Lunch, shopping, and cooking

Once everyone was back on the ground, we caught the minibus back to the hotel.  Those of us who are in the cook groups for the next couple of days, including me (tomorrow) and Mark (the day after), got off in town to do the shopping.  

On the way to the market, we saw a local restaurant doing a menu del dia for 15 soles (about £3), so we decided to eat before shopping.  Inside, the restaurant was very fancy with elaborate chandeliers, heavy wooden furniture, and a very plush settee!  Unfortunately, the food didn’t quite match up to the decor, but it filled a hole!

After lunch, we did the shopping.  I'm doing a cottage pie for tomorrow's bush camp dinner, and Mark's doing tuna and sweetcorn pasta for the day after.  It was a bit of a mission to get everything we needed - compromises had to be made!

With the shopping done, we got a taxi back to the hotel, where I called on my team members Lena and Chrissy to help me prepare our dishes for tomorrow.  Mark and Marina also gave us a hand.  We made up a cottage pie and a vegetarian version, so we just have to reheat them and cook some broccoli in camp tomorrow.  Now I have to trust that Ritchie can get them there in one piece!

We cleared the kitchen by just after 5 so that Shanda and Solenne could cook tonight's dinner.  They made a vegetarian bean chilli with rice.  At dinner, Nikki and Ritchie laid out our onward plans.  At the moment, they are both confident that they can get us to Cusco by December 1st as planned, despite the ongoing industrial unrest.  Fingers crossed!Read more