Celebrating Saint Sebastian in Cusco with Chirri Uyu

Jose lives right across the street from the main plaza in San Sebastian, Cusco, and for the last three days, all of Cusco crowded the plaza and the surrounding streets to celebrate the anniversary of Saint Sebastian. Great, celebrations, but damn - the festivities started at 6:00 a.m. the last three mornings. Bells at 6:00, fireworks at 7:00 and so on. There were three days of different traditional dances and tons of people dressed up in traditional dress.

Yesterday was the actual day of the anniversary and to celebrate, Cusqueñans eat a typical dish called Chirri Uyu, which is a cold dish consisting mostly of meet. Jose's sister invited us all to her apartment to eat and filled out plates with Guinea Pig, pork, fish eggs, seaweed, toasted corn and beef jerky. I'm not a big fan of Peruvian food to begin with and this dish is no exception. I barely got it all down and didn't eat for the rest of the day!

This is Jose's mom selling Chirri Uyu on the street: