Corpus Christi and Cuy

Last week was a really big festival in Cusco. The entire month of June is called the month of parties in Cusco, Peru. There most important festival is Corpus Christi. The celebration was originally a festival in the Incan empire when they would march through the streets of Cusco the mummies of important figures in the community. When the Spanish invaded Peru in the early 1500's they found this ritual to be primitive and replaced mummies with Catholic saints. An inspiring fact about Cusco/Peru is that the indigenous people here have be able to retain a lot of their culture despite European imperialism. Even though the cusqueñas march saints through streets instead of mummies the people carrying the saints are all drunk. Also everyone here is so knowledgeable about Incan and preincan civilizations and its inspiring because I feel like as an American I am very ignorant of my history but that is not the case hear.

Another intriguing cultural fact about Cusco is the food that is eaten during Corpus Christi. The Peruanos eat cuy (guinea pig) and a special plate of food called chiruchu. This concept is so strange to me because in the U.S we have guinea pigs as pets but here it is only viewed as food similar to chickens in the U.S. The traditional chiruchu dish includes seaweed, fish eggs, chicken, cow, guinea pig, and a special type of bread. I actually tried some cuy...it tasted like chicken lol. Going to MachuPicchu this weekend and looking forward to my third week in Peru.

Hasta Luego!