Chicha!

So theyve got this traditional drink here called chicha. And for those of you who havent heard of it, its fermented corn juice and in different places they add some other ingredients for variety. Its actually yellow, but the picture at the right is of a woman from peru who has added strawberries.

I know what youre thinking - fermented corn juice, how bad could that be? We drink fermented malted barley all the time. Oh no, they start the fermentation process by chewing the corn kernels and then spit into big buckets.

Everybody has this stuff and they keep it in all sorts of containers, from huge 10 gallon gas cans to fmall sand pails for distribution. It doesnt seem to ever run out and theyve been drinking it all day straight for the last 3 days.

For me its kinda fun like gambling to have a sip. Theyre so pushy, they know that I probably shouldnt drink it and once they find that out they always back off but someone new always wanders in that doesnt know the rules and insists on my having some.

Great stuff.