that day which meant so much. Ayllu does not get together often enough, the world gets away from us. Pictured below is the Kuchi which gave me the tastiest chicharron.

Wherever I went in Peru, I fell in love with every dog, and embraced them.

dog from Cerro Azul

Momma dog from Huaccana

Dog in Churin

The last thing I will note quickly, is that the food which Quechua people access is mind blowing for me, after visiting peru my favourite fruits are all unavailable to me: Chirimoya is number #1 best fruit I can imagine, followed closely by pitihaya (not pictured). I ate so much fruit, drank so much inca kola, and finished every plate of food I was presented, until on my final two days I literally couldnt stop puking whenever I drank water. I cant imagine doing anything differently, I would get fatty liver all over again just to taste a second fat cuy. And that feeling of needing to have cuy has led me to debate the ethics of raising cuy internationally, which has led to an endless conversation about globalization and foodways.