Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Pisco Sour Llama Hunt

How to make a Pisco Sour:

Ingredients:
-Pisco, a Peruvian grape liquor
-sugar
-fresh lime juice
-a raw egg white
Put everything into a blender and press the button.

In any other country in the world, adding raw egg whites to your cocktails would get you closed down, but here in Peru, it just seems to make sense. Especially when you're 11,200 feet above sea level and your head has been spinning for the last few days and you're contemplating buying a baby llama.

The last month has been a bit of a wild blur. Pete had been in a cast the month before with a fractured toe, put on him by the free, public hospital staff in Quito, but was having severe ankle pains. Finally it got so bad we just cut the cast off ourselves to find his ankle severly deformed and swollen. We hobbled over to the closest, most expensive, private hospital we could find where they took some more X-rays and found two other fractures in the ankle that the first hospital had missed. They called a Traumatologist from a specialist clinic to come take a look, and he declared that Pete needed surgery. It would cost five thousand dollars. I almost passed out.

Needless to say, we did not have five thousand dollars. Luckily Pete is from England, where the surgery would be free, so after a long talk we called his parents and told them he was coming home for an extended visit. He flew home a week later. Once again flying solo, I had decided to get back on the road. Although we have plans to make Quito our next home, it felt big and empty without him. I finished up work and headed to the beach for an overdose of sun I had been missing whilst living in the mountains. I spent a week in Canoa and Montanita, both on the Ecuador coastline, and then hopped over the border into Peru and down to Huanchaco to meet up with my good friend Riccardo. By "hopped" I mean it was a twenty-three hour journey on four buses, where I was bombarded with people selling everything from chocolates to Jesus to a ginseng extract that apparently cures AIDS, cancer, and malaria. So to all you suffering people in the world, there is a small Ecuatoriano man selling the cure on a bus between Guayaquil and Huaquillo.

After I arrived half dead on Riccardo's doorstep, wishing I had bought that ginseng, like any self-respecting Italian he took me down to the market for some fresh breakfast pizza. Apparently Little Italy has moved to Huanchaco, because in my few days there I met way more Italians than Peruanos. Yet my experience would have never been as wonderful without Luca and his home-made vegetarian breakfast pizzas. I would have stayed longer in that sweet, little surfer heaven but I had to book it down to Lima in time to meet my family.

Months ago I convinced my Dad and stepmom Jas to come climb Machu Picchu with me, and they showed up a few days ago with a big group of their friends on some whirlwind tour of Peru for two weeks. Travelling with parents is always fun because the quality of my food and the softness of my bed have increased dramatically, and the minute-by-minute itinerary is continuously amusing. While the rest of the group is out and about, my Dad and I have been enjoying some quality time running around Cuzco out of breath, chewing coca leaves for "altitude sickness", trying to find a baby llama for me and a roasted guinea pig for him. I do not intend on eating my llama as my father intends to eat his gerbil. In a few days we'll head down to the Sacred Valley and then up to the top of the mountain.

I'll keep you posted on the Pisco Sour Llama Hunt 2012.

1 comment:

  1. Have a great trip to Machu Picchu... it will blow your mind.

    ReplyDelete