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Peruvian Fusion: Anticuchos
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 7 November 2009
Peruvian food is one of the world’s great fusion cuisines, incorporating influences from the Andes and coastal Peru with Spanish, African, Chinese and Japanese flavors. One example of this is anticuchos, beef kebabs that are grilled and sold on many a Peruvian street corner. While skewered llama meat has been around in the Andes since Pre-Columbian times, it was African slaves in Colonial Peru who perfected the marinated and skewered beef heart kebabs that are so popular today.
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Peruvian Fusion: Corpus Christi
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 4 November 2009
Prior to the Spanish conquest, the Quechua people celebrated a fruitful harvest by honoring the Father Sun ("Tayta Inti”) in the presence of his “children”, the mummified remains of the Inca kings (“mallki”). The mummies were adorned in fine clothing and jewelry and were paraded about the main plaza in lavishly decorated litters, while the Quechua people gathered and celebrated with traditional Andean foods.
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A Quick Break in the Oasis of America
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 4 November 2009
By Josh Wilcox, KF9 Peru Taking a brief recess from borrower profiles and repayment schedules at Kiva’s MFI pilot partner Caja Rural one weekend in Ica, Peru, I escaped to visit the small town of Huacachina, the “oasis of America”, located just a few miles outside the sandy metropolitan hub of Ica. Having become famous for [...]
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Highlights of Latin America
Blog: Itinerant Londoner - 1 November 2009
I had such an awesome time in Latin America it’s pretty hard to pick out favourite moments. But I’m going to give it a go anyway. Here are the best things I’ve seen and done over the past six and a half months, along with links to what I originally wrote about them. Favourite City: Valparaiso, [...]
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Peruvian Fusion: Eva Ayllón at the Teatro Municipal
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 1 November 2009
As our taxi rushed through the Cusco streets Friday night, on our way to the Eva Ayllón concert, we had reason to believe that the event might be lightly attended.
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Halloween in Cusco
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 31 October 2009
By Sheethal Shobowale, KF9, Peru In Cusco, Peru, Halloween is celebrated in full force. It kinda feels like home (side note: home for me is Brooklyn, New York). Back in New York, I usually put some pumpkins on my stoop and make some curried pumpkin soup. This year, Cynthia McMurry (Kiva’s Field Support Specialist in South [...]
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Peruvian Fusion: The Cusco School of Painting
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 30 October 2009
Fusion is everywhere in Peru. Every place you look you can see the collision between Andean and Spanish cultures. It’s in the blood, in the food, in the music, in the language and it’s in the paintings. We got an introduction to the Cusco School of painting last week when we bought a ticket gaining entrance to three churches and a museum: La Catedral, La Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus, Iglesia de San Blas and the Museo de Arte Religioso.
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I did not know the Uros Islands were part of the Epcot Center
Blog: Documentariously Challenged - 28 October 2009
What a disaster in Arequipa. We had arranged a motorcycle tour for the Colca Canyon with what seemed like a very reputable operator, Felipe. We had setup to get the two 250cc bikes on Monday morning, but we were unable to contact him, so we pushed it back a day. Monday night [...]
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House Hunters International Comes to Peru
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 27 October 2009
We were approached last week by a producer for the television show ‘House Hunters International”, who had read this blog and thought that our family might be a good fit for their show. We knew nothing about the show, which is apparently a smash hit in many countries on the Home & Garden channel (HGTV). Based on the producer’s enthusiasm, we started to become excited about the possibility of our overseas adventure being documented on a television show. A flurry of emails back and forth with the producer escalated the excitement and my wife and I started to think about the possibilities.
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Toro Madness!
Blog: Documentariously Challenged - 26 October 2009
Link to video of the Bullfight, Part One Link to video of the Bullfight, Part Two Oh, what a day! Let’s just start at the beginning. The beginning being Pisco Sours and birthday cake at 8am compliments of Pichin, the hostel owner. He is like a little kid in a 60yr old mans body. [...]
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The Cost of Cusco
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 25 October 2009
Peru is less expensive that most countries and Cusco is more expensive that most Peruvian cities. Here is a breakdown of costs (in US dollars) of a random sampling of everyday items:
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Arrival into Arequipa
Blog: Documentariously Challenged - 24 October 2009
Alright alright! We’ve spent the morning so far eating our standard breakfast of two rolls of bread with margarine and jam, watching the pregame show for the bullfight we’re going to tomorrow and just relaxing. It’s been quite nice. After Machu Picchu we returned to Cuzco and passed out hard. The next day, [...]
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Delicious Picarones
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 23 October 2009
One of our family’s Cusco traditions is to go out for picarones, which are deep-fried, donut-shaped treats with molasses drizzled over them. Though not the healthiest snack in the world, they are delicious. A week ago, we invited another American expat family to join us at our favorite picaroneria and they loved them as well. Their young daughter, who was falling asleep after a long day, rallied when she took her first bite.
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Re-Introducing the Guinea Pig
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 22 October 2009
By Bryan Goldfinger, KF9 Peru After my first blog post and the various emails and comments I received in response, I felt an obligation to at least provide somewhat of an update on the “Guinea Pig Situation” here in Peru. Ironically, after dubbing myself “the Guinea Pig” there seems to be some sort of astrological connection, [...]
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Wow, Machu Picchu!
Blog: Documentariously Challenged - 21 October 2009
The morning after our ride we woke up a tad groggy from the evenings celebrations. Yet, we managed to pull through after a hearty breakfast of yummy burritos; to book a trip to Machu Picchu or so we thought. We used Eco Trek, the group that helps to set up the Medics Away trips. We [...]
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Nervous Nelly rides again
Blog: Documentariously Challenged - 21 October 2009
A fabulous week has passed in Cusco. We haven’t done much in terms of sight seeing; the cathedral yet to be explored, the museums stand unentered, yet a fabulous week it has been. We started out in the Pirwa Hostel, a nice yet overpriced hostel off Plaza San Fransisco. After two nights there, we moved [...]
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A Stockpile of Dollars: How to Deploy Kiva Funding
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 21 October 2009
by Josh Wilcox, KF9 Peru With a significant new source of funding comes considerable responsibility and opportunity for those who represent the funds at the local MFIs (aka the Kiva Fellows). One of the most exciting privileges about working at a brand new pilot partner is the opportunity to influence how Kiva is best utilized and [...]
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Cusco Haircuts: The Best and the Worst
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 21 October 2009
One of the things that I did not have time to do prior to leaving for South America was get a haircut; there were just too many things to do, plus I figured that I could always get a cheap one in Peru. Right about the time we arrived in Peru in late April, I noticed a brand-new hair salon two doors down from our Spanish school. It had 3 barber chairs, a full accompaniment of hair paraphernalia and a large poster with Brad Pitt and Megan Fox grinning and showing off their well-coifed hair.
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All Lost in the Cusco Supermarket
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 19 October 2009
There are plenty of local abarrotes (corner grocery shops) near us, but just like the ubiquitous 7-11 convenience stores back home in the United States, the selection is poor and the prices are relatively high. For bulk shopping we head to a supermercado, just as we would back home. Since there are no supermercados near our San Blas apartment, we shop at the Mega on Plaza Tupac Amaru. This location works for us because can walk over while our kids are at their nightly swim practice at the Piscina Municipal.
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Paucartambo's Virgen del Carmen Fiesta
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 17 October 2009
Where is Paucartambo’s Virgen del Carmen festival? It’s halfway.The mountain village of Paucartambo is halfway between Cusco and the Manu Biosphere in the Peruvian Amazon and the fiesta is held every year halfway through the month of July. The fiesta is halfway between a celebration of Christianity and one of Andean Pantheism and the Virgen del Carmen – the patron saint of the town – is halfway between being the mother of God (the Virgin Mary) and the Mother Earth (Pachamama).
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Top 10 Travel and Adventure Favorites from Abroad
Blog: Canada's Adventure Couple - 16 October 2009
Six months ago, we decided to work diligently on our blog. It has been an amazing experience writing daily posts and it has made us reflect on our past travels. In a few short weeks, we will be making new memories, but for now we would like to share some of our Favorite things that we have encountered in our travels. We were brainstorming about moments that have stood out over the years and here is our list of Favorites from abroad.
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Warning: Peruvian bus driver may actually be Mario Andretti
Blog: Documentariously Challenged - 15 October 2009
Leaving Huaraz, we knew that we had to get moving to get to Cuzco. It was a long trip, but we knew it would be, so I suppose we were mentally prepared. But you can’t really prepare for something that long. We left Huaraz around 10pm and got into Lima around 6am, [...]
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Ollantaytambo: Inca Fortress
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 15 October 2009
We approached Ollantaytambo as the Urubamba River valley began to narrow into a steep gorge, the same approach that Hernando Pizarro and his forces used leading up to the battle of Ollantaytambo in January of 1537. Our taxi climbed the steep, stone-paved road up to the town and we rolled along the bumpy main street. While passing stone walls and buildings, about half way through the town, we caught a glimpse of the Ollantaytambo fortress high above town. In an instant we understood why the Spaniards had so much trouble taking this town
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Travel lessons from a gelateria
Blog: Felicity Sees... - 14 October 2009
I´ve never been great at making choices. Faced with too many possibilities I'm easily overwhelmed into indecision. Like the gelateria in Rome I went to once that prided itself on having 100 flavours of icecream. I was a total wreck- how to choose between so many delicious possibilities?
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Peru: Budget & Other Numbers
Blog: Itinerant Londoner - 13 October 2009
I spent nearly six weeks in Peru, and right up to the day I arrived in Cusco, nearly five weeks in, it was on course to be my cheapest country yet. So what went wrong? Well, firstly, Cusco is quite expensive compared to other Peruvian cities, thanks to its popularity. Secondly, I was travelli ng [...]
