![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.fertur-travel.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/delicious-cuy.jpg\" "\\"Delicious")
<\/a>We know about his travel plans because he live “Tweeted” to his 1.9 million followers just before boarding the plane.<\/p>\nWe also know from his Twitter account that when he arrived in Lima, it was to join is wife, Stephanie. She had just completed a trek of the Inca Trail with their daughter, Ruby, who had to return back to England for school before her father’s arrival.<\/p>\n
Ruby and Stephanie’s hike had the dual purpose of raising funds<\/a> to benefit the Chiltern Centre<\/a> for disabled children in Henley.<\/p>\n With that accomplishment behind them, and Ruby back in England, the couple embarked on a classic southern circuit tour of Peru, which \u2014 if the Tweets are an indication \u2014 was a great success.<\/p>\n With giant condors soaring overhead, they admired the incredible panorama of the Colca Canyon in Arequipa.<\/p>\n “What a stunning country”<\/p>\n The scenery was no less amazing on board the Andean Explorer train from Puno to Cusco. Although, the Andean pan pipe music blaring during the 10-hour journey definitely grated on nerves. It prompted a tweet to Orient Express, and some excruciatingly comic running commentary.<\/p>\n “It’s so loud @OrientExpress even iPod & headphones won’t shut it out & the lovely staff seem unable to make the torture stop!! ”<\/p>\n “RT @1CheekyChappy: @Schofe @OrientExpress Do I detect a new Murder On The Orient Express? Exactly!!!”<\/p>\n “@Schofe @OrientExpress the man behind you is asleep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nope, killed himself 2 hours ago”<\/p>\n “Arrived in Cusco with Pan Pipes a distant memory! Dinner in a minute, Machu Picchu tomorrow! What an adventure”<\/p>\n The couple opted for an even more luxurious train to get from Cusco to the ancient Inca Citadel:<\/p>\n “One of world’s great train journey’s! The Hiram Bingham to Machu Picchu! Easier than trekking ;)”<\/p>\n Waking at 5 a.m. the next morning, the Schofields watched the sun rise over the iconic mountain ruins.<\/p>\n “Unforgettable.”<\/p>\n Despite digital immediacy, it’s the nature of our technological age that a story comprised of Tweeted snippets unfolds at an O. Henry-like pace. So, let’s get to the point.<\/p>\n From Schofield’s tweet-casted narrative, there were any number of highlights that his fans could have focused on back home in England.<\/p>\n Try for starters that Stephanie Schofield used her Inca trail trek to raise, as of this writing, \u00a33,714.00 for disabled children!<\/p>\n But instead, what infuriated many of his followers, and, more remarkably, reportedly drew the ire of an animal rights group, was the fact that he and his wife sampled a traditional roasted cuy, or guinea pig, for lunch.<\/p>\n “Animal Aid director Andrew Tyler told the Daily Mirror: ‘This callous provocation is despicable.'”<\/p>\n “One Twitter user asked: ‘Just because it is eaten in Peru doesn’t mean YOU have to eat it. Would you eat a dog in China just because they do?’ Schofield, whose former sidekick Gordon the Gopher made him popular with fans, responded: ‘Why not?'”<\/p>\n Why not, indeed.<\/p>\n Hyper-sensitivity on the part of British people who ostensibly view guinea pigs as pets, and the consumption of guinea pigs as barbarism, is understandable, to a point.<\/p>\n It is worth noting that guinea pigs were domesticated in Peru as far back as 2500 B.C. and here, in the land of the rodent\u2019s birthplace, they remain a culinary delicacy, as well as a mainstay of Andean folk medicine.<\/p>\n What I find shocking is the reported reaction from the director of Britain’s largest animal rights organization. What provocation was Andrew Tyler referring to?<\/p>\n Peru has its share of animal abuse issues, but the treatment of guinea pigs isn’t one of them.<\/p>\n Guinea pigs generally are not raised in inhumane conditions of mass production. Rather, they are bred mostly “free range” on farms and in rural peasant kitchens, on a diet of alfalfa, corn husks and other vegetable scraps.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n