July 30, 2018 – August 1, 2018

We didn’t have much planned for the city of Cuenca.  We had a few shopping items that we needed to chase down, we visited the Pumapungo Museum, where we saw, among other things, a display of shrunken heads, we walked around the historical centre…..

Flower market in front of an old church.

…and, we ate cuy, which except for its somewhat larger size you would probably know by what it is called in North America, guinea pig.  Yes, in Ecuador, guinea pig has been roasted or grilled and eaten for at least 4,000 or 5,000 years.

We asked the owner of the land we were camping on about getting some cuy, from one of the street vendors near by, as we had found out that to enjoy it in one of the recommended restaurants that you would need a reservation.  He recommended buying one that was still roasting on the spit, rather than one that was sitting in a pile already cooked, as it would be hard to know how long ago it came off the fire.

We walked to the recommended street, and saw several places selling cuy, but none still had it rotating over coals.  We decided to take our chances and buy one from one of the stacks.

For $US 15 we got a cuy, some potatoes, some beans, a hominy type of corn and a kind of corn mash patty. It was packaged up for us to take back to the camper.

And yes, the head, the front teeth, the little clawed paws, are all still attached.

So, how was it?  Well, I think it would have been better if we had one straight off of the spit.  It is supposed to taste a bit like duck, but ours didn’t have a lot of flavour or a lot of meat on it.  The skin is supposed to get crispy with roasting and is a big part of the meal, but the skin on ours kind of resembled cardboard.  Piper really enjoyed eating the heart and kidney that we found inside when we opened it up, but if we order it again we’ll get the restaurant version and hopefully it’ll have a bit more meat.