Ayumara peeps

On our way back to Puno, we stop at a "typical" Ayumara homestead house. Typical in the sense that the house we stopped at is no longer self-sufficient, but relies on tips from tour groups such as ours. If you have been to the Negev and stopped in a Beduoin tent, you know what I mean.

We are shown the following:

• Quinoa plant and quinoa seeds being ground into flour
• Solid fat being used as fuel for fire
• guinea pigs in a cage in the yard. Living out their days before being roasted for dinner. Yum!
• Tools for hoeing and planting
• Winter wood storage filled to the roof with DUNG. LLAMA DUNG. Who needs wood when you have shit?

We are fed the following:

• Hot potatos
• Fresh, fresh cheese. Tastes somewhat like feta.
• Quinoa fried cookies
• Dirt

Mr. Guide explains that the Ayumara people eat this certain type of clay dirt found high in the mountains. It apparently is rich in minerals. They mix it with salt and pepper and water and use it as a sort of mayonnaise. It is muddy and greenish. Many people, Wade included, try it. He says it tastes "salty." I wonder aloud if maybe the natives don't actually eat this stuff, they just get a kick out of seeing what they can make tourists eat.

I find it extremely ironic that Wade won't brush his teeth with tap water, yet he will devour a cooked potato dripping with MUD.