Food of Salkantay

I never expected to eat so well while hiking! I knew we had a chef and there was also an assistant to the chef, but still, I thought we would be eating rice and beans for each meal.

Instead we were given quite the spread for each meal. Lunch and dinner always included soup.

Followed by salads, vegetables, rice or quinoa (quinoa is endogenous to Peru-why did it take the US so long to figure out the benefits of this amazing grain?), various kinds of potatoes (there are over 300 kinds of potatoes in Peru) sauces or curries sometimes with vegetables sometimes with chicken.

Another example of a soup, I think this was asparagus based with garlic bread on the side.

Lunch was always the largest meal of the day and included an appetizer. One day it was guamole, another day mushroom ceviche, and below causa rellena, a layered potato dish.

Before dinner each night we sat, chatted, sipped on tea to stay warm, and munched on either crackers or popcorn.

The last day there was even a cake! I highly recommend this group, Wayki Trek, if you ever want to hike to Matchu Pitchu.

While hiking on day 3 we came across a few avocado trees and I got into a conversation about the cost of avocados in Peru compared to the US. It turns out that avocados are about $0.30-$0.40 in Peru. Later when we stopped at our campsite the leader showed me the size of some of the avocados a village person was selling. Look at the size of this thing, easily 3x the size of an avocado sold in the states and for a fraction of the cost! I might never leave this country!!

Adios,

Nicole