Tierra Unica

The Oracle Jimmy's Prediction - Jimmy El Cuy Peruano (Peruvian Guinea Pig) Makes His World Cup Predictions!

The Oracle Jimmy's Prediction - Jimmy el Cuy Peruano (Peruvian Guinea Pig) Makes His World Cup Predictions!

Screen shot of Jimmy the Oracle Peruvian guinea pig.

Cooking Up Dreams (Trailer) - Ollas y Sueños!

via www.vimeo.com

Cooking Up Dreams (Trailer) - Ollas y Sueños:  This excellent documentary about the Peruvian Cuisine movement and the hottest food trend world-wide over the last few years was released last Fall in Lima, Peru.  It will premiere for the first time in the U.S. this weekend in New York, Chicago, Texas and Toronto.  This movie is about the 500 years of cultural mixture or miscegenation (not fusion) of Peru with respect to it's rich gastronomical history, culture, migration, and it's various foods and cuisines within the country and abroad.     

San Francisco Chronicle's SF Gate quote - "NO CON-FUSION HERE: "The very first place there was fusion cuisine was Peru." -- Chef Patricio Gaston Herrera, relating how New World and Old World cuisines melded nearly 500 years ago with arrival of "invaders" -- the Spanish."

The premiere will take place on Saturday April 17, 2010 at the Havana Film Festival in Manhattan, New York, an important showcase for Latin American cinema.  I've seen this excellent film about Peru & Peruvian Cuisine. It is a must see!!!!

Details of Cooking Up Dreams (Trailer) - Ollas y Sueños:

Feature Documentary: "Cooking Up Dreams" Original title: De Ollas y Sueños

Directed by: Ernesto Cabellos

Produced by: Televisión América Latina (TAL) and Guarango Association

Format: HDV 1080i60 Release date: August 2009 (Lima, Peru)

Images of Peruvian Cuisine and the international & domestic chefs in the documentary:

"Mesa de Chefs" (The Chefs Table)

 

   

 

Picture of Teresa Izquierdo (Afro-Criollo Peruvian Cuisine), Gaston Acurio (Haute-Peruvian Cuisine), and Hector Solis (traditional Criollo Peruvian Cuisine).

Bernardo Roca Rey - restaurateur, local newspaper owner, and one of the founders of the "Novo Andino" (New Andean) cuisine movement in Peru and abroad dating back to the early-1980s.

 

Peru is the birthplace of the potato.  The Ancient Peruvians (pre-Inca civilizations) cultivated and domesticated the potato almost 10,000 years ago.  Of the roughly 4,500 varieties of potatoes on Earth, 3,000 are indigenous to Peru.  

Ernesto Cabello - Peruvian film director of Ollays y Sueños (Cooking Up Dreams)

Johnny Schuler - Pisco (Peruvian Brandy) ambassador, President of the Peruvian Pisco Association, TV personality, Pisco entrepreneur, and big investor of the U.S. Pisco market.  

In Peru, there are hundreds of variety of "Choclo" (Peruvian corn).

 

The world famous "Choclo Blanco Gigante de Cuzco" (giant Peruvian white corn of Cusco).  The delicious  "Choclo Cusco" is the biggest corn in the world, they grow abundantly around the Valley of the Incas.

 
Top celebrity chefs leading the Peruvian Cuisine world conquest movement - Peru's Toshiro Konishi (Peruvian-Japanese Mixed Cuisine called "Nikkei"), Spain's Juan Mari Arzak (haute Spanish-Basque Cuisine), and Peru's Gaston Acurio.

Peru's Gaston Acurio - The #1 celebrity chef in all Latin America, owner of La Mar Cebicheria Peruana, Astrid y Gaston, & Tanta restaurant brand, TV personality, and leader of the Peruvian Cuisine movement world-wide. 

 

Ferran Adria (haute Spanish Molecular Cuisine) - The #1 celebrity chef in the world, owner of Bulli (highest Michelin rated restaurant in the world), and now follower of Peru's Gaston Acurio and Pedro Miguel Schiaffino.  

Pedro Miguel Schiaffino - Leader of Peru's haute Amazonian Cuisine movement, chef professor, and owner of Malabar in San Isidro, Peru (Food & Wine Magazine's 4th best bar in the world).

  

Happy Birthday Peru! - ¡Feliz Cumpleaños Perú!

Today is the 188th Anniversary of the Independence of the Republic of Peru from Spain!  But it has over 10,000 years of scientifically verified history.  The domestication of the potato in Peru has been verified by European and American scientists to be 8,000 years before Christ!

From Alaska, USA to Tierra de Fuego, Argentina, Peru is the oldest civilization in all the Americas.  In northern Peru, Caral has been verified by European scientists to be over 2,000 years older than the oldest Mayan civilization in Guatemala and Southern Mexico.

In Latin America, Peru has no rival when it comes its archaeological, biological, historical, religious (Catholicism) and culture influence (especially in South America).  When it comes to its historical alliance to Spain, the Viceroyalty of Peru or Viceroyalty of New Castile (el Virreinato del Peru o el Virreinato de Nuevo Castilla) was the largest, richest, and most powerful viceroyalty of the Spanish Empire from the 15th, 16th, and 17th century.  Lima, Peru was capital of practically all of South America, including Brazil!                   

In world significance, Peru's ancient civilizations are as old as Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), Egypt, China, and India.

On a global scale, Peru is by far the most biologically diverse country in the world with the most animals, fishes, incests, birds, and plant species in the Peruvian Amazon (lowland & highland jungles), tropical Andes, Andean glaciers, and coastal deserts.

Here, in high-definition (HD), is the national anthem of Peru with spectacular scenery of present day Peru.  The anthem is not well known like the U.S., French, or English one; but if you hear it to its entirety you will come to the conclusion that it has to be among the most beautiful anthems.

Listen to the instrumental version in the 1st-half and then listen in the 2nd-half to the vocal version by Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez, argumentatively the best tenor in the world today and heir to Spanish great Placido Domingo.         

Happy Birthday Peru! - ¡Feliz cumpleaños Perú!

Peruvian Anthem in HD cinemascope 2.35:1 ratio - Stereo Sound.  New comprehensive English translation subtitles.   See spectacular scenery of Machu-Picchu, the Peruvian coast, Lima and other inland places.  Peru - a large Latin American republic in the mid-west of South America on the equator and south of the equator.

Map of Peru during most of the colonial era - Virreinato/Virreynato del Perú Viceroyalty of Peru - The "Peruvian Empire" so to speak.  Quote - "If Spain is the motherland of Latin America, Peru is the motherland of South American."  Originally stated by King Juan Carlos of Spain in 2007 and later used by current President of Peru, Dr. Alan Garcia in 2008.   

Present day Peru, Central and South America.
 
Juan Diego Florez and his wife, fashion model Julia Trappe.

Pre-Mother's Day - Very Rare Jaguar Born In Captivity In Lima, Peru!

A very rare baby jaguar was born in the main zoo of Lima, Peru on April 14, 2009.  It is no ordinary jaguar, but a beauty Peruvian Amazonian Black Panther (Panthera onca).

A little black jaguar, locally known as “Otorongo” that was born in captivity in the Parque de las Leyendas, the biggest zoo in Lima, was presented to the public yesterday.   

Yesterday was the presentation of the "Cria" (baby animal) to the news media and general public.  A pre-Mother's Day celebration to all animal lovers.

Here are more pictures of the "Bebe Otorongo".

Ocelot Kittens From Peru Introduced To The Seattle Zoo!

Ocelot kittens, Novia and Corisandra, and their Mother, Bella, from the Peruvian Amazon explore their exhibit during their introduction to the public at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo.
Moche Ocelot. 200 A.D. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshiped animals and often depicted the Ocelot in their art. Salvatore Dali in 1965 with his Ocelot friend at St Regis.

Electronica - Trance Artist ATB's Night Watch - Amazon River Journey!

Hey folks,

Here is a super cool video from a vlogger in Romania (Eastern Europe) called "ATB's Night Watch - The Blue Planet".  The music genre is electronica/trance from a German DJ artist named Andre Tanneberger (ATB). 

This video is a fantastic music journey that starts at the source of the Amazon, the Peruvian Andes, goes through the Peruvian Amazon River, then the Brazilian Amazon River, and finally ends at the mouth of the mighty river in the Atlantic Ocean!

For those that have traveled to the South American Amazon, you can see that the video starts at Nevado Mismi in the Peruvian Andes, the certified and actual source of the Amazon River & Rainforest, and travels with the water flow from the glacial stream on the Mismi into the Quebradas Carhasanta and Apacheta, which flow into the Rio Apurimac which is a tributary of the Ucayali which later joins the Maranon to form the Amazon proper.

For observant eyes, you can see the Peruvian animals and birds:  the Guanaco grazing near the Nevado Mismi, the mighty Condor (largest flying bird in the world) soaring over the Andes, and the tropical Macaws of Claw Lick, Peru.      

From there the video goes through Iquitos, Peru and heads eastward just outside the big Brazilian river city of Manaus.  The video follows the river and heads toward the Atlantic Sea and finally ends at the mouth of the might river, the Amazon estuary between Cabo do Norte and Punto Patijoca, Brazil. 

This video is a quick time lapse journey of the #1 natural wonder of the world: The Amazon Rainforest & River - lung & main artery of the Earth!  The Amazon River has more volume of water than the next 10 biggest rivers in the world combined!!!.  23% of the world's fresh flowing water.  It is by far the biggest and now officially the longest river in the world.  

In South America, the Amazon River is also called the River Sea (El Rio Mar).

Electronica Artist ATB's Night Watch - The Blue Planet: Amazon River Journey - From the Peruvian Andes, through the Amazon River, through Brazil, and finally to the Atlantic Ocean!!!   

Picture of a Peruvian Guanaco in the Andes (Guanaco is a smaller cousin of the Llama):

The mighty Andean Condor, the world's largest flying bird with a wingspan of over 13 feet:   

 

The Synchronized flight of the Macaw flock at Claw Lick, Peru:

The Peruvian Amazon River, outside of Iquitos:

Outside of Manaus - Amazonia, Brazil: 

Two riverboats on the Amazon River near Manaus, Brazil:

A picture called "Indio Fortunato" (Now, I don't need to translate that!  Do I?).  This image was taken near Manaus, Brazil in the Amazon Rainforest.  It was presented by Discovery Channel Photos.  Huh, he looks intrigued and amused:   

From a satellite shot of over a 1000 miles above the Amazon estuary in Brazil - Beautiful colors at the mouth of the world's greatest river & rainforest: