Cuy and Hiking the Andes

Week 1 is officially done! It´s hard to believe, but I´m having such a great time. It truly feels like a vacation, which is such a blessing.

Thursday night was the last night for some of the Floridians and so we had a special meal that might turn some of you off completely. It´s a dish reserved for birthday and other special occasions, called Cuy. I so wish I could post some pictures! Cuy is a delicacy and is commonly known to Americans as guinea pig. Now, I couldn´t quite picture them, which was helpful during the meal, but when I found the wiki page to post as a link here, I was a little sick when I saw their cute faces staring at me. But I figured it was a once in a lifetime meal and we were all game to try it. It was interesting, to say the least. A lot of crispy skin and bones and not much meat and what was there was a dark oily meat a little like rabbit or duck. But the little claws attached to the pieces we ate and the skulls with the little teeth still in place in the serving dish were a little difficult to deal with. A classmate had it with her host family recently and they talked her into eating the claw, which is supposdly quite a treat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea_pig - after viewing their cute faces, scroll to the bottom and it talks about their history as a food.

And today we spent the day hiking the Andes in el Cajas national park. We hiked through enchanted forests and around beautiful lakes. Cuenca is at 8200 ft, and the park is at 12,000 ft so it was a slow hike. I´m gratefuly I only felt a little pressure on my brain as an effect of the altitude. The continental divide is in this park, and there are rivers that lead to the Pacific and Atlantic there. We saw a lot of plants found only in this park or at this altitude and each had a story behind them. It was freezing cold, so I had 4 shirts and a rain jacket on. I´m glad a friend and I went shopping for gloves and scarves made of alpaca fur and wool, which kept us amazingly warm. It rained and was windy, but it didn´t dampen the majesty of the scenery. We saw lots of signs of animals, but they never made an appearance. It´s known for llamas, alpacas, bears and several species of birds including the tucan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Cajas - for park info
http://www.ecuador-travel.net/biodiversity.parks.elcajas.htm - for a few great pictures


So now I´m ready for a day of rest!