A fine Peruvian meal at a very good price!

Good, fresh food is widely available in Peru. For the most part, food is prepared from scratch and each plate is served as it is prepared. This means the polite US custom of waiting till everyone is served before eating is impractical.

Most restaurants, from large to very small, offer pages of selections including such categories as lamb, meat, trout, cuy (guinea pig) pasta and chicken. Guinea pig and trout are Peruvian specialties; the meat category includes beef and alpaca. Most meals include an accompaniment of sliced cucumbers, tomatoes and avocado (all peeled). Almost all meals are served with some type of potato. The potato originates in Peru and the country grows some 2,000 varieties.

While we really enjoyed our $/.15 sole (roughly $5.45 US) soup/salad, meal, drink lunches in Aguas Calientes, we splurged for a number of meals. A splurge means spending between $/.23- $/.36 soles, or $ 8.40-13.00 US. Hey, good food does not have to be expensive!

Below are some pictures from our splurges:

This is a polenta dish with a chili sauce served with pieces of the local, mild cheese thinly sliced on top. John was not disappointed with this option. The meal came from Cicciolina's, a local tapas restaurant. Everything, including the pasta is handmade. (John, our friend Barbara and I enjoyed lunch at this restaurant in 2004)
This was my meal at the same restaurant, a basil pasta dish with garlic, tomatoes and mushrooms...delish!
Daniel ordered a purple ravioli stuffed with lamb. We are not sure exactly what was used to produce the purple color but again, yummy!
From another restaurant in Cusco, this is a sliced cuy appetizer (so to speak). Cuy is usually served gutted, laying on it's back with it's feet straight up in the air. John and I did not have enough nerve to try cuy on our last visit but bravery can come in numbers so we ordered this dish as an appetizer.

No one really had much of a stomach for this dish but we each took a slice. The meat is dark, greasy and definitely does NOT taste like chicken. The bones are small and hard to pick out. I think we each had a bite or two and left the rest on the plate. By the way, the salad had a wonderful vinaigrette and the potatoes were great!

My meal at the same restaurant as the cuy. This is an alpaca steak with caramelized onions and potatoes. Alpaca does not taste like beef or buffalo. When cooked properly (as this was) it is melt in your mouth tender and tasty. Restaurants suggest that alpaca should be cooked no less than medium.
Andean sushi. This was our appetizer on the train from Cusco to Puno (10 hours). We are not sure exactly what was in the dish but it was great! The base is a vegetable wrap. The top is a combination of rice noodles and sweet potato sticks.
Food on the train was served with precision. Waiters would line the aisle and each person was served at exactly the same time. As the recipients of this service, we were fascinated. The waiter above is holding John's meal, sliced beef, potatoes with a bit of cheese on top.
This is my train meal, vegetable lasagna stuffed with mushrooms, onions and other vegetables. The only cheese in the dish sits on top...again the local, mild cheese. Note the glass of orange juice just above the plate. This is fresh squeezed OJ. Every glass we ordered, even at the smallest restaurants, was fresh squeezed.
The last picture is the dessert served on our train trip, rice pudding. Strawberries were the fruit of choice for this dish. IMHO, rice does not belong in pudding. After one bite, my pudding went uneaten.

The crops were hit hard!

My patio crops did not fair well in my 8 day absence. The temperature in Knoxville soared to 95* and we had little rain. While our travel is usually scheduled for late August and the crops do not come back, this trip occurred early in the growing season and most damage appears to be temporary.

Pepper plants are in the terracotta pots. The beige pots contain tomato plants (note the shriveled tops) and the most forward plant is a spicy, basil. I need to cut the basil back!
This red pepper started developing before I left. At $4.00 per for the brightly colored peppers in the grocery stores, this one pepper will just about pay for the red, yellow, orange, chocolate and green pepper plants I purchased.
The pepper plant in front is totally unaffected by my absence but the plant in back, not recovering very fast!
The basil is in serious wilt but it will recover with no serious effects.

Home from Peru

After 23 hours of travel, we are home from Peru. I have been mostly awake for the last 36 hours with a few small snatches of sleep and consider myself functional but very dull. As I wait for a reasonable hour to crawl into my own comfy bed, I am working on laundry, photos and notes.

We had an incredible trip! Aside from excursions to Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca, our trip included visits to 3 very distinct cities: Cusco, Aguas Calientes, and Puno. At 10,800', Cusco is the gateway to the Scared Valley. It is a tourist town and is a center for shopping and eating. We did an abundance of both. Aguas Calientes is at the base of Machu Picchu mountain and is the entry and/or exit point for Machu Picchu. AC is a laid back town filled with international tourists toting backpacks and trekking poles. Finally, Puno is the highest town we visited. At 12,500', Puno is geared toward locals and accommodating to tourists. Puno is one of 3 entry cities to Lake Titicaca. The other 2 are in Bolivia.

I will write more about our trip in later posts but thought I would post a few photos of us in various places.

John and me just inside the gate at Machu Picchu. The guy with us is Freddy, the SAS expedition guide who led our 4 day Inca Trail backpack in 2004 (see photo below). Freddy recognized John immediately and stopped to speak to him. He has moved to a different expedition service because he says SAS treats their local porters poorly.

A photo from our 2004 trek on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. On the left is Freddy, our guide and yes, he has cut his hair. This picture was taken on Dead Woman's Pass, which is roughly 13,800'
The classic photo of Machu Picchu with Huayna (younger) Picchu mountain towering on the right side of the city. Note the smaller mountain just to the left of Huayna Picchu.

John and me on the top of the smaller mountain. John's son Lee hiked with us and is taking the photo. We had a private tour of Machu Picchu, which started later than we initially planned and ran some 40 minutes longer than expected so we ran out of time to hike Huayna Picchu. We decided to climb this little mountain instead and were not disappointed with the view (see photo below).

This is our view from the smaller mountain. The city of Machu Picchu is literally carved into Machu (older) Picchu mountain. The upper part of the city (terraces) was agricultural. Pretty impressive, huh!

Another view from the smaller mountain. Machu Picchu is surrounded by mountain ranges as far as the eye can see!

John and me on the train from Cusco to Puno and I am not feeling well. It was a 10 hour train ride and I was on Day 1 of a gastrointestinal bug. I didn't realize how sick I was until the next night when we finally took my temp and realized it was almost 102. Oh well, the train ride was fun and the food artistic! I slept for several hours as we rumbled through the mountains. Most of the rest of the time we sat in the open car on the back of the train and watched the ever changing landscape.

Sunset in the high plains of Peru. Photo shot during our train ride several hours outside of Puno. We are at about 12,800'.

Our group on one of the floating islands on Lake Titicaca. We are sampling the root end of reeds that grow in the lake. The reeds are used for food, housing, fuel and to maintain the island. Believe it or not, the reeds taste something like cucumber. Our group from left: my sister Leslie, John's older son Daniel, his younger son Lee, John and me. Behind us are a group of houses. Locals usually just use their homes for sleeping and spend the rest of the time outside.

Here we sit inside a reed home. Selling crafts to tourists is the main source of income for the islanders and we did our part to help support them. I purchased the mobile in my hand. My sister has a beautiful embroidered tapestry in her lap (she purchased an embroidered pillow). From left: Lee, John, me and Leslie.

John and me on the boat ride home from the floating islands. You can see the reeds behind us. The area around the reeds was full of beautiful waterfowl including a duck that had a bill as bright blue as my jacket.

A group of school children participating in a parade on the main square in Puno. The parade was a once a year celebration to give the school kids (grades 1-5) a chance to show off their costumes and dances. Each school had a different costume and dance and there must have been 50 schools. We spent over an hour watching and taking photos.

Summer Weather Has Arrived

The time of year has arrived when every run is timed and logged, but the time of every run is irrelevant. Summer has descended on east Tennessee, or at least the warm, humid weather that defines summer. Since I don't adapt well to exercising in heat and humidity, my outdoor running season is usually over by late June. This year I have a goal of extending my outdoor season through July or maybe later. As a result, I will probably not sign up for summer races. Instead, I will find my challenge in the process of running itself.

I haven't been writing about running recently. With an all purpose blog and limited time to write, I have been busy living and documenting birthdays and family times, events that I will treasure in the coming years. That said, I am out there about 3-4 times a week, logging in 3-5 miles with each run and I had a great 6-mile run today!

Today's run was originally planned as a 4-miler but after reviewing my running log last night, I realized that my last 6 miler was April 9th and I began wondering if I could still do 6 miles. Physically I wasn't worried, but I wasn't so sure about the mental aspect. My mind seems to be going soft on uncomfortable exercise and has started to toss in negative thoughts.

Nevertheless, I woke up focused on running this morning. Ate breakfast early, worked a little on the computer and was out on Cherokee Blvd with iPod plugged into one ear, by 9:30 A. The first loop (3 miles) went well. I kept telling my self "slow and easy" and the negative thoughts stayed away. A little over halfway into the first loop, I looked up and saw a familiar figure running toward me. Kim was getting in her morning run too. We exchanged greetings but both of us were focused on our efforts and we didn't stop to talk. Being the gracious person she always is, she shouted some compliments and encouragement, then she blew by me! (Happy Birthday Kim!!)

I kept her mostly in sight and continued to run. The sun felt intense on my back but the shade from an occasional tree and a slight breeze kept me relatively comfortable. Finally the end of the 1st loop was visible. Kim peeled off at the parking lot, she appeared to be in a hurry. I, on the other hand, circled around the grassy median and headed back for another 3 mile loop to complete a fine 6 mile run. The time was a painfully slow 1.14.16, a blistering 12.36 mmp. The second 3 mile loop felt much slower than the 1st but as I said in the first paragraph, time is irrelevant for me this time of year. Since my goal is to just keep running, I am pretty pleased with my efforts this morning!

The holiday weekend is almost here so Happy Memorial Day to all and be safe! John and I are talking about spending part of the weekend backpacking with Will, Kim and others but the electron microscope in John's lab went *kaboom@# and he is feeling much stress to get it fixed quickly. Friday's success on the microscope repair will determine if we backpack or if John will spend Memorial Day in the lab.

Congratulations Graduate!!

Friday was graduation day for John's younger son, Lee. It was a very proud day for John and also just a bit sad, the last 18 years went a little too fast for him. The following pictures speak for themselves. Congratulations Lee!

Happy Birthday Mother!

Celebration season is underway in our household. It kicked off with Mother's Day and quickly morphed into Mother's birthday. My birthday is only 12 days away , followed by Leslie's birthday five days later. Then, of course, we have Father's Day, the parents' 63rd wedding anniversary and Carol's birthday. By the time the celebrations have concluded, I have generally gained 5-6 pounds and developed a sweet tooth that takes a month to get under control...the downside of celebrating.

So with all of that said, Happy Birthday Mother! Auntie Sue and Uncle Joe showed up on Tuesday to participate in the food fest and fun, they left this morning. Below are a few photos from our celebration yesterday, a day early cause everyone was off work.

Daddy opening the yummy "Eva's to Go" caramel cake!! Thank you Eva, where ever you are, the caramel cake is incredible.

Auntie Sue and Carol. Taking a photo into the bright light makes for a dark photo.

Auntie Sue and Uncle Joe

Uncle Joe and me

Leslie and Carol

Happy Mother's Day!

We had a nice family celebration on Mother's Day including Mother's favorite lunch of Kentucky Fried Chicken takeout and a nice caramel cake from Eva's to Go. Lots of running needed to work off this meal.

Happy Mother's Day to my wonderful Mother! Below are a couple of pictures, more are posted in my Smithposts Gallery.

Haiti Run for Health 4 Mile Race Report

It's over, the 2008 Haiti Run for Health 4 Miler is in the books. I placed 3rd in my age group! I don't want to diminish my accomplishment by saying that there were only 4 women in my age group, but, there 4 women in my age group. Number 4 must have walked a lot because she came in some 6 minutes behind me. That's okay, my 3rd place finish netted the fine coffee mug in the first photo below.

I arrived in Oak Ridge about 7:20 AM, Saturday morning and followed the big orange cones around the race route to the start-finish line. Not much activity but I noticed a couple of people setting up folding tables so I stood around for a few moments and watched racers warm up along the turnpike. In a duh moment, I decided to actually read the race menu and discovered the bib pick-up was in the basement of the Catholic Church across the street. I jogged to the church, picked up my bib, stood in line for the bathroom and returned to the start line.

As I waited with the other runners for the start gun (actually shout), I ran into Shirley who worked beside me at the Covenant Health Expo in March. We chatted for a few moments about her finish in the Knoxville Marathon and Boston Marathon then I moved toward the back of the group. About 20 walkers for the 2.5-mile course were behind me so I wouldn't be the last on the course.

The start "shout" occurred almost on time. This was not a chipped course and I noted it took me about 7 seconds to cross the start line. Remember I said I was in the back of the runners pack, there were only 82 runners in this race!

The first mile went well. On my training runs this week, I payed close attention to my breathing and this race pace breathing felt about the same, a little rapid but still comfortable. As I crossed the mile marker, I looked at my watch and couldn't believe it read 9:44 minutes. WTF? Too fast for me to maintain with my current level of training, I slowed the pace a bit.

The first water stop appeared shortly after mile 1. The course was a double loop and I knew I would pass this stop again, but the temperature was warming up quickly and my body was heating up even faster so I slowed and grabbed a cup. The cold water was refreshing and I happily wasted a second or two aiming the empty cup into one of the laundry baskets on the street, strategically placed for garbage. The second mile clicked off in a more reasonable 11:13 minutes.

Mile 3 included a little hill. At this point that I looked around and realized I was running next to a runner-walker (R-W). As I ran up the hill, I passed the R-W who was walking. She flew by me on the downhill, she was an incredibly fast runner. I slowed for water as we looped around the bottom section of the course again, the R-W slowed for water too and I passed her. At this point I was getting pretty hot. I tucked my short sleeves under my sports bra straps and tried not to listen to my mind, which kept telling me to walk. I don't remember what my 3 mile pace was.

The R-W was still close as we started the 4th and final mile. I was counting at this point and knew I had only 600 or so steps to the finish. I realized I was going to finish the race running and attempted to pass the R-W just before she took off in a sprint. There was no catching up. I finished in 43.15 minutes by my watch, 43.21 official time.

John usually acts as my support team and race photographer and we don't stick around for the post race festivities. Since he was getting in a bicycle workout instead of attending the race, I decided to take the opportunity to grab a snack and watch the awards. Imagine my surprise when I received an award for coming in 3rd in my age group. Second in my age group? The R-W. I talked to her after the awards and she told me she was a sprinter; she could not keep up the pace in an all out run.

All in all, this was a very good experience and I will consider signing up again next year. Many thanks to the volunteers from the Oak Ridge Track Club, who worked so hard. Everyone was encouraging and friendly and the race was well run.

John and I closed the evening with a wonderful dinner "in the country" with friends. A very pleasant evening indeed.

Pictures from the race are below:

Picture hijacked from the Oak Ridge Track Club's photo page. I am almost directly behind the guy front in the cap (next to the lady in the gray shirt who came in second)

Picture from the Oak Ridge Track Club webpage again. I am a couple of people to the right of the girl in the orange shirt and white shorts.

Start-finish line

Really bad sweaty post race self photo!

Did I Really Sign Up to Come in Last?

I have been having some running related motivation issues over the past several weeks so I decided to sign up for a race in effort to force my legs out the door. After looking at my calendar and available area runs, I selected the 4-Mile Annual Haiti Run for Health and stuffed my registration form in the mail box. The cause is good and the mileage is different for me.

Here is an interesting point. Participation in this race has been dropping over the past few years. Last year the total number of registrants was 74. Based on LY race results, it is probable that I will come in last. So the question is, when the gun goes off at 8:00 AM next Saturday, can I run fast enough to come in 2nd to last? What a goal!

This is my running week in review so far (yikes!). I quit early on Friday's run. Started feeling funny, it didn't go away so I decided to stop. Feel fine today...go figure.

Tuesday
2.1 miles outside, 23.36 minutes, 11.12 mmp (hills)

Thursday
4.0 miles treadmill, 43.30 minutes, 10.83 mmp :-)
Strength training 35 minutes

Friday
3.5 miles outside, 41.22 minutes, 11.77 mmp (hills)

In my non-running life, Daddy and I planted a pot garden on his patio this week. Besides a couple of tropical flowering plants, we potted a couple of tomato plants. I also planted my pot garden, which includes sweet basil, spicy basil, cilantro, thyme, Italian parsley, 3 heirloom tomatoes and one regular. I also have mint and sage that come up in their pots year after year. Below are a few pictures of Daddy's plants.

Spring flowers are coming to an end in my gardens. Below are some of the last things to bloom until the daylilies burst on the scene in a couple of weeks.

Jack in the Pulpit

Iris

Blue Columbine

Prom Night!

Saturday night was prom night for South Doyle High School. John's son, Lee, was suited up and ready to go. We don't often see him dressed up so this was a real shutter opp for John!

Running Downtown

Another beautiful day in Knoxville. The decision to run this morning was easy, but I really didn't want to run hills so my best option was to head downtown and run riverside on Neyland Drive. Neyland Drive is a mostly flat 5-mile out and back with a couple of options to add mileage. I varied the route and came up with a nice 5.5 mile run.

Henley Street Bridge and the Tennessee River

Knoxville Riverfront. The Three Rivers Ramble red caboose is visible on the right . Neyland Stadium, home of the University of Tennessee Volunteers is in the middle of the photo. Behind the stadium, barely visible on the left, is the arena and home to Tennessee's winning Ladies and Men's Basketball teams.

The Canadian Geese are back. Before long the geese and their babies will be stopping traffic on Neyland Drive as they cross the road from one feeding ground to another.

I have a nice variety of wildflowers in bloom in my garden. Above is the Foam Flower and the Dwarf Crested Iris (Tennessee State flower). Unfortunately, dandelions are in full bloom too.

Variegated Solomon Seal

Dwarf Crested Iris

Tuesday Workout
Run: 5.5 miles, 63 minutes, 11.45 mmp
Strength Training: 30 minutes