Lunahuana

This weekend Rachel and I ventured on a day trip to a lovely little town south of Lima called Lunahuana. Upon nearing Lunahuana we had the glorious experience of seeing the sun, oh how I miss it so in the grey donkey belly of Lima life! [Side note: After I remarked to a Peruvian friend that the weather here was beginning to affect my mood, he replied that this experience is common for Limenos because we live under “donkey belly heaven”…this name makes me happy.] Yes, so the sun was shining and all was right in the world.

When we arrived in the small center square of rural Lunahuana, we were greeted with sights of a small church, damaged by the recent earthquake, a row of little booths offering piscos and wine under a bougainvillea-shaded terrace, a row of little souvenir booths, and an empty fountain with a deep blue basin and a stark white little statue of a boy carrying loads of grapes.

After enjoying a pisco sour (which are delicious by the way), we headed on to a small village not far away. To get there we traveled along the beautiful river Canete, which boasts class 5 rapids certain times during the year and draws an international crowd of river rafters. When we arrived in the small village of Catapalla, we visited one of the oldest winery and pisco makers in Peru and received a short tour in Spanish. If I interpreted correctly, the pisco is made and stored in these ancient looking oblong ceramic jugs measuring maybe five feet in height. Pisco is made from Muscat grapes and, in its pure form, can be as strong as 98 proof (I am currently the proud owner of such a pisco). After the tour, we tasted some wine, which is sweeter and milder than most wines; and some homemade pisco, which is stronger than many liquors. We learned that you tell a good pisco if, after shaking the bottle, a tight tornado of bubbles swirls towards the top. Its good fun.

After the bodega (Spanish for winery), we went to another little establishment that specializes in cultivating honey and pollen. I enjoyed this part of the trip a lot 1) because honey is a magical and delicious substance and 2) because I could actually understand the woman’s entire schpeal about the health properties of honey and pollen in Spanish! I think I am at the level of being able to understand Spanish when spoken slowly, though I am still able to speak only little. And my pronunciation is horrible, why I don’t know.

After honey sampling, we walked down this little path and came to a group of horses beside the river. This little man kept following us around to see if we wanted to ride on his horses. His inoffensive persistence and toothless grin made me laugh. We crossed the Colgante Bridge where we met a poor sweet little mangy starving dog (we tried to figure out how we could sneak it on the bus to save it but settled for feeding it ice cream instead) and some children that just sort of hung around us and stared.

After this, we bought a few tejas (these delicious homemade chocolate, manjar blanco, and pecan candies) from ladies who carry big baskets of treats around all day (how could you say no?) We also stopped for lunch at this place where I had trucha (trout) but was slightly disinterested because my vegetarian self has issues with eating anything that looks like it did when it was alive. I mostly stuck to these strange papas (potatoes) hidden beneath the trucha. The Peruvian ladies across from me were not at all pleased that I didn’t finish my fish. I have been a bit nervous about food since our new Finnish friend told us of how she had to have stomach surgery after living in Lima for one week because she got some aggressive and potentially deadly type of bacterial infection. Yikes! I was cautious before… but now I think I might be a bit more so. Nonetheless, we ate and drank merrily in Lunahauna. It was an excellent day trip from Lima and I hope to get back there again! Maybe this time for a nice long hike or a river-rafting excursion.

Oh, and for anyone reading this who is interested in going to Lunahuana, might I recommend bug spray. The End.