Corpus Christi

Today was the day of the big festival, and it lived up to expectations. Plaza de Armas was filled with people as the different 'schools' paraded their statue around to music and dancing and amazing costumes.

As I said yesterday we returned for lunch to the square selling guinea pig, technically "Chiriuchu" available only during the festival. Apart from guinea pig the meal included chicken, fish eggs, sausage made with potatoes and the insides of the guinea pig, corn bread, corn, seaweed and cheese. My bit of guinea pig was the back leg, and came with some fur still attached!!! I managed to eat most of the meat, and it tasted nice, but the fur did ruin my appetite a bit! The fish eggs were much worse though.

We also stopped in a local bar on the way home to sample the chicha, a home-made brew from maize. It comes in big glasses, and tastes unlike anything else I can think of. The bar was typical South American, simple with little decoration and a small crowd of friendly locals. It did have a TV, showing some terrible karaoke style singing to Peruvian music, made more cheesy when llamas occasionally wandered onto the set! At least the locals seemed to be enjoying it, maybe its the Peruvian equivalent of Pop Idol...