Astrid, Gaston and the American moustache hunt

Lima was definitely growing on us. The restaurant scene in Miraflores was really very impressive and we had yet to try the pinacle. Astrid y Gaston is recommended by everyone. It is number 35 on the top 100 restaurant list, fodors raves about it, it is in our lonely planet AND the hostal owner said we had to go there.

To guarantee a table you usually have to book 3 weeks in advance but there is a bar which you can sit in and order from the restaurant menu as long as you get there earlish. We desperately wanted to go so we arrived at 6:30pm, 30 minutes before it opened. People who know me will think this was me panicking but for a change the eagerness was mainly on the part of my fiancée.

To be honest there was no need for this early arrival, we could have got there at 8 and got a table on this particular evening but this did mean that we got talking to an American woman who also turned up before they let anyone in at 7.

She was a regular there and as well as telling us about her favourite dishes she also old us about a hole in the wall seafood restaurant we had to try for lunch. Apparently it was so good the locals don't like telling people about it. She gave us a street address and a name, el begote (or the moustache) before she left to catch a flight to the States while we got on with enjoying our meal.

Moving onto the food Astrid and Gaston is certainly a case of how many people can't be wrong. The whole experience was truly excellent. I started with scallops in a slighty sweet sauce covered in dried (or maybe fried) carrots and a foam while my fiancée had octopus in a frothy sauce, sadly the food envy for my scallops was too strong and I was forced to change halfway through!

For main course I ordered a piece of beef which had been stewed until perfectly tender, the whole main was really very good. My partner had a very nice rare tuna steak with a creamy sauce.

The highlight of the whole thing was dessert. I had an amazing chocolate covered giant marshmallow on a biscuit base with a raspberry coulis (there is a sweet in the uk which is similar although not as big) this was served with hot chocolate poured over the top (which melts the choccy coating and ends up as a sauce). My partner had a really interesting postre called "the tomato who wants to be a dessert" this was a pear and raviloi tart topped with a tomato puree and served with basil ice cream which she claimed was one if the best desserts for people without a sweet tooth she had ever tried.

I think it would have been sad to pass through Lima without getting a chance to eat here so despite the time we wasted standing around outside I think it was worth blowing our budget for. Although again by Uk standards the price was pretty average, with a main costing between 20 and 30 pounds.

The following lunch time we took advice from the American lady and went looking for "El Bigote". Because we had a street address and a name we didn't bother checking the Internet or even a map to see if the directions we had made sense. They didn't, so we spent an hour and a half trudging the streets looking for it.

Eventually we were too hungry to continue (I am not a pleasant person to be around while hungry and my fiancée is similar) so rather than have a massive fight we picked a touristy restaurant and ate some dodgy seafood.

My fiancée was not yet ready to admit defeat though, using the restaurants wifi she looked up where we should be (about 75m from where we were) and the actual name of the place "la rincon de el bigote" which has the address José Galvez 529 and after abandoning most of our first lunch we headed off to try it.

It is the most unassuming place you can imagine but the food there is definitely something they should be shouting about. We had the giant clam ceviche starter (you order as many as you think you can eat) which was great, and followed it with their mixed fried seafood. This was light and fluffy in amazing batter. Everything was cooked wonderfully.

It was definitely worth the effort I just wish we'd found it an hour earlier so I could have tried things like the pulpo al olivio (octopus in puréed olives).

It wasn't the cheapest meal out with each clam costing 1pound fifty and the mixed seafood costing 8 pounds (much more expensive than our first lunch in the tourist place) but it is definitely worth it.

Pictured below are the scallops, octopus, beef, tuna steaks, chocolate marshmallow ball and the tomato who thinks he is a dessert from Astrid y Gaston. The front of El Riñcon el Begote and the clams and mixed fried seafood.

Lima, fine food by the sea and the deadly sins!

So, it turns out Lima, in deepest darkest Peru has a beach! Who knew? Well I guess anyone who has looked at their map, however I hadn't really been paying attention. I think this was mainly because I saw Lima as just a stop on the way to Quito and the Galapagos rather than a destination in its own right.

This was wrong because we found Lima to be a pretty darn good destination city. We were staying in up market miraflores, which is a pretty affluent neighbourhood full of embassy's and sea food restaurants. This was pointed out by the owner of our hostal, Miraflores house, who from his substantial girth clearly loved a good meal. He spent a solid hour marking every type of food and restaurant on a map for us as it quickly became clear we probably hadn't scheduled enough time for Lima if we wanted to eat all of the cuisines that were on offer.

On the first night we decided to go for a Chinese as it was close to the hotel, I was expecting a chifa, which is a budget style of Peruvian Chinese we've eaten a lot, usually costing at most a couple of dollars for a dish which is enough for two. However Wa Lok was a more traditional Chinese (the sort of dishes you would find in London's china town) but the prices were (for Peru at least) sky high (12-15 pounds a main course) and a little disappointing (the salt and pepper squid certainly was) and we promised ourselves we would do better the next day.

It is important to learn from you mistakes so at lunch the following day we went for the very traditional option of Ceviche. This is mainly served at lunch time at restaurants near to the sea. We went for a restaurant called Punta del Sal seafood, which is a three story place on the waterfront overlooking the beach.

The Ceviche for 2 people that we got was around 55 Soles (15 pounds), don't be fooled by the labelling of it as "snacking" in some menus English translation, the actual Spanish is more literally translated as "for sharing" and if you order this a main course is probably not necessary (if you are still hungry order more food after you have finished). The ceviche there had 5 dishes, raw white fish served with the traditional sauce of chilli, lemon, red onion as well as a more unusual thick orange creamy sauce. There was octopus served with avacado and tomato covered in a wonderful olive oil dressing and some boiled vegetables. The final dish and centre piece was a crab, potato and avocado cake topped with a boiled egg.

All of it was amazing, if you like sea food I really can't recommend something like this enough.

Our evening meal was also fish based, with all of the dishes having a theme from the seven deadly sins and various virtues. Pescardo Capitales is also one of the few restaurants to offer ceviche at night, which was why, a few days earlier, we'd booked in online (It was also recommended by the excellent fodors which for us is now very much a badge of honor). One thing to mention is that the restaurant is right on the (slighty dodgy) edge of Miraflores, so rather than walk it may be an idea to get a taxi.

Having had excellent ceviche at lunch we decided to go for something a bit different now we were here. We started with the 'little sins' which were prawn wantons. The batter isn't quite the same as the uk (different flour i think) but it is pretty good none the less.

I followed this up with another sin (a deadly one but not sure which), a really very good swordfish steak while my fiancée enjoyed a virtuous (can't remember which one either) seafood linguine which she described as the best pasta she'd had in South America so far (although this may be considered damning with faint praise).

Price wise this was not exactly within our budget, with the main courses costing between 50 and 70 Soles (12-18 pounds) but as a splurge I would recommend it.

Pictured below are the lunchtime cerviche, the wantons, the pasta and the swordfish.

Cuy, Valentines day (and food) in Arequipa

Valentines day this year found us in Arequipa. This left me with a bit of a problem in terms of booking somewhere nice, the place most people recommended was chi cha and those of you paying attention will know that we ate there in Cusco and weren't completely blown away by it.

In the end I used my best Spanish
(really not brilliant) to book a place called Paladar 1900 via Skype. In unsurprising news when we turned up there was no table for Barker, however Mr Parka did have a reservation we were able to take advantage of.

The setting was pretty romantic, a half barrel shaped room with lots of candles, my fiancee got an awesome chair too, which was pretty much a full winged armchair with an asymmetric back.

As a starter we shared an excellent octopus salad (which falls into the category of more excellent sea food from unexpected places as arequipa is 2500m above sea level). I followed this with a very good duck in orange sauce while my fiancée had an apparently less enjoyable fish on potatoes (thus proving the rule that seafood far from the sea is not usually a great plan.)

This was the day before our 3am start and trip to the colca canyon so we only had 1 pisco sour each (excellent as ever) and I left with a good impression of the restaurant, however my fiancée was less impressed. I think that if you go there meat rather than fish would be the option.

After our return from the colca canyon we were aware that our time in Peru was running short and we still had yet to try Cuy. After helping carry several guinea pigs out of the canyon (with limited success) we decided it was time to eat some before we left the Peruvian highlands (apparently in Lima it is less common and is not as good).

We'd spent a while building up to this moment, there were only 2 real questions, how do you want your guinea pig cooked? And secondly, do you want it "con cabeza" or "sin cabeza" (with or without its head)

We decided deep fried (cuy charcardo) rather than oven roasted or cut into pieces and served with sauce was the way to go with question one. However when it came to question 2 we both bottled it and had the head removed.

The guinea pig itself turned up with a great crispy skin (similar to Chinese crispy duck) and quite a dark meat which was similar to thigh meat on chicken or turkey (although a little fattier), my only criticism was the lack of meat (I know this will not be a surprise to anyone who has seen a guinea pig) but the actual food we did get off it was quite tasty, however I suspect this will be the last guinea pig we eat as I think I prefer chicken, beef and most other sorts of meat.

Traditional eating in the Colca Canyon

For some reason as this trip has gone on we've decided we like walking. This came as a shock to us as the thought had never really occurred to us before, but a trek in the countryside is something we both really enjoy (especially when you have better weather options than the Uk)

This revelation coupled with our recent indulgences meant that a trek in the colca canyon was high on our to do list during our time in Arequipa. Having read up on the subject we realised that not all treks into the canyon are the same. We (after much consideration) booked one that involved about double the usual amount of walking than a standard 3 day colca trek. We booked this through Pablo tours as they come highly recommended on trip advisor with most people commenting on how good the food was.

The other reason for doing this tour was the fact that it included some home stay elements and a small guided group rather than a large group where one slow person can ruin it for everyone (oh and they were the first tour company we came across who were open!)

One thing I did find bad about the experience is the fact that you have to leave Arequipa at 3am (yup, three in the morning!) on a bus on the first day but as our bus was not full this just meant that I got to sleep lying on the back seat as we drove up into the mountains.

It turned out that we were the only people on our tour so it was just us and Maria Jesus our guide, she explained that we'd probably not see any other tourists for the first day and a half as we were going in a completely different direction to the others (and walking for about double the time) our first day was a 5 hour trek, mainly down hill. "Easy" I hear you say, well, you'd be wrong! We descended around 1500m on a steep, narrow gravel track. After that my knees and ankles were aching after sliding around on all of the loose rocks.

As predicted we didn't see anyone else on the path or the dirt road we finally came to. The dirt road is new, completed 2 months before we got there, according to our guide Maria, it is precariously dug into the side of the mountain linking villages where transport was previously either mule or llama! Only 2 buses a week brave the journey (on Wednesday and Sunday) and we saw 1 pickup truck drive down it in the 2 days we were there.

Not even a dirt road reached our first home stay in the isolated village of llamadur, it was a kilometre away from the road, down a narrow path and across a pedestrian bridge over a rushing river.

The best thing about this isolation is that the 6 houses here are almost completely self sufficient with large gardens growing vegetables, fruit trees and cactuses. The also have a small menagerie of animals such as chickens and guinea pigs to provide eggs and food.

The meals we had while in Colca all started with a soup most were chicken and vegetable broth with either pasta or rice. All of these were really tasty and were served with the crunchy corn and a dip of chilli, red onion, tomato and lemon juice. Apparently the locals all put these in their soup in varying amounts depending on taste. The corn works kinda like croutons.

The main courses in the evenings we had were chicken in different sauces. first night we had a tomato and vegetable sauce with both rice and potatoes (fairly standard to have both of these in Peru). Apparently it wasn't one of their own chickens, but was one from the shops (price of progress) but even so the whole thing was tasty.

After a night sleeping in a stone hut with a gravel floor, a tin roof and a bed with 2 mattresses followed bu excellent pancakes and fruit for breakfast, we opted for 6 hours of walking and our number was increased by 4. Maria our guide purchased 4 guinea pigs from the house we stayed at as she said the ones in the city were much smaller! The idea being that she could breed these for food. Guinea pig is an expensive delicacy, once deep fried they sell for upwards of 15 pounds a meal (when a normal mail course is 6-10). This precious cargo was held in a cardboard box tied up with string, which she held as we walked along.

The second day was a bit of an effort, an hour and a half of climbing, 3 hours of flat followed by an excellent vegetarian lunch of soup followed by vegetables cooked in tomato sauce (at a family home with a very impressive view and herb garden) we then walked for 2 hours back down to the river where they had hot springs to revive us for the next days climb.

Our meal was the now obligatory soup followed by chicken with an orange sauce (surprisingly tasty) this would have been followed by an early night (we had 1500m straight up to climb the next morning) but disaster struck the guinea pigs had broken free and so we spent some time hunting them with torches in the dark. Sadly the dogs got 2 of them but Maria managed to re capture 2.

To escape the heat of sun we started the final climb at 5am, impressively we finished in a little under 2 and a half hours despite the fact that the previous days excursions were making our legs hurt. The climb, like the whole expedition was not easy, with lots of loose gravel and a steep incline, rather than steps.

I really enjoyed the whole experience, especially the food, it was a really good way to get a feeling for the more simple life of people in the colca canyon as well as giving a view of a more country diet.

Pictured below are the lunch soup and view on day 2, soup with all the trimmings, our room on the first night and a particularly impressive cactus!

Cusco eating

Cusco is a beautiful city with several picturesque plazas surrounded by mountains and blessed with some great restaurants and bars.

It is also quite a tourist influenced city, firmly established on the gringo trail as a staging post and good place to stay on the way to Machu Picchu. There is a lot more to the city than that though, many travellers find themselves staying a lot longer than they planned once they experience the city.

Because of the number of travellers there are also plentiful tourist restaurants offering tourist menus. Gemma and Tim clued us into the good value of Tourist menus in Peru while we were in Puno. These menu's are usually between 15 and 25 soles for 2 or 3 courses and a soft drink. You can find these is pretty much all of the tourist restaurants offering tourist fare in Cusco's main square.

These are great if you are travelling on a budget but to a certain extent you get what you pay for, although the meals are usually ok the are not haut cuisine. we tried a higher end 25 Sole menu which the consisted of a decent soup starter and followed by meat, potatoes and a couple of vegetables. The meat brochetas were good but the vegetables were bland and there was no gravy or sauce so it was a touch dry.

We decided after the tourist menu that it wasn't really enjoyable and that trying the local food was too important to us for us to eat too many more tourist menus. We decided to control costs by sharing starters and mains and not drinking too much alcohol.

After our dalliance and disappointment with the tourist menu we decided to try some of Cusco's more famed restaurants, starting with Chi cha. This is something of a Peruvian success story with a number of branches in the major Peruvian cities offering modern twists on standard Peruvian dishes.

The decor is certainly great as are the pisco sours. Our starter was a selection of 4 different fish dishes, which were very tasty. the mains we chose were a more traditional meat stew (for me), which was massive, tasty but not life changing. My fiancée also had a traditional dish, stuffed peppers with Andean cheese.

We even stretched to a dessert for the sake of research having and egg yolk caramel mousse with a merengue topping, this was literally the sweetest, richest thing I have ever eaten, even between 2 of us we failed to eat half of it!

For the money (40-60 soles, 10-15 pounds per main) chi cha is ok, but you have the feeling that you are paying a for the name, reputation and experience as much as for the quality.

The best food we had in Cusco was at a restaurant on the plaza de armas (in between maccy d's and kfc). Limo is Cusco's most surprising restaurant, despite being some 3000 metres above sea level and 7 hours drive from lake titicaca it has built quite a reputation for its sushi. There are seven different types of sushi roll to choose from ranging from the regular California rolls to a house concoction (Limo roll) which had a filling of breaded fish, avacado and cream cheese covered in a sweet chilly jam. The also have a menu of interesting twists in traditional Peruvian dishes.

When we first went we had a 5 piece limo roll to share as a starter which I followed with an excellent tuna main. The sushi was so good we returned for later in the week to try 4 different types of rolls (which cost about 18 pounds).

If you are in cusco and fancy stretching you budget a little I would look no further than Limo, it is definitely worth a visit.

The other restaurant we ate at was the inka grill. This is also on the main square (plaza de armas) but offers a more straight down the line menu of traditional Andean dishes. It may be (slightly) more expensive than most of the places on the square but the quality is also reliable.

Cusco really impressed with its excellent array of restaurants and bars (see my previous post about the pisco museum). I would highly recommend spending a few days in Cusco as part of any Machu Picchu trip as the city has lots to offer.

Pictures show Limo rolls and tuna steak also from limo. From Chi Cha the 4 fish starter, multiple meat stew and stuffed peppers. The final image is a view of Cusco.

Peruvian drinking

As I mentioned in my previous ode to Pisco we rather fell of the wagon going around Peru, against all of our better plans.

Once we let pisco into our lives we wondered what other alcohol and beverages in general the Peruvians had we didn't know about.

Beer was an obvious thing to try, all through Bolivia and Peru each city had its own local lager. The names of these were things like pasceña (La Paz, also slang for a girl from La Paz), cusqueña (cusco) and arequipeña (arequipa). As you can see the start of each name denotes the city and the end of the name is apparently a colloquial way of saying "from the city of".

I tried most of these beers and found pretty much all of them were more than acceptable lagers although my judgment may be clouded by too much drinking fosters and carling as a young adult (all the ones i mentioned were certainly vastly superior to both these abominations).

As well as brewing from barley the Peruvians have been making drinks from corn at least since inca times, and probably much before that.

Some of these drinks are called chicha, of which we found a couple of types, which are quite different.

The first was Chica Morada, this is made from the red maize and contains no alcohol (but quite a bit of sugar). It looks a lot like ribena and probably tastes a little like it (although how much of that is because I associated the colour with ribena is still a grey area). It has become a favourite with both me and fiancée when we don't want water.

Chica De jora is a different matter. This was apparently a drink used by the inca priests. It is a cloudy grey in colour and tastes a lot more like you imagine fermented maize to taste like. There can be a lot of alcohol present depending on the brew and at restaurants you're not really sure how much as it just comes in a glass (in some cases they brew it themselves). The version we tried was very filling, with what I imagine quite a bit of crushed maize floating in suspension in it. I certainly think that drinking it with a big meal (as I did) was a mistake.

The final drink which is a Peruvian curiosity is Inka kola. This is the only local drink which continued to outsell coke once it had been launched in a country, and judging by the locals it is still their drink of choice. As you'd expect from coca-cola coming second isn't something they do well and so they bought the recipe and naming rights to the inka version and now they make and distribute it.

After seeing it everywhere I finally decided to give it a go and can tell you that it is basically iron bru but without the neon orange colour, a far more urine like yellow (it still has the unmissable glow of tartrazine).

Peruvian drink, like Peruvian food, is full of diversity and surprises. Even the Peruvian wine that doesn't make it into pisco is actually quite drinkable (although the Peruvian restaurants mainly serve Chillean and Argentinian wines).

Is this the way to Machu Picchu?

One of the main things I was looking forward to on this trip was Machu Picchu. I really wanted to do the inca trail but sadly we had little choice but to arrive in February when the trail is closed for cleaning.

There are other trekking options such as the Lares Trail but when we sought out local advice from llama path (www.llamapath.com) who were recommended by several guide books as well as fellow travellers. We were told they would do it but we'd be better off getting the train at this time of year. The guy there even gave us instructions on how to do this the cheapest way, by getting a bus to oliantetambo and getting a train from there. He even marked all the places we needed to go onto our map of the city!

This was great service as I believe many of the tour companies in the area would have tried to sell us a bus tour for double the price we paid to DIY it.

There are two train companies who run services to Machu Picchu, Inka Rail and Peru Rail. We went with Peru rail because they have trains with skylights so you can see the surrounding mountains but they may be a bit more expensive. You can also pay for tickets to Machu Picchu in the Peru rail office if you are doing a DIY trip. We were lucky and despite only booking 2 days in advance we managed to get huanapicchu tickets (note that if you set the website to English the final screen which allows you to print a booking voucher does not currently work!). For the uninitiated huanapicchu is the mountain next to Machu Picchu, they let 400 people up a day in 2 groups, our tickets were in the first group of 200 who set out to scale the mountain between 7 and 8 am.

Instead of the option the guy in llama path recommended we decided to get the train from Poroy, a station just outside Cusco, which cost us 30 soles in a taxi on our way there thinking it would be easier. All I can say is that if you go in the rainy season DO NOT do this!

We set off at half seven in the morning with the aim of getting to Aguas Caliente, the village at the bottom of Machu Picchu at lunch time, so we could have a look around, stay the night then get the first bus up the hill at 5am the following morning. Little did we know that the overnight rain had caused a landslide onto the track.

We travelled for about 35 minutes before the train stopped. It was interesting to note that lack of information on train problems is not limited to British trains. We sat on the train for an hour before being told that we could get out of the greenhouse like train and sit at the side of the track. As it was a lovely morning and they said we had about an hour to kill we had a beer while sat on some rocks and watched everyone who had Machu Picchu tickets for today get increasingly worried (this was a good spectator sport at this point as it is always interesting to see different cultures reactions to difficulties and we still had plenty of time to make it).

After an hour or so sitting around we were herded back into the train and continued with the landslip apparently cleared. We travelled another 30 minutes including a very slow section where we apparently crossed the rock fall area before once again halting.

Apparently no-one had thought to check further up the track where a second rockfall had occurred. It was at this point the Peru rail engineers decided enough was enough and said it was unsafe to continue, the train was going to return to Poroy station. The problem being that 3 trains were now between us and the station and they all had to go back and unload before we got to the station.

What followed was a further hour of being stationary followed by and hour and a bit of going back to the starting station. During this time no-one could tell us what was going to happen at Poroy, unlike half the people on the train who planned to get the early train out and the late train back our tickets were still valid for the following day so we still wanted to get to Machu Picchu that day if at all possible, we tried calling peru rail from the train to book a ticket from olliatetambo later in the day but were told that their sytems were down.

At 3pm we arrived in Poroy, we were told that we were being taken to the Peru rail office in the central train station to get a refund. Apparently a bus was coming but there was no sign of it when we got off the train. We decided to cheat and got a taxi to beat the queue (from our train, we knew 3 other trains were ahead of us). It was carnage when we arrived at the peru rail office, a lot of people finding that although they could get a refund for their train ticket they would not be able to get their entry to machu picchu refunded. We were lucky and managed to book a different train from olliantetanbo at 9pm and get out of the office by 5:30pm (there was a hundred strong queue out of the door of the office when we left) we then hot footed it and got a collectivo.

A collectivo is a shared taxi or bus, we made the mistake of getting in a new looking 4 seater taxi which already contained a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 smallish kids) and their cat (we only found this out after 20 minutes when it started mewing from the boot). The fact the taxi looks new was our error, it meant the driver who drove this route for set fares was good at his job, completing the journey more times than his competitors... We should have guessed he drove like a maniac! The journey is supposed to take 2 hours but our driver managed it in 1 hour 30, in the dark and pouring rain while nearly killing all of us 6 or 7 times!

We arrived at 8pm, hearts racing, rain pouring, at the station, happy to be alive. Having only had cereal bars for most of the day we decided to grab food before getting the train. We also felt we needed a pisco sour and a beer. This coupled with a pretty good meal made us feel a lot better.

Despite the torrential rain the train was waiting for us at olliantetanbo, and by some miracle we made it to aguas caliente at 11pm, 16 hours after we set off.

We had to get up at 4:45am the next morning to get the bus up to Machu Picchu in time to climb Huanapicchu, we were tired from the travelling the day before and the lack of sleep, so not in the best of moods but as soon as we set foot on the site and glimpsed the main buildings before other people arrived we were transformed. The whole thing was breath taking, the climb to Huanapicchu was brilliant (I am glad we didn't try this later in life as it is a toughie, including one part where you crawl through a cave), the views from the top all around the valley is phenomenal.

So basically whoever said "It is better to travel than to arrive" is an idiot.

Ps. I know this is supposed to be a food blog, I could tell you about the snacks Peru rail fed us, the chocolate covered corn biscuits, the deep fried salted banana slices, the excellent saltado and chips we had in the cafe in olliantetanbo before getting the train and the aji al gallino I had once we finished at Machu Picchu or the giant fried corn which you can buy as a snack here and which tastes like popcorn despite being still in the shell, but to be honest the main thing was the beauty and mystery of Machu Picchu, everything else is not really important.

Ode to the Pisco Sour

In Peru we had a definite plan to lay off the booze, mainly because we thought it would be the best way to keep the weight off while we travelled.

Sadly this went the way of the dodo fairly rapidly in Peru, mainly because they love a good drink. The one thing in favour of my waistline is that at over 3000m getting drunk doesn't take much booze!

For the most part our downfall was based on pisco, which is a Peruvian specialty, a friend of my fiancée told us we had to try it so once in Puno we headed to a cocktail bar (pacha mixology bar on the main drag in Puno) at the time this seemed like a great find, the pisco sour we had was excellent and we recommended it to several friends, we also went there with a couple we met on our tour of Uros and sillustani, and with them tried to split a giant pisco sour between the four of us using only straws and science (they did give us a spoon but syphoning it using the straws seemed like way more fun!). I have included a picture of pacha's giant cocktail version below.

The pisco sour is a great cocktail for people who aren't keen on sweet things and who like their cocktail with a kick, we've drunk it in many bars and restaurants and as yet no-one has messed up the drink of pisco, lemon juice, sugar syrup, egg white and ice blended together. I have drunk one or two cocktails in my time and I haven't really got anything that I can compare it to.

Once in cusco we learnt a bit more about pisco itself at "the pisco museum" (10% museum, 90%. Cocktail bar), which is not far from the plaza de armas.

The drink is brewed by distilling fermented grape juice the discarding the head (the very strong initial distillate) and the tail (the dregs at the end) there are many different types (most of which are available at the pisco museum) ranging from pisco puro (single grape variety) to a pisco blended from many different grape types.

Apparently this came about because the Spanish only wanted the Peruvians to produce enough wine for their church communion and not much else. In the past there were up to 200,000 hectares of vines dedicated to pisco but this fell to around 10,000 at one point. However pisco is making a comeback and right now apparently there are between 25 and 40 thousand hectares devoted to its production.

The pisco museum has many different pisco cocktails as well as the traditional sour, all of which looked excellent however the best alternative to the traditional sour we found was a drink from the colca canyon called the Colca Sour. Rather than a fancy bar I purchased this at a market, outside a church on the way back from trekking in the colca canyon for 6Soles (1 pound fifty)

This sour changes the traditional Lemon for a round cactus fruit whose name escapes me, inside the fruit looks like a kiwi but to taste (without any booze or sugar syrup) it is incredibly acidic. However when this is put into the cocktail an blended the taste is really amazing.

If I wasn't already carrying a wine glass from a tasting all the way back in Chile in my luggage I would definitely be packing some Pisco for cocktails when we get back to England or Oz. I guess we'll have to hope we an find some where to buy it as it appears to have become my fiancées new favourite drink! You shouldn't visit Peru without giving it a try!

Weird eating in Puno, Peru

South America has been a little disappointing so far in only one respect, there has been very little weird food, the only exception to this has been llama (tastes just like deer, see post from Bolivia) but I was hoping that all this would change as we crossed the border from Bolivia into Peru, after all Peru is home of the deep fried Guinea Pig and who knows what else.

Our first Peruvian stop was in Puno, a short (well 3 hours, but we're getting used to it) bus ride and comical border crossing from Copacabana.

As our time in Puno was short we decided to do a couple of organised tours while we we there. The first was the Uros Floating Islands, these are man made islands floating in the middle of Lake Titicaca's Puno bay. The inhabitants are dependant on the 2m high reeds which are native in the shallower parts of the lake.

The reeds are used for so much, their large floating roots are lashed together to make the islands base, dried reeds are laid on top to make a spongey floor, they are also used to build the people's homes and boats and as a food source.

Naturally I felt it was my duty to try the reeds, not least because I felt like pushing my luck, so far I had made it through Chile, Argentina AND Bolivia without a stomach upset! The reed looked a bit like a giant spring onion, but tasted like a strong lettuce, apparently the locals ate it with local fish they caught and sun dried. As a culinary location it isn't that interesting but if you are in Puno I would definitely recommend the experience.

In the afternoon we visited Sillustani, a group of inca and pre inca burial mounds near Puno, these were interesting but the best bit of the trip was on the way back we were offered a stop to see a local farm, the only person interested was my fiancée, although we talked a couple of other people into it (thanks Gemma and Tim, whose excellent travel blog you can read at samesametravelblog.com). This was a great decision.

We stopped on the road side at a small mud bricked farm surrounded with llamas, alpacas and ducks, I think it was fair to say we weren't expecting much, however once inside we got chance to see a guinea pigs being farmed, a bit more about the country way of life in Peru and best of all we got to try a typical set of Peruvian foods.

We ate a quinoa batter deep fried, giant maize corns which had been crisped up somehow (either fried or baked) which we were told to eat with a homemade cows cheese, with a similar texture to haloumi and finally local potatoes which the locals ate with fine grey clay which was mixed with boiling water.

All of this was excellent, the clay I certainly would not have tried on my own but between myself and Tim we talked each other into it. The taste was tricky to describe, the main flavour was minerally, but this is a) not a word and is b) open to interpretation, but for some reason it worked really well with the local potatoes, which tend to be a little dry.

That evening we went to dinner with Gemma and Tim who had spent the last week in Peru. They introduced us to the Peruvian tourist menu, a cheap fixed menu (usually about 15 or 20 soles for 3 courses, which is 4 pounds) that you usually have to ask for. We traded this for info about our time in Bolivia, where they were headed.

It was good to get information from something other than a guide book over a few drinks (more on the Peruvian booze later) and to hear other people's view of a country. It is definitely something we have been missing out on by steering clear or more organised tours and taking a more DIY approach.

Copacabana, Lake Titicaca (snigger)

The final stop we made in Bolivia was copacabana on the edge of the brilliantly named (and equally beautiful) Lake Titicaca.
There is a theory that you know you have been in London too long when the posh station announcer on the Picadilly line saying "Cockfosters" stops making you chuckle ever so slightly.
I suspect that there is a similar rule when you are travelling relating to titter inducing place names (I am not at this stage yet, so I am suggesting a competition for the comments at the bottom to list the towns or cities with the funniest/rudest names).

The journey from La Paz to Copacabana took around 4 hours and was one of the more interesting trips so far. At one point we had to disembark our bus while it was loaded onto a raft (which I could have built) to cross the lake. Forget being robbed or using dodgy guardaequipage I think this was the closest we've come so far to losing our gear, and as we crossed in a motor boat next to our bus we'd have had front row seats to the whole thing!

When we arrived in Copacabana it was Friday and carnival was in full swing, this involved a marching band walking the streets playing the same 4 tunes from 7am until 4am the next morning, hundreds of people selling things in the mains plazas, people firing flare guns at all hours and perhaps craziest of all people dressing their cars up like Vegas show girls (think sparkly top hats, tinsel and other shiny things), parking them outside the cathedral and setting off a string of firecrackers they attached to the boot to get a blessing! Even if god wasn't paying attention everyone else in the plaza and most of the town could certainly hear it!

Copacabana itself is something of a hippy Mecca in South America. This was illustrated by lots of young dreadlocked people wearing ponchos and ali baba pants wandering the streets in the tourist area. There were also a lot of travellers sitting on the tourist strips selling their wears. Copacabana is something of a weekend retreat so once the weekend was over most of these people disappeared.

We stayed in Las Cupala which is a hostal overlooking the bay, it has a restaurant which I have to say I was a little disappointed by. Despite the great views the food was some of the more expensive we had and was no where near the quality of some of the other restaurants on the strip.

In fact at the start we found it hard to find good places to eat and drink, until we realised that quite a few of the tourist places on the strip had the same menu. After a couple of meals we surmised they must be sharing a central kitchen as the meals we had took forever to arrive and were usually Luke warm at best (this may or may not be true but once we avoided the places with this menu the food we were eating improved no end).

The best meal we had was once again provided by the Rosario hotel chain. The presentation and taste of typical Bolivian food with a fine dining twist could not be faulted and at around 130 bolivianos per person (13 pounds) for 3 courses and a glass of Bolivian wine (surprisingly drinkable if a touch sweet) it is good value (anywhere other than Bolivia, as a meal is usually 50 bolivianos per person)
For lunch we went with a cheap option of trout by the lake. Along the "beach" there were a row of "kioscos" selling trout, we picked one based on our usual criteria, are locals eating there? do they have a free table? and were treated to a wonderful meal. For 20 bolivianos we both got a full trout and sauce freshly cooked, my fiancée went for the garlic trout which looked nice but I was sold on the trucha del Diablo (devils trout) which was topped with chilli, tomatoes and onions and tasted amazing. Both these meals came with chips and rice included in the cost, it was a shame we only found it on our last day.

One final restaurant recommendation in copacabana was La Orilla which is a small place on the main tourist strip. It is recommended by a couple of the guide books and appears to be a family run place serving something like Bolivian cowboy (similar to Mexican) cuisine. The owner served all the tables while his wife cooked and his 4 year old daughter balanced precariously on a bar stool. If you get bored of trout this is the place for you as they served an excellent chilli, nachos and other meat based dishes for around 35 bolivianos a main course.

Luckily despite the plentiful food I found lots of ways to exercise, I tried running along the side of the lake, but as it turns out it is hard work at 3850m above sea level (so I managed around 3km before my lungs felt like they were on fire), instead we walked, first around the side of the lake before later tackling the 2 steep hills at the side of the bay which give great views of the lake and Copacabana itself.

I think spending a few days here relaxing was exactly what we needed before Peru as between now and Equador we'll be in constant motion as we try and cover Machu Picchu and the kolka canyon and still get to Quito in time for our trip to the Galapagos.

Pictured below are our bus crossing the lake, trout in garlic sauce and 2 pictures of Copacabana

La Paz - the dangers of a little knowledge

If we weren't looking forward to Bolivia in general then I should probably clarify that it was La Paz in particular that was concerning us.

Having read the dire warnings in the Lonely Planet about safety and scams, and having talked with my fiancée's cousin who herself had been a robbing victim in La Paz we were more than a little concerned about the city.

We also both read Rusty Young's Marching Powder (a book about San Pedro prison in central La Paz, which I would highly recommend) on our way through Argentina, so our view of the city was slighty slanted as a den of corruption and police brutality (note to self too much info can be a dangerous thing).

Had the other half not needed to get a visa for Brazil (apparently being Australian in South American is annoying) we'd have certainly not spent the 4 days we did there. In fact we may have skipped it all together.

We didn't arrive in the best of moods, despite paying and astronomical 130 bolivianos each (13 pounds, but bear in mind the rest of our transport around bolivia was about 30 bolivianos a trip) for the bus from sucre to la paz to get a suite style seat (literally turns into a fully reclining bed) with bolivias premium bus company el dorado (the golden bus) we didn't get much sleep as the winding road meant every time I dropped off the bus changed the position i was sleeping in.

It was cold, cloudy, raining and early (6:30am) when we arrived so we weren't really in the mood for looking around we just jumped in a taxi for the hotel. We expected to be waiting around for our room but from this moment on la paz surprised us and began to change our minds about it. We were allowed to check in when we arrived (5hours early) and they even gave us a complimentary breakfast that morning !

Although basic the hotel sagannara was centrally located, had friendly staff who spoke english; pretty good Internet access, hot running water all day, cable tv including axn and a pretty comfortable bed

It also had a great view of the city out of the window. We had been so tired we hadn't really looked, but the city view took my breath away (this was a common theme as the altitude of 3800m above sea level will also do that!).

The Main Street (called various things but referred to by the locals as "El Prado") runs along the floor of the valley and streets climb off it at a dizzying rate, house cling to the steep mountainside, beautiful squares abound and the effect is stunning.

We found the people friendly and helpful, we managed to get proper coffee for the first time in a couple of weeks, with a choice of which country the beans came from! The food was also more varied, there were many options from Dumbo's (which is a Bolivian/Mexican chain fast food place), Thai restaurants a plenty (we tried one and it is certainly interesting to see other people's take on a cuisine, which I think I will cover in another blog post) to the fine dining in the Rosario hotel (the food pictured) which was incredibly good quality and put Bolivian cuisine in a fine dining environment at a fraction of what you would expect to pay in most countries.

I think this reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend after he moved into a house in East London, I was asking him if he felt safe walking home from the tube. His reply was that at first he didn't but then he stopped reading the London Metro and Evening Standard (who delight in saying everything is terrible and the city is going to hell in a hand basket) and since then, although he is still sensible and careful he's not been worried at all. I think I now agree reading too much into the dangers can really stop you from enjoying a place. Luckily La Paz is so amazing we'd forgotten most of the bad stuff we'd read almost as soon as we started walking around.

Pictures below (because the iphone blogger software won't let me put it anywhere else) are the food from the hotel Rosario, the beautiful plaza Murillo, San Pedro prison as seen from San Pedro square and the view from outside our hotel on sanganarra street.

Bolivia, Tupiza to Sucre (it's about beef)

Bolivia was probably the country I was looking forward to the least in our tour around South America. However I have to say that the 10 days I spent in the country so far have been really great despite the fact that we have stopped drinking for this part of our trip.

The people here have been much friendlier than Chile (although a pastor did spend 2 hours on a bus trip trying to convert me), the towns and cities have been a lot less run down than I expected and even the food has been much better than I imagined.

While in the country I have tried llama (very deer like, although a little on the chewy side it was very tasty) and several of the national specialities such as pincho de macho which is a pile of chips, steak, sausage, boiled eggs, tomatoes, lots of onion served in a beer based gravy and topped with cheese and jalapeño peppers and salteñas which are empanada like but with a different pastry.

Our first stop was Tupiza, where we ate like cowboys and I even went horse riding, which was fitting for a town which is heavily linked with the real Butch Cassidy and the sundance kid. The town was kind of how I imagined the Wild West to be, lots of horses and dust (as well as a load of pickup trucks). The food was mainly meat based, lots of beef, which was usually grilled on a barbecue (and which tastes excellent) with chicken and some sausage available as well. In Tupiza the steak was always excellent and cost very little, the one piece of advice I would offer is steer clear of the touristy pizza places, they are double the price of the more Bolivian restaurants. If there are no Bolivians eating in the restaurant you have chosen give it a miss!

Next stop was Potosi, which used to be a rich mining town blessed with abundant silver (apparently it bank rolled spain for 200 years!). Nowerdays the silver has dried up but the mining for other minerals continues around this growing city set 4000m above sea level. We got to Potosi just in time for Carnival in Bolivia. This entails lots of people (kids, adults, women and men) having massive water fights. Tourists are in no way exempt (in fact we found that, lugging our bags) we were good target practice. The mainly problem we had is that this far above sea level running away is difficult, and the other slight issue is that this water bombing starts at the end of January and runs through most of February.

Potosi is not really a tourist city, although there are several hostels in the centre, the main attractions are the mines, mainly to marvel at the third world conditions the people work in to this day. There is also mountain biking and horse riding but we were simply passing through and none of these really fitted our time table, so instead we looked around the old Spanish architecture in the centre and had a meal at a cafe which claimed to be 4060 metres above sea level. The food we found to be almost as good as the Bolivian was the Mexican, there were tacos, quesadillas and nachos all with a Bolivian twist, definitely preferable to the South American take on pasta which has, without fail, been served in a watery tomato sauce.

Our final stop on this leg was Sucre, this was different again from the workman like Potosi, boasting a centre full of beautiful buildings courtesy of the Spanish. Sucre was the former capital (now judicial capital) of Bolivia. It certainly had a more affluent feel in the centre with several up market shops and cafes.

To satisfy my inner science geek we went to Sucre's Dino park where we saw some dinosaur tracks dating back millions of years (not for everyone, I know), they are on a cliff face which they discovered while mining for cement.

Food wise the Belgian run cafe in the main square (whose name shamefully escapes me) was a good source of tasty nourishment and information (and wifi), perfect for a breakfast or lunch before exploring the city.

Although it was a little out of our way I have to say that sucre was well worth the trip, the only downside being the 12 hour overnight bus to La Paz (via Potosi) which followed.