Monday, October 13, 2008

21st September - Breakfast in Miraflores, Dinner in Sachaca

Another early morning start today for a visit to the Miraflores district of Arequipa where Luz´s maternal grandmother lives. Luz drove us there in her father´s car and did very well considering she´s only been used to driving in Holland for the last few years.

Her grandmother is a very good cook (I´ve also tasted one of her specialities - Cuy or Guinea Pig) and has a small restaurant at the front of her house where she sells some of her dishes. Traditionally on Sunday mornings the dish in question is abodo (pork marinated in chicha, or maize beer, and spices) and many people in the area come to eat it on Sunday mornings. This particular morning her customers included us. It was very tasty and a good way to start a Sunday. Matthew didn´t have the Adobo but instead had Sopa de Gallina (chicken soup containing an egg and noodles) and loved it! We washed it down with a bottle of Kola Real and a cup of mate to which a few drops of anis can be added to aid indigestion (I choose to have it without as I don´t like aniseed).

Afterwards we visited a few locations in the district of Miraflores which is located right in the north of Arequipa directly below the El Misti volcano. We had planned to go to a children´s playground in the north of the district first but it wasn´t open when we arrived so instead we went to the main square of Miraflores, Plaza Mayta Capac. Mayta Capac was the 4th Inca Emperor who is said to have given Arequipa its name when he visited the settlement in the 14th century. He was very impressed by the beauty of the area and its strategically important position as a connecting point between Cusco and the southern coast of Peru and told his advisors to ¨Ari Quipay!¨ or ¨Stay here¨ in order to develop the settlement further.

Plaza Mayta Capac is a very pleasant square with the main administrative building on its southern side and various shops and cafes on the other sides. The centre-point of the square is a large fountain which is connected to the corners of the square with diagonal pathways. Many people were sitting there to enjoy the sun, to read the newspaper, indulge in romantic activities and play with their children. In the SW corner of the square a number of small motorised cars were available for children to sit in and ride and Matthew and Lucia tried them out. However, they were a little bit too small to be able to control the cars themselves and so had to be pushed around the park by one of the people in charge. They enjoyed it so much that they were then taken on a second ride and Matthew would probably be still there now riding around the square if he was able to.

After we had enjoyed some ice lollies to cool down we returned to the playground which was by now open. It was really very good, covering a large area with lots of slides, trampolines, swings, climbing frames and other play equipment and Luz and Matthew enjoyed themselves a lot.
In the afternoon we had played to go to a Cuy Chactao festival in Arancato in the Sachaca district of Arequipa where the restaurants there would have samples of various styles of preparation of cuy (guinea pig). However, when we got there we found that the festival had been held in the morning and was now finished. So instead we decided to visit the popular La Cecilia chicharroneria restaurant for dinner. Chicharrones are very popular dishes in Peru and other Latin American countries and comprise of fried pieces of meat, usually pork but also mutton, chicken, beef and even fish. I choose the Chicharron de Cancho (pork) which came with fried sweet potato, an onion and tomato salad and cancha (toasted corn). The restaurant was very full with a lively atmosphere as many Peruvian families eat out in restaurants on Sundays and today the restaurant had live music to which many people were dancing. After we had finished our meal we joined in and Matthew enjoyed the dancing very much, both with Lucia and with Luz and her family.

No comments: