Watia

     As I was sick for the past week I was not able to partake in either Corpus Christi (a festival of Saints, though on this day I had seven different types of meat for lunch- fish eggs, guinea pig skin, salted pork, unsalted pork, sausage, cow, and chicken) or the much revered Inti Raymi (festival of the sun), where citizens dress up and dance throughout the ruins of Saqsaywaman (one of our first field trips, one of my first blogs), and give services in Quechua, the native language. However I am glad to have stayed home and taken part of the building of the traditional watia (wah-tee-uh), a sort of adobe and dirt oven. Families build their watia during the festival of Inti Raymi, and cook a special sort of potato (they have countless different kinds here) and other foods.

     Ours was constructed in the back yard- Papi dug a sort a shallow hole in the backyard, and then broke adobes with a pick into small pieces (for some reason EVERY SINGLE person in Urumbamba has a pick and extra adobe bricks, of which their house is usually constructed). He then had me and the host brother help him construct a circle of large adobe pieces, and then a row of smaller ones on top of that. First, however, he constructed the door by skillfully making an adobe arch. Eventually I became afraid of breaking the little house (my right ear has ceased to work since last Monday, and my balance is very off because of it) so I contented myself carrying broken adobes to Papi and playing photographer.

     The taller and more precarious it became, the further I stayed away, but the resident niece, Karelly took over my spot. Eventually Papi and Eduardo balanced rocks into a rounded top, and we all threw dirt on it to seal in  the crack . Then, a fire was started within the structure and potatoes were set next to it to bake in the sun.

     After the fire had burned the watia black, the potatoes were thrown into the door, and the destruction began. First, a shovel was used to push the top stones down onto the fire and first layer of potatoes, and the second layer of potatoes was put in. Then dirt and more stones, and this time, chicken covered in corn husks. More dirt was thrown on, more rocks thrown down, and finally 2 bananas were placed very close to the top. The entire thing was smothered in even more dirt, so that all heat and smoke was trapped inside.

    After a short amount of time, everything was carefully unburied. We ate, and though I could not taste anything due to my illness, I could tell it was delicious.