Juanes: AKA The Head of John The Baptist

I learned something interesting about a regional food that I eat here all the time, called ¨Juanes.¨ As I have explained before, this is a food prepared by taking rice, a piece of chicken, an egg, an olive, and cooking it all while its wrapped up in a Bijoa Leaf from the jungle. It´s pretty tasty actually, especially when you add the spicy cocona fruit as a dressing.

But the food´s name, ¨Juanes,¨ came from the story of San Juan, or St. John the Baptist, who was beheaded. So apparently the locals thought that this food resembled the decapitated head of San Juan....sounds yummy right? Well, I assure you that it is. The reason I bring this up is because just recently the holiday of San Juan was celebrated in Iquitos, and everybody was eating ¨Juanes,¨ including us.

P.S. My cultural source for this information was Coco, so if its not true you can give him a hard time. ;)

Lost Blog: My Peruvian in California...You Should Hear His Gringo Accent

Although we had to spend a significant amount of time apart during wedding planning, Coco and I were lucky enough to spend some time in California together.



He was able to spend alot of time in my hometown. And even though it was his second time in Oakhurst, he was still captivated by many things and he had a few things he still needed to experience for the first time.

Coco loved the land of the mountains. And lucky for him everythying was still green due to the wacky weather of constant rain and snow. We went on a little hike with my dad near my brother´s house.











We spent some time in the mountains and the snow.








We spent alot of time appreciating my car, it has since been sold. These are the last pictures ever taken of the car. Sad.





Coco had to experience a world famous Forks Burger at Bass Lake. I assured him these were some of the best hamburgers in the world. Coco has always claimed that the best burgers come from a place in Lima called Bembos. But he did admit that a Forks Burger is on par with a Bembos burger. So I guess that means that they are pretty good.





He also cooked us a few Peruvian meals. Here is his causa. This guy loves a good garnish.





And of course he made some ceviche.




He also got to enjoy the many shenanigans of my family. He was subjected to random nights of dancing with my parents and I as we released the stress of wedding planning.





And of course he had the chance to get some of dad´s famous pancakes.




He was mystified by the wildlife once again. He would make me stop in the middle of the highway at times to take pictures of squirrels and deer. Here´s a few deer he stalked in front of our house.







We also had the chance to take a little trip to San Francisco.



We had to go the Peruvian Embassy to work on my residensy papers.










So we made a day of it. We drove to the train station and took the train all the way into the heart of the city.







We made our way to Chinatown.












Then found an Italian place near Pier 39 for lunch.




Somewhere along the way we found a Cheese School. Obviously if I lived in San Francisco, I would enroll.



We checked out all those lumpy Sea Lions and walked all around Pier 39 and Ghiradelhi Square.





We made our way over to the Exploratorium. I know Coco would have loved it, if only it had been open...





We got a look at Alcatraz. And we actually found a criminal who had just escaped and was swimming to shore.





We made our way over to the bridge. It was Coco´s first real look at the Golden Gate.







I´m so glad I had time to break him into more American experiences. I can´t wait untill Christmas time when I force him to experience more silly Gringo things.