Mate de Coca
1 November 2005 (Tuesday) – Arequipa to Chivay, Peru
There were many tours being sold as just a 2-day-1-night bus tour, which sounded too touristy for me. And 2-day-1-night or 3-day-2-night Colca Canyon trek. However, this tour I was taking was a combination of the two.
The first part of my trip was a bus tour to Chivay. As we left Arequipa, we could see the various impressive volcanoes around Arequipa – Pichu Pichu, El Misti and Chachani. We then stopped by a little cafe in the middle of the desert plateau to have a cup of mate de coca, which would help us acclimatize as we would later be taken to a pass of 4,800m. I love mate de coca, I would drink it even if I was not having problems with altitude. Meanwhile, we introduced ourselves to one another in the group, chatting and getting to know one another.
The next part of the journey was through very high and dry lands, with not a tree in sight, just cacti and licho, the high-plain grass. We spotted a small group of very pretty, golden-furred vicuñas as here was a reserve where the authorities were trying to rear them back from near-extinction.
At the 4,800m pass, the bus stopped briefly for us to take photos. There was actually not much of a view, as the surrounding area was very high as well, so we could not really have a good view of the Andes mountains. Previously bored tourists had stacked small rocks on top of one another all over this area though, making it quite a sight.
We soon arrived at the door of a restaurant and were herded in hurriedly, the guide informing us that this was our lunch stop and we had to pay for the lunch separately. Wow, everything on the menu was 14 soles and above (about US$5). I had been used to paying around 6 soles and below (even better) for my food. This was too expensive! But, I thought we must be in some isolated place and given no choice, I ordered bistec de alpaca (alpaca’s steak). Tough, not so good.
After lunch, we were driven a couple more blocks and told to get off at our hostel. We realised we had already arrived in Chivay. Now, here were some restaurants selling lunch for more or less 5 soles. Rats! I hate organised tours who bring us to exorbitantly-priced restaurants. Gosh, I had imagined Chivay to be an isolated little innocent town. But this is Peru, which attracts possibly the largest number of foreign tourists in South America, and they know they had to milk every possible soles out from the tourists’ pocket. So, Chivay had been transformed to have numerous hotels as well as pizza restaurants which accept credit cards.
After a short rest, we walked to La Calera, a thermal pool an hour’s walk away. It was more than twice the price of my private thermal bath back in Cajamarca, but sigh… I am here in touristy southern Peru, so stop quivering. I gave in. Still, I had a delightful time in the thermal bath, chatting with Debbie and Andrew from England and Vlatka from Croatia. Gosh, I realised that all these times, I had been thinking absolutely in Spanish to the point that now when I am speaking English to them, I am speaking really BAD English, making the same mistakes that Spanish speakers make when they speak English as I translated directly from Spanish to English!!
For dinner, we would be brought to a restaurant with folkloric dances. I just knew this was another tourist trap. So, I had a 3-soles sandwich beforehand, before going to the restaurant. Gosh, this must be the restaurant with the most hilarious menu. For the benefit of foreign tourists, the restaurant gamely printed English translation of the menu. But it looked like someone merely passed the Spanish words through the computer and printed the English equivalent without any consultation with any true English speakers. Now, this was the Chivay I expected.
Some examples…
Lomo Saltado – this is finely-sliced beef loins, stir-fried in salty sauce, with onions and fries. What it became was ‘Jumped Loin’, because ‘Saltado’ is ‘Jumped’.
Pollo a la Plancha – this is pan-fried chicken. It became ‘Chicken to the Iron’. You could just imagine flinging a chicken to the iron on my ironing board.
Alpaca a la Horno – this, as you know, is the meat of the lovable long-necked animal whose wool is used to make sweaters. It was ‘German Nickel to the Oven’. German nickel?? What in the world is that!!?!!
Crema de Tomate– this is cream of tomato. Unfortunately, for ‘crema’, they used the verb form for ‘cremate’. It became ‘It cremates of Tomato’. You imagine a cook burning a dead body and then, mix the ashes with squashed tomato, don’t you?
Postres a la Casa – this is House Desserts and personally, it takes the cake, man. It was translated as ‘Prostrates to the He/She Marries’. From ‘postres’ to ‘prostrates’?? What the!!! And ‘casar’ is to marry. To conjugate for third person, it would be ‘casa’. But ‘casa’ is also ‘house’. Here, they unfortunately did not pick ‘house’ but used the third person conjugation – ‘He/She Marries’.
It was hilarious!!! Everyone was stupefied and doubled-over laughing. Everything was priced 14 soles to 30 soles. Other tourists looked at me funny when I said I was not ordering anything. “But Trisha… it is ONLY 14 soles.” Huh??? ONLY?? I just ordered a little cup of mate de coca, of course.
Tags: 08) Touch of Peru
swesn
November 4th, 2005 at 8:09 am
forever the true budget traveller who finds a good luagh or two everyday, despite the situation/s ;-)))
for diversion try chocolateandzucchini.com;
happy journeys and discoveries ;-)))