The third annual Huacho Guinea Pig festival
Like 0 Dislike 0 Published on 21 Jul 2015
SHOTLIST
1. Entrance to the 3rd Festival of the Guinea Pig
2. People arriving
3. Banner reading (Spanish) "3rd Festival of the Guinea Pig"
4. Close up of guinea pig dressed with typical Peruvian dress
5. Girls holding Guinea Pigs dressed up, one as a King other as a peasant, for the contest
6. Zoom in to guinea pig dressed as a miner
7. Various of participants in the contest of the cutest guinea pig carrying their animals
8. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Pilar Fox, Chef:
"Here we are trying to show all the work implied, their breeding, their diet, how we can get a better product, we are trying to present it to the world so that people don't have any prejudices. This is also to give an incentive to the communities who breed guinea pigs so they can see that it is a way of life, if they can get a good product they can sell it and try to enter in the international markets."
9. Various of typical Peruvian dishes made with guinea pigs
10. Wide of site
STORYLINE
The third annual festival of the guinea pig took place in Huacho, north of the Peruvian capital, Lima, on Sunday.
The celebration of the 'cuy', as guinea pigs are known in the Andes, included contests for the biggest, fastest, best-dressed and, finally, tastiest animal of all.
AP Television filmed indigenous women wearing traditional dress arriving with their furry rodents to take part in the contests.
The guinea pigs were dressed up too - as kings, peasants, miners and many more.
Some competed in a fashion show of traditional Andean dress, with guinea pigs decked out in fedoras and frilly skirts looking like Disney cartoons come to life.
But the food was the main event.
Farmers and chefs gathered and presented plates of guinea pig fried, grilled, or baked with generous helpings of Andean potatoes and large Peruvian corn called choclo.
Some chefs chopped off the head and paws - cuy is traditionally served whole in the Andes - in the hope that it would sell better among foreigners.
"Here we are trying to show all the work implied, their breeding, their diet, how we can get a better product, we are trying to present it to the world so that people don't have any prejudices," said chef Pilar Fox.
"This is also to give an incentive to the communities who breed Guinea Pigs so they can see that it is a way of life, if they can get a good product they can sell it and try to enter in the international markets," Fox explained.
According to those who tasted it, it is a cross between rabbit and dark chicken meat.
Guinea pig is often fried or grilled during Andean ceremonies.
Guinea pigs are native to the high Andes and their low-cholesterol meat has been an important source of protein for thousands of years.
Today, they are common in rural Andean households as a form of 'savings account' - they are so easy and cheap to breed that when a family needs money, it can sell a dozen or so.
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