Got up, dawdled, had brekkie, got in car at 10:30. The car left the hills behind Cusco behind, driving north across a plateau, over fields of straw and eucalyptus. 90 minutes later we were at Moray, and got out.
At the restaurant, we were first led over to a view of some restored Incan terraces—what? They might have been for agriculture, they might have been an experimental farm, or they might have been for rainwater. Pictures, then a tour of the ‘research’ restaurant.
Wow, lots of stuff, plants and such. Right now there’s a big whiteboard marked with various varieties of local cocoa plants down a little lower towards the Amazon basin; I wasn’t sure if they’re local species or just varieties. We sampled a few, then (like Central) took some pictures of a big table of ingredients. It was interesting, and I noted that some tubers are perhaps members of the nasturtium family? Strange.
A stop at the bar, where they’re experimenting with various distillations of native herbs.
Then the main event: food, in eight presentations. It was a bit of ‘here’s what we can do with it all’, the ones that stuck with me were the all-corn presentation, the munya mint cleanser, and OMG the chocolate at the very end. The pork belly was porky, the duck wasn’t very ducky. Strangely no cuy.
Then back to Cusco after our three hour meal. The city is larger than it appears on a map. Then Pisco sours, then more food, then bed. Tomorrow we join the REI group for a city tour. Curious to see who our companions are.