Cuy, cuy, bacon and cuy

I already knew that Tipón was famous for its Incan ruins. But what I didn't know, before today, was that the town of Tipón is absolutely mad about cuy. If you're in Tipón at lunchtime, your choices of cuisine are many and varied. You can have cuy in the park. You can have cuy at a restaurant (every single restaurant is a cuyeria). Or you can have cuy wherever the hell else you want. Ohhh... what's that? You want... something... else? As in, something that's... not cuy? Cuy, cuy, cuy, cuy... Lovely cuy! Wonderful cuy!

I DON’T LIKE CUY!

In Tipón, they serve the following dishes:

• Egg and cuy
• Egg bacon and cuy
• Egg bacon sausage and cuy
• Cuy bacon sausage and cuy
• Cuy egg sausage and cuy
• Cuy egg cuy cuy bacon and cuy
• Cuy sausage cuy cuy bacon cuy tomato and cuy
• Cuy cuy cuy egg and cuy
• cuy cuy cuy cuy cuy cuy baked beans cuy cuy and cuy
• Lobster Thermidor a Crevette with a mornay sauce served in a Provencale manner with shallots and aubergines garnished with truffle pate, brandy and with a fried egg on top and cuy
• Cuy cuy cuy cuy cuy cuy cuy beaked beans cuy cuy cuy and cuy

Seriously, it's quite ridiculous: you actually cannot get anything else to eat in this town, apart from cuy. Today was also the fiesta del cuy ("festival of cuy" — not sure if it was just for today, or if they have this fiesta every Sunday). This wasn't so good for Jesus and myself, as Jesus was only up for a light meal, and as I didn't want to eat any meat, as I was still recovering from yesterday's killer buffet lunch. Anyway, we managed to subsist on some bread and bananas (that I brought from Cusco), and we found one cuyeria that (grudgingly) agreed to serve us some papas con queso ("potatoes and cheese" — without the cuy).

By the way, the next town along — Saylla (one town closer to Cusco) — is just as bad. Only instead of cuy, their local specialty is chicharrones (a kind of BBQ minced pork). Same story there — if you're looking for anything other than a chicharroneria, then you've come to the wrong place. I already worked out that they love their meat here in Peru: but in these two towns, it's more of a religion than a casual fancy.