I'm going back to veggie veggie veggie....

Well I am posting this picture because I can honestly say that once I return to the US I will forevermore going forward be a Fishaterian. I think I have just about reached my meat intake maximum for a lifetime since I've arrived here I can honestly say that one particular day last week is what truly did me in.

We were having lunch per usual. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day here in Peru. It can be up to 4 courses. Soup, small appetizer, the second plate or main dish, and sometimes includes dessert. I was eating my main dish. It was sauteed/fried veggies & potatoes and something which made me think that it was squid. So I ate everything on my plate got ready for my afternoon volunteer project and headed out. While walking to the project I started thinking....Cusco is pretty far from the ocean in the mountains of Peru....and to my knowledge unless it has been freshwater fish, we haven't eaten any seafood in the past month I've been here. I starting mulling over the possibilities of what the mystery substance could be. Normally we have the same main dish for lunch and dinner so I egged on my roommate Lou to ask our Padre what the dish was at dinnertime. Americo started explaining in detail what it was...as I listened to him speak I started looking more closely at my plate and things started coming into focus...what I thought was squid was in actuality COW TONGUE. Even just saying it here on this blog is making my stomach do a few flips and my face cringe at the corners. For those of you that know me, I am a veggie LOVER. I love crisp fresh vegetables, I love fresh fish, so eating meat here is a HUGE leap for me. But cow tongue...aaaaaaaaaaah.
After 11 years of being a fishaterian I never thought something like this would pass through my lips. I've even eaten lamb here for the first time in my life...which in all honesty I find gross. I have wholeheartedly embraced the fact that as much as I try, I will never go back to eating meat. I am just not a big fan and even as a child never had much of a passion for it. Wow but cow tongue, that was a new one.

I have decided that the very first thing I am eating when I return to San Francisco is a MASSIVE SALAD WITH EVERY VEGETABLE I CAN GET MY HANDS ON. Followed by fruit salad, tofu stir fry, sushi, and did I mention vegetables....

Moray

I'll keep this one short because this post is very similar to my other post regarding the Incas. Here are a few pictures from Moray. Moray was thought to have been used by the Incas as an agriculture laboratory purely for the testing of how different crops would respond at different altitudes and temperatures. They build these nested circles and planted different crops at different levels to optimize their agricultural processes throughout their empire. Its hard to fully grasp the depth and width of these circles from these pictures. Per Wikipedia - The depth of the pits (the largest is about 30 m deep) creates a temperature gradient of as much as 15° C between the top and the bottom. As with many other Inca sites, it also has a very sophisticated irrigation system for providing the plants with water.