Cochan

Cochan

Alex is another volunteer that lives close by in the town of Cochan. Today my mom and Roxana (Tiffany’s counterpart) had to drop off some papers at the health post there so they asked if I wanted to come along for the ride. It’s usually very hard to find transportation to Cochan so my dad made up an excuse why he had to go so we got to take the police car.
After about an hour on ridiculously bumpy roads, we finally got there. BUT, the health post was closed and there was nobody to be found. Not to worry, we stumble across two Peruvian men in the street and the one invites us over to his house for the afternoon. Turns out, that guy was the Alcalde (Mayor) of Cochan and his friend was the regional representative for the President of Peru. They were sporting some sweet sombreros and moustaches. Before I knew it I was sitting in the back of the Policia 4x4 with Alex and two plastic crates full of beer.
About 45 minutes later we arrived at the Alcalde’s house. They cracked open the bottles and started drinking. (My mom is the one on the right). Before too long a couple women came out of the house with plates of food for us. Heaps of rice and potatoes were topped off with a quarter of a cuy. Even for people who eat meat, cuy is disturbing to see on your plate. It looks like a flattened, fried rat complete with head hands and feet. In this case I was extra lucky to find pieces of hair still on the cuy. Fortunately my family is really cool about me being vegetarian so my mom instantly offered to take the cuy off my plate.
This house was literally out in the middle of nowhere. It had a pretty garden and assortment of strange birds. Ducks, turkeys, chicken with hairy feet and peacocks. I think they eat the peacocks but I´m not sure. I hope not...