Pisco Sour in Puno

I was kept awake a lot of the night by a massive headache, but at least I didn't vomit!  :)  In the morning I felt incredibly weak, probably from not eating and drinking enough the past couple days.  We went downstairs for continental breakfast and I forced down some toast and orange juice, then we immediately went back to the room where Gavin read and I slept the whole morning.  :)

I woke up actually feeling hungry, so we left the hotel to get some lunch.  I picked a cute looking little place, and I ordered strawberry juice and tomato soup.  The strawberry juice was really good, the tomato soup, not so much...  Gavin had a sad excuse for a hamburger, too.  I guess that's what we get for stopping at a restaurant that was specifically labeled "tourist restaurant."  :)

After lunch we went shopping on the main pedestrian strip - I wanted to get an alpaca wool hat and scarf; they are sold in every other shop here in Puno, and they look REALLY warm!  We also bought another bottle of water, since we can't drink the tap water here.  After that, Gavin decided HE needed a nap, so we went back to the hotel and reversed roles - he napped while I read.  :)  This has definitely been a lazy couple of days for us; I blame the altitude.  :)

After nap time, we went out into the town again, this time getting off the tourist drag to head over to the Mercado Bellavista.  It is so interesting how the whole feel of a city can change once you get away from where the tourists go.  The streets and sidewalks were packed with natives, a few in traditional dress like Cristina had us wear, but most in normal clothing.  The roads were crowded with taxis, vans doubling as busses, bicycles with benches for carrying passengers, and little three wheeled taxis that looked like the love child of a three wheeler and a golf cart.  The bustle and type of vehicles reminded us a lot of India, surprisingly.

The Mercado Bellavista was not all that interesting, just a maze of stalls selling everything from underwear to tea pots; it was not a market for crafts or traditional goods.  But outside the market, street foods abound.  We stopped and bought some meat being fried on skewers that smelled SO good!  I made sure it was cow and not guinea pig, which is a popular dish around here.  :)  The meat was REALLY tasty, nicely spiced and salted, though Gavin said his portion was so full of gristle that he could barely swallow it.

We walked back to Casa Andina and I was dying to try some of the clay oven pizza, so we had dinner there again, my first regular meal in two days.  I ordered the "house" pizza, which was an interesting take on Hawaiian pizza: ham, pineapple and peaches!

After dinner, we wandered down the pedestrian street Jiron Lima in search of dessert.  :)  We ended up at Sweet Cafe again, and this time we split the Peruvian equivalent of an apple pie.  The apples were good, but the pie was also filled with a half quiche half cream filler that was pretty nasty.  I also finalyl decided to try Peru's national drink, the Pisco Sour.  Pisco Sour tasted like a REALLY strong margarita, but not as sweet.  Pisco liquor is a grape brandy originally distilled by the first Spaniards in the area.  A pisco sour is pisco, lime juice and sugar, topped with beaten egg white foam.  It definitely packed a punch - I only drank half of it to be a little careful of my stomach, and it also made me instantly sleepy, so we headed back to Casa Andina for our last night at 3,825 meters.  :)

Pisco sour and apple pie at Sweet Cafe.