Warning, graphic photos of guinea pig follow

At La Escondida we ordered 2 small Cuy for 25 soles each. Luckily we were forwarned by our tour guide that the larger Cuy have a very strong and pungent flavor, or else we would have followed our usual motto of go big or go home.

We were first brought several potatoes and a dipping sauce which we enjoyed snacking on while we waited:

We also ordered a Brahma beer (our first alcohol of the trip, I was too worried about the alcohol increasing our chances of altitude sickness while we were acclimatizing), which came in a huge 1.1 liter bottle, and turned out to go perfectly with the delicacy which we were about to enjoy:

While we were waiting the waitress came out to ask if we would like our cuy whole or chopped up (a serving style that I have heard they offer only to tourists), of course we said that we wanted it whole because we were going for the entire experience. A few moments later we were greeted by 2 of these crispy and perfectly browned delicacies:

Whose lives came to an early end via a quick knife to the throat:

And still had teeth,

claws,

and kidneys.

Not ones to be squemish about our food, we jumped right in and began tearing them limb from limb:

And they turned out to be delicious. In the first picture of the cuy you can see some green herbs spilling out of the body cavity. Not only are the cuy stuffed with this delicious stuff, they are also fed it, so that the flavor permeates all of the meat resulting in a flavor unlike any either of us had experienced (although the texture was just like chicken!). They had also put a delicious herby rub underneath the crackly skin, further adding to the amazingness. My favorite part were the ears, which were like crunchy cuy chips, and Ryan's were the kidneys. The decision on least favorite part was unanimous: the brain. Supposedly the brain is a delicacy, and people often argue over who gets to enjoy it. We cracked open the skull of one of our cuy and split the brain. Ryan was able to swallow it, I gave it a quick chew and had to spit it out into my napkin. While the flavor was the same as the rest of the guinea pig, the texture was horrible.

Despite the small size we both found the cuy to be very satisfying as the time needed to pick it apart allowed us time to digest. Would we eat this delicacy in the future? Most certainly. In fact, we would be ecstatic if restaurants in Houston began offering cuy on the menu, but unfortunately that is highly unlikely, so we will have to return to Tipon to satisfy our cravings.