Things to Eat!

So, there are a lot of great things to eat in Peru, and I really like to eat, so that works out really well for me. All kinds of potatoes and grains and fruits and drinks, and I am just happy. Here is one of my favorite things, granadilla in Spanish, passion fruit in English, and "monkey brains" for tourists in Latin America.











Then, we also have chirimoya, which is this really unassuming brown/green fruit, which opens up to be deliciousness. The inside is all sweet and white and the seeds are this perfect black. It's great. It reminds me a lot of guanabana in Costa Rica, but that fruit is much larger! Here's a picture of chirimoya.

We of course are also drinking coca tea, made from the same leaves that can be turned into cocaine, but the tea and candy made from the leaves are really common here. I find it to be a lot like green tea. It's supposed to help with the altitude, so I use that as an excuse to drink lots. The US doesn't let us bring it back, but I don't see why. It definitely isn't a high-producing sort of concoction.

I have also discovered two of the most wonderful beverages here! We finally opened that bottle of chicha, and it is delicious! The kind we got reminds me of grape juice, partly because it's purple, and then also because of the sweet, sticky, kind of taste. It's fantastic! Then, there is also Inca Kola, certainly an elixir of the gods. It is bright yellow and super sweet. Most foreigners don't like it, I guess, but I am a big fan. It kind of tastes like cream soda on steroids. 46 grams of sugar per serving. Delicious and probably diabetes inducing. Here's me with a big bottle! (And I like to think that I look a little less like I'm dying now! Yay!)

We also eat a lot of this pita bread stuff that I think I've mentioned before, called chapla. It is great for stuffing full of avocado (called palta here) and cucumbers and tomatoes and potatoes and rice, and really anything else that you have. I also eat it by itself. I'm a fan.

And! We also found cookies here that are vegan. So yummy. Some have quinoa or other grains, and some have nuts, and I just want to eat all of them. In fact, we need to get down into town soon to buy some more...

So, basically, life is good here. I think that I could probably live anywhere where I could be vegan and eat well, so Peru is working out just swimmingly!


Unrelated:

Here's a picture of my best friend dog, Jory.

And here's my beautiful shmom working on lesson plans!