| The guinea pig is a cuddly pet for millions of children | | | | For those willing give it a try, it is high-protein, |
| around the world. But in Peru, the rodent's birthplace, | | | | low-cholesterol dish, and incredibly delicious. |
| the guinea pig, or âcuyâ is a mainstay | | | | Guinea pigs were domesticated in Peru as far back as |
| of Andean folk medicine and a religious sacrifice to | | | | 2500 B.C., and probably long before that, according to |
| mountain deities, known as Apus. | | | | Daniel Sandweiss, an archeologist at the University of |
| But primarily, it is a culinary delicacy, enjoyed by | | | | Maine. His excavation in the 1980s in the Chincha |
| Peruvians who consume an estimated 65 million of the | | | | Valley, near Peru's central Pacific coast, demonstrated |
| rodents each year. The dining experience normally | | | | that current ritual healing practices with guinea pigs |
| requires two hands to pick, sinewy meat from a bony | | | | date back at least to the Inca Empire. |
| carcass. | | | | |