Well the sun's over the yard arm - woops no it's not

After breakfast, I thought I might as well have a wee drink, since it feels like I'm still up from the night before, and we'll be going to bed for a rest soon, what's the harm? Of course everyone else agreed it was an excellent suggestion and joined me. How civilised the world is outside Scotland, that you can just order a beer whenever you, as an adult feel like it. We weren't alone in fact, and I was actually given the idea by the older guys at the next table from us who were already drinking.

Main plaza

Main plaza

Condor overhead

Lovely restaurant balcony

Condors

Lucy

After a couple of beers, a march started in the square below. After a bit we realised it was more of a demonstration: it seemed to be trade unionists from the local area, then they were joined by trade unionists from other areas, but it all seemed very peaceful. After a while longer, some other groups arrived that didn't seem to be trade unionists, and they started marching around the square in the opposite direction. Round about this time, the riot police arrived, although they didn't look very heavily kitted up. There was lots of military-sounding music, possibly some communist- and some fascist-sounding, but there's not much to choose between tunes intended to rouse the proletariat, so I couldn't be sure, but in the end they all just marched away in different directions and it remained just as peaceful as it had first seemed.

Trade Unionists

Marching

People marching the other way too

The plaza

Once the demo had disappeared, we returned to the hostel, buying tickets for a Colca Canyon tour the following day. Our minibus pickup was at 3am. I have never got up so early so often other than on this trip!

A big rabbit

That evening I finally had lomo saltado, which literally means “jumped beef”, though I'm not sure what it means: mugged beef, maybe. It's a national dish of Peru and I had never really fancied it, but the cheap restaurant we had gone into didn't have many other choices, so I decided to make it a bit more exciting and have it mixed with beef spaghetti, which was one of their options. It's kind of like a Chinese beef and peppers dish, except that it has chips through it. Great cuisine in South America.

Lomo saltado (on the right of the plate) - Yum yum!

New beer

More new beer

Plaza in the evening

written by  The Happy Couple on November 12, 2009 from Arequipa, Peru
from the travel blog: Michael's Round-the-World honeymoon
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Lomo saltado - sautéed beef?

written by  Rosalyn Faulds on November 28, 2009

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