Mmmm, meat.

So, I finally made it back to Salasaka this week, taking a truck to where the road used to be, climbing a mountain to get around the washout (and of course, descending said mountain), jumping into the back of another truck to get to the bus station, and then finally catching a bus to the center of Salasaka. And then, taking still another truck up to the house. Así sufrimos lo que amamos. It was kind of a long trip. That said, it was far better than the shorter, less physically exhausting route that involved the tarabita, or cable car. In fact, every time I have even thought about getting into one, this painting comes to mind (excuse the soft focus):


It´s in the church in Baños, and depicts a man who, in the 1880´s, fell from the tarabita and miraculously survived, thanks to the Virgincita. I am not so sure she would spare me in the same manner.

ANYway, the following day at the school was a very important one, so I was really glad to have been able to get back to Salasaka in time, by whatever means. We were having an open house for the end of the school year, complete with a program put on by the kids (in English!), a barbeque, a band, and about 70 people in total (including the parents, grandparents, and teachers and students from elsewhere in the community). The program went swimmingly, and the kids did a fantastic job of showcasing their English skills. This is particularly remarkable, because they have only had English classes up at the school for about 6 months. Small class sizes sure do help.

So, aside from the program itself, the part that interested me the most was the food (perhaps not so surprising, that). Besides the standard soup and potatoes that accompany nearly every big meal in the Andes, we had meat. Lamb meat. Lots of it. Adding further excitement to this was the fact that we were going to use a pachamanka, or earth oven, to cook said meat. People don´t do this very often anymore, as it is somewhat time consuming, but since this was a special occasion…

You make a pachamanka by first digging a big hole in the ground, and lining it with stones. Then, you make a big fire, which ideally burns hot enough to turn the majority of the wood into coal. Then you remove the coal and wood. What we did was then line the stones with bean pods, then put the lamb in, then more bean pods, then the coal on top of that, and then… Then you bury the whole thing (yes, with dirt). It takes about an hour to cook the meat to medium rare. Here´s a picture of the meat, and the oven while it was heating up.

And, here´s a picture of the finished product:

Man, was it good.

People were sort of surprised that the gringita (me) was eating the lamb with such enthusiasm. Oh, you have no idea, I told them…