Health Freedom (and Food) in Peru
Day Two, Cusco Peru

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General Bert and I are very, very high. Over 11,000 feet high, that is. I was quite certain we would have no difficulty with altitude sickness because, after all, we are skiers and have skied from that altitude many times.
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Well, DUH! You get off the chair lift, maybe have lunch or a hot chocolate and then you SKI DOWN. You don’t stay there. OOPS!
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We got to the ancient Inca city of Cusco and I felt like I had aged 150 years – even the exertion of bending over to tie my shoes left both General Bert and me huffing and lightheaded.
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We have been drinking cocoa tea and it really does help with oxygen to the brain and muscles with absolutely no psychoactive effect whatsoever. Pretty cool!
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Peruvian hotels include breakfast following the European pattern. The fruits fresh from the jungle (Cusco has its very own jungle which supplies massive amounts of fresh fruit) were lovely and the quinoa cream porridge with cinnamon was delightful.
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Then off to the San Pedro Market at 8:30 AM.
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This is a market where you can have a traditional dress made by seamstresses who have their Singer Sewing Machines right there and where you can buy as much of the butcher-ready pig that just walked in slung over a guy’s shoulder as you would like and where dozens of ladies wave at you to come to their little spot so they can make your fruit drink with any combination you can imagine and where you can buy fresh chickens and free range eggs and then wander into the medicinal herb aisles where the native healers will tell you which herbs you need and sell them to you and the potato aisles and the grain aisles and the aisles devoted only to soup and the ones devoted only to full meals and the ones devoted only to light snacks.
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You can see the stands where offerings to the Quechua (Inca) deities are put together according to the wishes and intentions of the worshiper and the aisles devoted only to bread from the baking region and on and on.
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The purity and safety of the food is controlled by the Cusco Region and I would say they are doing a spectacular job by the look, feel and smell of this enormous market.
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Across the street is a conventional supermarket. But in addition to the traditional ladies in their traditional skirts and hats (which announce their marital status and place of origin) the crowds were in the traditional San Pedro Mercado.
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People will walk an hour each way every day to get fresh, familiar, first quality food at prices substantially below the supermarket prices.
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Why are they lower? Because agro-chemicals are expensive and these people are too poor to purchase them!
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Peru, which has a moratorium on GMOs, is food focused in a very interesting way: Peruvians understand that food and culture are intimately related and strive to protect and preserve both.
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After the market, it was time for lunch and we went to a restaurant where I had a local drink called chicha morada made from purple corn and cinnamon. It is the non-alcoholic version of chiche, a local beer.
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It is an intense purple and is, without doubt, one of the nicest, most refreshing beverages I have ever had.
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I am currently inquiring whether it can be bottled so we can get it to North America. I do not know if that will work, but I am checking it out.
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Obviously, it has not had its ORAC level tested, but I will bet anything that it has an astonishing anti-oxidant score!
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More to follow.
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Yours in health and freedom,
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Dr. Rima

Herb Ladies in Traditional Dress