This past weekend seemed to be full of fun – as most of our days here in Peru are. Saturday started with a 6:15 wake up call and a chilly walk over to the Horno El Puma (The Puma Oven) bakery for our personal class on the process of creating empanadas. We were greeted with a smile by our hostess, Ernestina, who quickly educated us on a few things Inca and the importance of preserving the culture in the younger generations. We all learned about the Andean cross, the offerings of 3 cocoa leaves to the mountains and the Incan triology of the condor, puma and snake. Armed with new knowledge, we were ready to begin.

Hand washing, apron tying, and chef hats (yes, we got to wear chef hats!) were the beginning of our adventure. After we were all properly attired, we migrated over to the bread room. Scents of freshly mixed, yeasty dough wafted into our noses and filled us with a sense of calm. In a trough (one that you might imagine horses drinking out of in the Wild West), we found an enormous amount of dough waiting to be shaped by our inexperience hands. After observing an example of how to knead the dough and slap it down on the table everyone thought it would be easy. Jake, our first “guinea pig” grabbed a large piece of dough and watched it slowly ooze out of his hands onto the table as he tried to emulate the slap of the master baker. We all laughed but then one by one found out just how easy the master baker had made it look. Even after kneading a small amount of dough to the right texture, most of our forerams and hand were tired. As for the cool slapping sound of a mound of dough hitting the concrete table……well, we’ll just agree not to talk about our success in that area.

The next step of the process was rolling out the dough into small balls that would be used to make empanadas and bread. Again, our teacher made it look easy, rolling two balls at a time and quickly finding perfection with his dough balls. Our balls were various lumps, sizes and textures and possibly created more work for our teacher as he was constantly have to fix our hard work. There was a large amount of dough in front of us and with all 11 of us rolling to the best of our abilities we were able to roll about 500 dough balls in just under an hour.

Finally, it was time to craft the empanadas and we couldn’t have been more excited. Each of us received 5 balls of dough that needed to be shaped into small circles. Julia took to this process easily and had quickly formed 5 perfect circles. Some of us struggled a bit more with the process of shaping and Paul’s circles looked more like abstract art. 🙂 Next came the ingredients and each empanda was unique in it’s flavor construction. We were able to try the following: 1) onion, rosemary, and cheese 2) oregano, ham and cheese 3) tomato, basil and cheese 4) banana, raisins, cloves, cinnamon and cheese 5) Apple, pineapple, paypaya, cinnamon and honey. Simply add the ingredients inside and fold the dough over to close up the empandada. Some had more trouble with it than others, Reid for example, and ended up with more of a baseball shaped empanada.

The last step was to insert our masterpieces into a gigantic, adobe-brick traditional oven and wait for the fruits of our labors to bake. It was hard to come to a consensus on which empanada was the best as all were delicious but overall I think the banana cinnamon cheese came out on top. We left with full bellies, smiles and satisfaction of a job well done.

After a somewhat relaxing Saturday afternoon, we began to prepare for long run Sunday. Traditionally, STRIVE students get the chance for a 12 mile long run at 9000 ft on their last weekend in Pisac. The run is on a beautiful dirt road following the river and surrounded by 15,000 ft. peaks. We believe it to be one of the most beautiful places to run in the world. All of our students decided to give the run a try and we couldn’t have been prouder of them since it’s the first time that every member has attempted the run. We left early in the morning and after a lot of hard work and determination, almost all of our students had completed the run (a few stopping early but still completing over 9 miles). For some of those students that was the longest of their entire life which is a pretty unbelievable feat. (Parents you should be incredibly proud of your kids!) What a great group.

The run ends at the house of a long time friend of STRIVE who hosts our annual guinea pig picnic. Most of our students were apprehensive about the prospect of eating guinea pig and were timid upon first entering the house. One unique aspect of our picnic is that we like our students to be part of the entire process which includes the killing, de-hairing, and cooking of the guinea pig. We ask if there are any volunteers each year that wants to “take care” of their own guinea pig and Jake decided to give it a go. After, all non-vegetarians participated in the de-hairing process. Most were disgusted but some (Madi and Rosie) weren’t afraid of the task and dove right in. The rest of the cooking process was up to our Peruvian team and we headed out to the farm for a day of stretching and relaxing. At the farm, the students were treated to a STRIVE talk by College Intern Riley about the importance of the little things in athletics. We also somehow managed to squeeze in a visit to some nearby Incan ruins and upon our return were ready to eat.

The much awaited guinea pigs arrived full bodied on platters filled with potatoes and our kids dug in. After getting past the intial shock of the presentation of the guinea pig most of our students seemed to think the meat tasted much like chicken and was actually quite good. We tend to agree and can’t thank our hosts enough for a wonderfully spiced, well cooked guinea pig. Our weekend ended and we were tired, a little bit sore and well fed. More adventures to come… stay posted for a recap of the trek in 4-5 days!