PASTORURI GLACIER TOUR...DAY 4

As the previous few days, we had to get up early for our tour. Since we had time to walk around that morning before the tour, I decided to find another little breakfast cart to eat at. I found this one man who had a cart that looked cleaner than the elderly woman we had been going to. What made it even better is that his drinks were only S/.50 and his quaker tasted much better to me. We had breakfast and then went over to the tour agency office to wait for our bus. The bus that arrived was the smallest bus we had been in yet. It was still bigger than a combi so it was ok. Our main attraction was going to be el Nevado Pastoruri (el neh-VAH-doo pahs-toh-RU-ree) but we were going to see other things along the way. I'm not sure if this is the correct translation but I think nevado means snow peak. The Andean Mountain Range is famous because it's a tropical mountain range. Pastoruri used to be an enormous glacier but due to global warming, it's rapidly losing its body mass. It's estimated it will disappear within 10-15 years :((

Chozas

Along the way, we saw some interesting chozas (CHO-sahs: huts). Our first stop was Pumapampa (puma-PAHN-pah). It's a spring full of oxidized water. Everything was nice and orange and we could see some snow covered mountain peaks in the distance. I'm not sure how far away it is from Huaraz but I think it took us about half an hour to reach it. When you walk close to the water, there's this sort of well where you can see the water bubbling. As always, we spent about 15 minutes there, maybe even less. Our guide went on to tell us that the area had once been underwater because marine fossils had been found there.

Pumapampa

We continued on our journey until we got to the Puya Raimondi (POOH-yah rai-MON-dee)  field. We had about 15 minutes to walk around and take pictures. Puya Raimondi is a plant that only grows at altitudes of 3,800 to 4,800 meters above sea level (12,450- 15,748 feet) in the Peruvian Andes. Its lifespan is between 40 to 100 years. It can grow to be anywhere from 6 to 15 meters tall (19-50 feet) when fully erect, no pun intended :P and the round porcupine thing can be a couple of meters tall as well. It was discovered by an Italian scientist in the 1820s and named after him a little over a century later. The plant releases between 8 to 12 million seeds when it blooms, which is after about three decades. The Puya is now an endangered species. This is due to many factors: climate change, herders starting fires for farming land, a lot of Puya communities are isolated from each other causing inbreeding to occur therefore making them susceptible to diseases, insects, etc. Peruvian officials say they're taking the necessary measures to protect the endangered plant but all of us in Peru know the poor plant is going to die out because if they're doing anything at all, it isn't much.

PERUVIAN FOOD...

I don't want to brag but I just have to. Peruvian food is THE BEST FOOD EVER! That is, when you actually have a good cook making the food :P Ok fine, I'll admit to being biased. It's the only food I've ever really eaten and my mom is a pretty damn good cook and I don't say that just because she's my mom.

WHAT'S PERUVIAN BREAKFAST LIKE?

• EATING AT HOME. As we all know, desayuno (deh-sah-YOO-noh: breakfast) is the most important meal of the day. However, breakfast in Peru isn't like a typical American breakfast you would find at IHOP or Waffle House. We don't have pancakes, waffles, sausages, grits, hash browns, french toast, bagels, muffins, etc. Breakfast at home consists of drinking either milk, tea, coffee and sometimes fruit juices. To eat, you can have some sourdough bread with ham, or a fried egg, or avocado with salt. Yes, I know avocado with salt on bread sounds weird but it's what we eat here. Some other options are toast with butter or jam. We even eat saltine crackers with butter and drink tea with it. My fiance thought it was quite strange but to me it's perfectly normal. He loves it now but I think that's just because it reminds him of me. Avena (ah-VEH-nah) which is often referred to as quaker (KWAH-ker: oatmeal), is another option as well. On weekends when there is time to eat calmly, we have a few options. Tuna with onions, lime juice, and salt on bread or with crackers. Tamales (tah-MAH-lehs) with onions, lime juice, and salt (I'll call it onion salad). And on very special occasions, we eat fried pork pieces known as chicharrón (chee-cha-RONE) with fried sweet potato slices, and onion salad on bread. Definitely not the healthiest meal but it's sooooo good! 

             *NOTE: I'm not encouraging anyone to eat pork while they're here. I got sick from eating pork
                           chops when I first arrived and those were the worst three days of my life! I didn't even get
                           sick like that in Mexico when I was there for a month. My stomach hurt so much! So.... eat
                           pork at your own risk.You may get sick from eating pork and be stuck in bed for a few
                           days which will ruin your plans if you're on a tight schedule. However, I do encourage you
                           to try to make it at home, wherever you come from. Just put some salt on the pork pieces
                           when you fry them. Not everyone likes fried sweet potato so you can omit it if you want.
                           It's good either way :)

• EATING IN THE STREETS. People all over the world these days don't have much time to eat sitting down so they get breakfast on the go. In Peru, a lot of people get their breakfast from any little breakfast cart on the street. Most offer a few types of drinks which are really good for you such as quinua (KEE-nwah), quaker (KWAH-ker) which is a drinkable form of oatmeal, maca (MAH-ka) with or without milk, and emoliente (eh-moh-LIEN-teh). Quinua, quaker, and emoliente are my favorites but it all depends on how the person made it because it's not always good. The drinks are usually S/.80 cents each and almost always come with a refill. These little carts also offer sandwiches of all sorts. You can choose from sandwiches that have slices of fried sweet potato, or a fried egg, or fried egg with chives or broccoli, or avocado on sourdough bread all for S/.80 cents each. You can also get tuna on bread but it's a bit more. A sandwich and a drink will cost you S/1.60 which is the equivalent to 58 cents right now. At times, the drink can even cost you just 50 cents but this is most common in places outside of Lima. Breakfast in the streets is usually served from 6-9 a.m. but it can sometimes go on until 10 a.m.

• BREAKFAST IN RESTAURANTS. If you go into a cheap little restaurant then you can find just about the same thing but it's definitely not as cheap. Prices range from district to district depending on how much you want to eat, what specials they have, etc but it's usually all under 15 soles. A lot of small restaurants in tourist areas also offer "American" breakfast as well. For those of you who skipped all the delicious food I described above to read this part, just take a deep breath. If you're staying in a hotel that provides room service then they'll probably have "normal" breakfast available. McDonalds is also an option lol. Of course, fast food places here are pretty expensive unless they have some sort of special going on.
  

WHAT ABOUT LUNCH?

• ON A TIGHT BUDGET? One of the things you've got to love about Peru is how cheap the food is here. You can get lunch for under 3 bucks! The cheapest lunch you can get around, also referred to as menu (meh-NU), costs 5 soles and consists of a refresco (reh-FRES-koh), something to drink, usually a homemade herbal drink, an entrada (en-TRAH-dah: starter), and a segundo (seh-GOON-doh: main course) which is sometimes referred to as plato fondo (PLAH-toh FONE-doh) and sometimes a small postre (POHS-treh: dessert). Now I'm not saying it's always good or that the "restaurant" is nice and clean, but you can get pretty decent meals and hey, if you're looking to save a lot of money, then this is the way to go. Not every district has 5 sol lunches. The average price is 5-10 soles but it can be a little more. 

• TIGHT BUDGET AND YOU DON'T LIKE PERUVIAN FOOD? Although I find this to be unlikely, a lot of fast food chains are now offering specials, so you can get something to eat  for about 7-10 sols. That doesn't always include a drink and it's not a whole lot either.You definitely need to try BEMBOS (BEHM-bohs) if you're going to eat fast food. 

• HAVE SOME SPENDING MONEY? You can find a lot of decent restaurants which offer menus for 20-30 soles. These slightly more expensive menus usually offer a soda and dessert and are definitely much nicer than the cheap little restaurants. If there is no menu available, your meal is still likely to cost less than 40 soles depending on the prices of the starters and drinks. 

            *NOTE: Menus are usually sold from 12-3 p.m. Monday through Saturday only. They can
                          sometimes be sold a bit earlier and last until 4 p.m. It's really until the food runs out. If you
                          miss menu time then you're out of luck.You have to pay separately for everything and
                          sometimes they don't have food ready for a couple of hours.

Larcomar

• MONEY'S NOT A PROBLEM? Then there are plenty of nice restaurants for you to eat at. If you want to eat in a place overlooking the beach in Miraflores, then you can head over to Larcomar which is a shopping center in front of the Marriott hotel but you actually have to walk down to get into it. Depending on where you eat, prices can range from 15 to over 100 soles. There's also a restaurant called La Rosa Naútica which was built on a pier and can be seen from Larcomar. I haven't been there yet so I can't really say anything about the food or service. 

La Rosa Naútica

WHAT TO EAT FOR DINNER?

• At home, Peruvians usually have dinner between 8-10 p.m. which is unusual to some. We usually have leftovers from lunch or something else is made. At night, there are plenty of restaurants both cheap and expensive, opened until at least 11. If you don't want a full course meal, we have a lot of sandwich places around as well. Dinner in a restaurant can be the most expensive meal of the day because you have to pay for everything separately if you're eating in a nice restaurant. Don't worry because it can still only cost between 20-30 sols and in a lot of cases you can find it for less but that's highly unlikely in hot tourist spots.