No, I didn’t drink it. Gluten-free me had a rum and ginger ale and lime at 13 Buhos in Huaraz, Peru. Fortunately Peru makes a lot of rum and it’s not bad. Boy is it strong, though. Especially when your body hasn’t completely adjusted to the high altitude. 3000 metres up is an easy place to get drunk fast. So I slipped my rum, gingerale and lime real slow and everything was just fine. Fortunately my friend Maureen and I had great company that evening, starting with an American and his Peruvian guide who turned out to be a climber. So we had some Huaraz climbing friends in common.
Maureen even ended up going on a trek with the guide two days later, but that was after we met with the three American peace corps volunteers in the area for Carnaval the next morning. Their excitement about blowing up water balloons to throw at women the next morning definitely helped Maureen and I make our minds up about getting out to the Chanco’s Thermal springs the next day.
But for now, more about 13 Buhos. We stumbled in here while looking for a particular restaurant for dinner known for serving cuy (guinea pig). The restaurant, we think, closed sometime in the last few years, but the proprietress of the bar was so friendly and she spoke French, so we had a great conversation in Spanish and French, the three of us. The menu was sandwiches and homemade beer (plus a bunch of affordable cocktails. I was used to 25 soles cocktails in Lima, so anything under 15 sounded like a steal. Decent prices and good variety plus a really comfortable atmosphere (sofas and bar chairs) and good music. We were sold. It was an early night, but a good one. The owner even gave me a sample of a rum before I decided to go ahead with the drink. Some Peruvian rums really are disgusting. And no amount of gingerale can fix that.
Verdict on the house-made beer is that it’s really good. Strong! Meant for mountain people who need to warm up fast. It’s not too hopsy, and it’s not too sweet. And the coca leaves aren’t going to do anything funny to you, but they infuse the beer a tiny bit. The effect wasn’t as quick as the hooch Maureen tried the night before that knocked three professional trekkers (not us visitors) out cold and pushed back our morning climb start time by two and a half hours. That night we made mashed potatoes with chili pepper purée, unsweetened maracuya passionfruit juice (we didn’t know we were out of sugar. Boy was it sour), and a kind of succotash with lima beans, carrots, zucchini, broccoli, salt and lime. It was a meal fit for starving, poor rockclimbers and it hit the spot. Especially since Huaraz doesn’t believe in heating and it’s constantly freezing inside at night. Drafty and cool and a chill lies over everything. the mountain men didn’t notice. I took a hot shower before going to bed every evening and did a lot of jumping to get some circulation going in my feet.
If you’re in Huaraz, check out 13 Bujos and say hello in your language of choice. Salud. Cheers. A votre santé.
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