The blogging adventure will continue again once I have moved to Hereford, end September 2022: If Music be the food of love, play on ........

(Don't forget that by clicking on a picture you can see it in a larger size.)

Patasca

There is nothing quite like starting the day with a nice big bowl of soup made from a cow's entrails ................. ok, back from the bathroom? ....... I'll continue, much tastier than it sounds! This is actually my second encounter with intestines and tripe, the first was when I ordered Mondonguito and the restaurant owner asked me if i knew what I was ordering, I said no, but could she only tell me after I had eaten the food ...... the smell was a bit off-putting but the taste was good, rich. Mondonguito is a tripe stir-fry, a bit dry, although it did seem to contain tubes as well, along with vegetables and some herbs. Today's "Patasca" was tripe and other odds and ends along with potatoes, maize and herbs.

Huanchaco resident

Despite the seeming preponderance of tripe the food here is excellent, of course I am really talking about the "food of the people", the food that is served up in the many little restaurants that open just for lunch and serve a "menu del dia" for between 4 and 10 soles (£1 - £2.50) at the higher end you will get 3 courses and always a refresco (drink) is served. The drink is normally a fruit juice, papaya, pineapple, apple, orange or a mix or chicha morada, a wonderful drink made from purple maize and with a rich fruity taste, the colour morada is a deep purple.

(actually tripe is not in preponderance, but it is cheap and tasty when well prepared)

Every day I try something new, potatoes are the staple here and they come in an enormous number of varieties, and are served hot, cold, boiled, mashed, chipped and roasted. There is some wonderful street food here and a great treat is "papas rellenas" stuffed potatoes, actually mashed potato is wrapped around a savoury filling dunked in batter and deep fried, delicious! As we are on the coast also popular is deep fried prawns, all served with some salad and a sauce (salsa) the local favourite being "aji", made with chillies ..... for that warming experience!

Some other dishes I have tried:

Papas a la huancaina - cold, boiled and sliced potatoes covered in a sauce of farmers (cottage type) cheese, yellow chillies, garlic, onion, cream and served decorated with black olives and hard boiled egg and normally served as a starter.

Aji de Gallina

Aji de Gallina - chicken cooked in a sauce of yes, yellow/white chillies and served with rice and potatoes (french fries).

Cabrito de Trujillo - goat or lamb knuckle stewed with vegtables.

Pescado Frito - simple fried fish served with Aji and popular for breakfast

Sopa de gallina - chicken soup with potatoes maize and sometimes pasta, also popular at breakfast as well as lunch.

Lunch is a big deal here, and dinner is normally just coffee and a piece of cake or some type of bread. The lemon meringue pie here is to die for, the meringue standing some 6 or more inches above the lemon filling, mmmmmmm

Tacu-tacu

Then there is tacu-tacu a kind of pancake/frittata made with rice, mashed potatoes and onions served alongside either chicken of a nice piece of steak.

Lomito saltado - strips of beef stir fried with peppers, chillies, tomatoes, onions etc and served with the ever present rice and chips!

Meat cooked a la plancha - on a griddle - is very popular and so tasty .........

Sand crabs - prepared and served in a spicy sauce or as a thick soup (chupa)- mmmmmmmand a huge selection of different types of clams and shell fish in general all go to make the eating experience so memorable.

Chupa

So I reckon that each day I will spend around £4 on my three meals, £1 for breakfast, £2 for lunch and maybe £1 for supper. I have no cooking facilities in my room, but will be buying a kettle for tea/coffee. There is no need to cook when the restaurant/street food is so cheap, plentiful and nutritious!

Ordinary coffee is served with the (I suspect) instant coffee diluted to a thickish liquid, presented in a small bottle alongside a cup of boiled water and sugar, you add the coffee solution to taste! Good coffee, is very expensive!

Chicha-morada

Other drinks are mainly, juices made with either water or milk and the chicha morada, tea is mainly herbal or fruit. Gaseosos - fizzy drinks include the usual coke, pepsi and inca cola.

I have yet to try the local beer - brewed in Trujillo - and said to be excellent.

So, today I move house, Huanchaco is definitely a place for me to visit rather than stay, too many disco/bars and tourist restaurants, too many surfers, beach bums and the like .... and this is the end of the low season, apparently December - March the place is absolutely heaving! So I am moving to the relative tranquility of the historic centre of Trujillo ......

So, ....... Prof. Carlos very kindly helped me move and so here I am in Calle Raimondi, in a lovely quiet room, which I shall very soon make my own. My landlady Senora Nery is charming and nothing seems too much trouble, she has even provided me with an iron and an ironing board!

The conservatoire is behind the cathedral (green 1 on the map) in Independencia and I am three blocks to the left in Calle Raimondi - just outside Avenida Espana which circles El Centro Historico. See the black * on the map.

Within 100 yards of my room are about a dozen restaurants all offering a "menu", I had a lunch for Soles 5 (£1.25) and it was good and filling. I've bought a kettle so am pretty much set up, I have cable TV including BBC world, though that won't help my Spanish.

Week two and I feel very settled in at the conservatoire and am just getting busier and busier, which is just fine. Last Wednesday was a celebration of music Criolla a mix between Peruvian, Caribbean and Spanish, lovely jazzy and sung by a group made of both professors and students. The building on three levels around a central courtyard is just perfect for concerts "al fresco".

Well the big shock for me is the terrain, Peru has three distinct regions, the amazon east of the Andes, the high sierra of the Andes themselves and then the coastal northern extension of the Atacama desert. Although the Atacama is generally known as the most arid region on the planet, the climate along Peru's shores is made cooler and less dry by La Garuùa, a dense fog created by the collision of the frigid waters of the Humboldt Current with the heated sands of the Atacama. Lima, Trujillo, and Chiclayo, three of Peru's major population centres, are located along this coastal desert.

It is weird, outside of Trujillo city you enter a kind of arid moonscape, but not hot, temperatures range from 14 - 22 degrees in winter with only a few degrees of change during the summer (December - March) where it soars to 25 degrees C. So very pleasant and of course no rain! Maybe a very occasional shower for a minute or two, once or twice a year!

The city centre itself is full of small squares, with lawns and trees and shade and within the historic centre (within Avenida Espana) it is a Spanish Colonial treasure with some 10 churches and unlike Antigua (Guatemala) all are in perfect condition as there is a distinct lack of volcanoes.

Last Thursday, All Saints Day and the Day of the Dead was a public holiday so Nick very kindly took me to Pacasmayo about 100km up the coast. A delightful little town on the coast with a very long pier, colonial buildings and the home of Pacasmayo cement! The factory dominate the skyline when you look inland. Unfortunately, they were renewing the sewage system and nearly every road in the centre of town was dug up - and thankfully the stiff breeze took away unfriendly odours most of the time.


Pacasmayo cement central!

Having said all that, as you can see from my picture it was a very happy and relaxing time for both of us. The town is delightful and I hope to visit it again. For me, it is good to have friend not connected to my music world. We enjoyed the tastiest chicken a la plancha (and chips!) ever washed down with a cool beer all for an amazing £4!

For our next adventure, I think we will venture into the mountains.

There are no trains in northern Peru and everybody travels by coach, I was surprised that the two hour journey cost only Soles 8 (£2) and seats have to be booked, but there was a bus every ten minutes.

My mate Nick!

Colonial charm.

On Friday, government employees were given an extra day holiday, so it is a long weekend vacation here. Luckily I was able to go to the conservatoire to do some much needed practice, as I am to accompany some students in their final recitals and also need to practice some piano duets which I am playing with the delightful Prof. Vicky Valdez. She and her husband Prof. Frances Alarcon have taken me under their wing, and along with Prof. Carlos have made sure that my first two weeks have been so good.

Maestro Alvarez

I have been given permission to attend the rehearsals of the symphony orchestra when time permits and the conductor Maestro Teofilo Alvarez and I share the same birthday!

These birds are like Pteridactyls - so ancient!

One thing that Trujillo seems to lack is decent bars, of course many cafes are also bars but I wanted to find something with more character, and having just been out to the local supermarket I think I have found what I am looking for, tucked away in a side street is the "Museum of Games" and situated in the corner of this lovely colonial building is the museum cafe and bar; all dark wood, dim lights, character ..... and only 3 minutes walk from my room! Plan to explore this more this week along with the exact nature of the games in the museum!

Old houses in Huanchaco - amazing architecture.

I am so glad to have made the move from Huanchaco, it really wasn't me, and being 45 minutes away (door to door) was a terrible drain at the end of a long day, but I remain a Otra Cosa volunteer and will go back when I can for the volunteer lunches, quiz nights and to stay in touch with the delightful Laura. Huanchaco will also be great to visit for its sunsets, and the quality of its fish based food.

Amazingly there was a mural on the walls of the cemetery in Pacasmayo, and one of the scenes shows the creation of the world, and it would seem that first God created Peru, then he created Latin America, and then he created some other insignificant places ......