Chinchero

When we arrived, Manuela asked us if we had plans for the next day. I told her no, so she invited us to go to Chinchero with her. We agreed, and left in a taxi like sardines. We arrived and went to see the ruins after greeting her mom and sister. After the ruins, we were invited to try some fresh chicha. The signal for chicha is a pole with red plastic wrapped around it outside of the bar. We were giving the kind with strawberries, which tastes a lot better. We took a gasoline container of it to go for later. We went to her sister’s house, and watched her dad and uncle work at cutting the grain in the field next to the house. Her dad carried a massive amount at a time on his back, holding it there with a piece of rope. The women built a dirt oven by piling clods of dirt in a pyramid shape on the ground. They built a fire inside and let it get white-hot inside. When it was hot enough, they put a bunch of potatoes inside and collapsed the pyramid, completely covering the potatoes with really hot dirt. When they were judged to be done, the women dug them out and we started to eat. We peeled the potatoes and ate them fresh and hot. But only roasted potatoes. I think I ate around 10 small ones, but Andrew ate some big ones and ate more than 12. We laughed because the grandma could out eat and drink us. And she is much tinier than we are. Afterwards, we finished the meal with cerveza and more chicha. The men would slam a whole mug of chicha down at one time. So Andrew did the same thing, and said it was really hard to do. We were both so full it hurt, but it was a nice feast.