¿Jugo de qué?

Peru! My current playground. Classes finished up about 2 or 3 weeks ago, and I headed up north to explore a bit of Peru in my last few weeks in sudamerica. Although I am currently traveling alone( my three travel buddies having returned to Chile to see their families or fly back to the states) the first ten days of my trip were spent in the happy company of Robin, Heather, and April, three other gringas from my program.

Our first four days were spent in Arequipa and the surrounding area, visiting Colca Cañon (second deepest in the world), seeing condors, visiting a colorful and labyrinth-like monestary, and enjoying the sites. However, one of my favorite experiences took place off the beaten path and away from the swarms of gringos that flood the touristy section of the city. Heather and I set out at 8 am in search of fruit and bread for breakfast, only to discover (in what later turned out to be a fortunate turn of events) that El Super doesnt open at that ungodly hour. Wandering the streets, asking periodically in farmacias where we could find a panaderia (bread store) and a fruteria (fruit store), we were eventually given directions to el mercado. Treasure!! El mercado ended up being an enourmous warehouse crowded with stalls and vendors selling everthing imaginable. We found our fruit and then returned later with April and Robin to explore more completely the sights and smells.

The first thing I noticed was how nice everyone was. In the mercados in Chile, I often feel like I'm bothering the vendors if I ask a question and don't feel very welcome to simply wander. Here, although people were definitely hawking their goods, I felt free to ask what some of the unknowns were, and the vendors answered with a smile. Some of my discoveries included a liver the size of my torso and rows of goat heads (luckly my nose was stuffed, so what I'm sure was a delicious aroma of raw meat without ice in a warm warehouse did not make its way to my olfactory bulb). Fifty or more types of potatoes, stacked into perfect pyramides. Aisles of brightly colored fruit, amongst which we finally discovered the elusive Lucuma. Lucuma icecream is abundant in Chile, but we had thus far been unable to find the actual fruit, which turned out to be playdough-fiberous in texture and taste like dates...not a favorite. We were also able to buy some coca leaves, which peruvians chew for their energetic properties. ( I overheard a tour guide in one of the ruins explaining to his gringo group, "Coca sí. Cocaine, nooooooo." ). The winner for bizarreness, however, was... Jugo de Rana. Frog juice. Several times we walked by the clear plastic tank housing the thirty-some hopping frogs in a bit of dirty water, speculating what exactly jugo de rana would be. Eventually I stopped to ask how they make frog juice, and the vendor simply told me, "los liquidamos." We liquify them. Yum.