Bad chicken

As we sit on the train bound for Aguas Calientes, the Machu Picchu tourist town, it's hard to believe we have we have only been in Peru for just over 48hrs.

We landed into cool and sunny Cusco yesterday morning. A short taxi ride (with Trek strapped to the roof) brought us to our hostel, El Tuco, which was very comfortable and we were given a ground floor room. We quickly got started unpacking the bikes! Blue trek was the first together and it felt great to be back on saddle. Sunnys pannier rack was slightly bent, however other than this the bikes look to be in good condition.

After unpacking we went out exploring. Cusco is a colorful town, which is slightly touristy but still has a nice feel to it and has some interesting old buildings. We decided to eat in one of the small, brightly painted, set menu restaurants a bit off the main street, as these were full of locals. Enjoyed a very filling and tasty lunch of chicken and veg soup followed by rice, a small piece of fried chicken, and onion salad. All served to us by the smartly dressed owner. The bill came to 3.50 sols each - about 80p!!

Despite planning to spend the day planning our bike route, we ended up spending the afternoon wondering round Cuso doing odd jobs - changing money, MP tickets (at student rates :-), fixing Sunnys rack using the vice at a roadside workshop... Found a fantastic bike shop full of good quality parts and had a chat with the friendly Peruvian owners - have taken down their contact details just in case!

And now for the most important part of this post...regarding 'Cuy', the apparent speciality food of Cusco, also known as Gineau Pig. After trawling Cusco's many and varied restaurants, we selected one fine establishment (which later transpired to be a good candidate for Gordon Ramsays Kitchen Nightmares) to sample this delicacy. What follows is a brief account of our experience...

Toby: I wont beat around the bush, this meal ranked pretty high in my most disappointing dinners list (narrowly beating my Dads 'roadkill' summer pudding, named as such due to it falling spectacularly from the mold onto the kitchen counter). Upon ordering wood fired guinea pig and alpaca steak I was expecting the guinea pig to taste slightly gamey and the alpaca steak to be juicy and pink in the middle. Instead we recieved a gnarled, bony and apparently completely devoid of meat (with teeth still in place) and a dry, chewy, bland alpaca steak. Even the potatoes were slightly too 'al dente'. The salad was alright though. I can wholeheartedly reccommend against the consumption of domestic pets.

Andrew: For me, the most enjoyable part of the meal was the look on Tobys face. While the 'Coy' looked exotic (roasted and split in half) and smelt good, it was just chewy skin or bones. Perhaps they mixed up the alpaca steak with alpaca leather. I'll take the 3 sols lunch any day!

Sunny: The experience could have gone either way when the food arrived. It smelt pretty good but it looked like a dead rodent cut in two. After a bit of digging around I found a little portion of meat, which tasted a bit like chicken. That's alright, you may be thinking, but I can assure you that you would not want a second bite of chicken that tasted this bad. Luckily that first bite had pretty much all of the meat on this skinny beast and I didn't have to endure much more of it.

We have almost arrived, will do MP tomorrow and be back at El Tuco that evening.

Photos:
Sunny assembling his bike
Power nap or altitude sickness?!
Sunny's twisted rack on the back of trek on way to garage
Coy...
Peru rail is very comfortable
In Aguas Calientes