Oropesa PERU is a town where families make bread as they have for generations. It's a quick stop on the Sacred Valley tour outside Cuzco
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For a Westerner trying to discern how much of what one sees in Cuzco and Sacred Valley is real vs. created strictly for tourist consumption, Oropesa is a recommended quick pit stop en route to ancient pre-Inca and Inca ruins from the south and southeast of Cuzco.
This is a town of families devoted to making bread the way the generations before had made it too. Chuta—the quechua name for this bread—is made from quinoa, barley, wheat and honey. It is truly delicious, and with better planning one would surely arrive in this town a bit hungrier. Splitting a small loaf (5 Soles) you too might think it more cake than bread.
The large ovens where the bread is baked are impressive. The preparation of the dough before it gets to these ovens takes between two or three hours.
Today, there are said to be about a dozen families that are keeping this ancient Inca recipe and tradition going. This is something to savor, perhaps even more delicious than the bread.
True, in Inca times the different families probably didn’t have large shouting road signs that might remind some Americans of Wall Drugs.
Click here for more Picture this Post travel stories by Amy Munice with photography by Peter Kachergis
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