´Cuy´is the Quechua word for Guinea-pig (Meerschweinchen) and apparently a specialty in Ecuador. The Ecuadorians only have it on special occasions and it´s quite expensive. We saw people selling the guinea-pigs (alive) on a market close to the school. It´s pretty weird to look at them crawling around in those little baskets knowing that they´ll end up on someone´s dinnertable. Uuuaaah!!!
The way they prepare the guinea-pigs is pretty gross too. First they break their necks to kill them (some of them are still alive afterwards though), then they pop out both of their eyes and drain the blood out through the two holes (very few of them are still alive at that point but not for long anymore) then they dip them in boiling water to get the fur off and then bake them in the oven.
It didn´t taste all that great and I definitely wouldn´t want to have it every day but it was an experience.
Yesterday we went out to a restaurant to have dinner and a couple of drinks with some friends after the Salsa class. When we left Nigel had a bit of a stomachache, but it didn´t seem too bad and we headed off to ´La Mesa´ to go dancing. I went to the bar at some point to get a couple of drinks and when I came back I found Nigel unconscious on the floor and a whole bunch of people crowded around him. It was pretty creepy. Especially since this is the second time he passed out since we got to Ecuador (first time was on Cotopaxi). He only passed out for like 20 seconds but hit his head on the way down and looked really pale afterwards. The funny thing was that the people at the club thought he passed out cause he was really drunk (which wasn´t the case). We took him back home with a taxi and then went to the hospital this morning to have him checked. The doctor said it was probably just because the stomachache got really bad and said that he seemed ok.
I hope this doesn´t happen again soon. It´s already scary when there´s other people around to help but I´m freaked out by the thought of hiking together somewhere in the middle of nowhere and having Nigel pass out again.
We´re probably just gonna take it easy again this weekend, going to Cajas and doing a one-day hike. No more extreme-experiences for me for at least the next week!!! ;)
2 comments:
yuk! guinea pigs are way too cute to end up like this. looks a bit like lobster on the dish though. yuk indeed.
LOL! It does look like lobster, you´re right. All the way to the right on the picture are the rear legs and on the left you can kind of see the head (including two sharp teeth)
I´m taking your offer about having cuy when I get back to Germany serious. Keep watching out for a cute one at the petstore!
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