More Stuff

I just got some comments about the food, so I´ll tackle that today. Oh, and Gale: I am indeed lucky to have a family with an internet cafe, very much so.
Peru is popularly recognized to have some of the most diverse and delicious cuisine in the world. The diversity is such that you don´t find many foreign restaurants outside of Lima because there are so many dishes and cuisines here that they just aren´t that popular. Some of the most popular are pachamanca and ceviche. Pachamanca, which I´ve tried, is a prepared by heating stones and placing ingredients like potatoes, yams, and chicken with spices wrapped in leaves on them, and then burying the whole mess. After several hours the wrapped food is dug up and served. I definitely liked it and would go for it again. I haven´t tried ceviche but want to. This is prepared by immersing raw fish in lemon juice, which then cooks it because of the citric acid. There are many types, but I have been warned against getting it just anywhere because of the stomach issues that are likely to ensue. I have been eating dishes mainly consisting of rice, potatoes, chicken, beans, carrots, and the like. They are all spiced or prepared differently, and I haven´t run across anything I don´t like.
As far as ingredients go, the Peruvians use some interesting things. They eat a lot of cuy, or guinea pig, which I also haven´t had but am willing to give a shot. They also have many more types of potatoes than you would find in the U.S., which keeps things fresh. There is also a lot of fruit that I´ve never seen before and can never remember the name of. Most of that is pretty good, although I´m not the biggest fan of papaya (which I´d heard of but not eaten much). Breakfast usually involves rolls and something to put therein, the most interesting of which so far has been avocado. Good but not really breakfast fare. I´m also dying for a cup of coffee that is brewed instead of instant, so I hope to get a fairly rural assignment to make that a reality (and for a lot of other reasons).