Avocados yes, guacamole no

Peru is the land of plentiful paltas (avocados). They are delicious, cheap, and pretty much always available. Plus Peru is home to more than the U.S. standard Hass kind of avocado - we've got black ones and green ones, skin varieties from a thick nobby protective barrier to a paper-thin layer you can peel off, and each type has its unique taste.

Part of the batch of paltas Javi brought back from the farm last week

Despite the fact that, in high season, you can buy a handful of avocados for 35 U.S. cents, most Peruvians have no idea what guacamole is. If they have ever encountered or eaten it, it's only been once or twice at a Mexican restaurant. Peruvians usually eat paltas in one of the following ways: straight out of the shell with some salt, on bread (also with salt, and sometimes with cheese), or as part of a "triple" sandwich with tomato and egg. Guacamole's utter lack of presence in this palta-rich country is just yet another of those perplexing paradoxes that is Peru.