Do Dogs like Cheese?

Yes they do! During Mike and I's recent trip to the the dairylands of Perú (Cajamarca) we visited two very different cow farms. The first cow farm we visited was the famous La Colpa farm. Visitors to Cajamarca are told that an elderly gentleman who owns a beautiful farm calls his cows in one by one by their names at sunset! Before going, I pictured the cows grazing in a beautiful green pasture with the sun setting behind them as a nice old Peruvian man called their names. One by one they would walk into the corral with a smile on their face (well a cow smile like in those Happy Cows come from California ads.) This was unfortunately not the case. The cows were in a tiny corral to begin with and then were yelled at one by one to go to their designated spot for feed. The cows were huddled together and absolutely terrified of the not so nice Peruvian gentleman. He screamed their names one by one and whipped the air. The sound was AWFUL. The cows were obviously confused and just wanted to get their feed. They clung to the outer wall so that they could walk as far away from the man as they could. When they got close to the man, they would sprint past him and then make their way to their designated spots. The food was also pitiful. Each cow was given about 2 handfuls of hay. One cow (Mona) didn't even have any hay so Mike tracked some down for her. I wasn't really enjoying the calling of the cows so I went to go pet Yola because she shared my host mom's name. During that time, one of the cows made a mad dash and tried to run away. The guy beat the cow in front of the entire crowd. I didn't see it but Mike said it was really sad. The rest of the people around us were pretty upset as well. While this wasn't the best situation, the next farm we went to was AMAZING. We learned about corn cookies, yogurt, manjar (Peruvian caramel), and cheese! Also, the cows were actually grazing on grass! Also there was an adorable pitbull family of four that lived at the farm. While we were watching the cheese demonstration, one of the pitbulls came in for a snack. He licked up the cheese/water runoff and just hung out with us as we were told about cheese. Most of the time, people are not very nice to the dogs here and the dogs are very malnourished. Fortunately, at this farm, the workers were really nice to the dogs and all four of the pitbulls were quite chubby.

The baby cows got to go eat first

Before the calling, while still being milked

Charito!

Being milked

Being huddled up

Poor girls, just terrified in the back

A happy Mona after Mike got her some Hay

Making corn cookies

Nice chubby pitbulls hanging out in the sun

CHEESE! (pronounced Chis)

Little snack

Yes, I love cheese.

The finished cheese product