Well you really do learn something new every day. I never knew any cultures ate guinea pigs.
Many years ago in the UK there was a Chinese take away near where my husband lived when we were first dating. They got caught using dog meat in their meals. It was closed down for a while after this, but reopened, I'm not sure for how long, though. There was speculation as to where they got the meat. I don't think any pets were going missing locally.
The lodge looks like it's coming along well. They seem to be using thinner bricks and thicker mortar than I'm used to seeing here. Is that a cost thing or just a different way of doing things there?
I didn't know this either, but I realized in Ecuador, well more appropriately Quito, because we never left Quito, that many people live in tiny apartments in tall buildings with no elevator. I think there is a desire to be self-sufficient, so guinea pigs are less messy, can breed in a small space, and one animal is enough for a family meal with nothing left over and not much trash created to haul down the stairs.
I immediately noticed the bricklyaying technique is not up to par here. A lot of reasons, most people put up walls quickly with cheap bricks, leaving 50% of the brick contact area without mortar. When plaster is put up though, you never know how weak your wall is. Strong winds often take down exterior walls here, and I certainly don't want to be crushed by a slab at night. Another thing, the bricks here aren't very straight and vary in size, and the sand granules aren't very fine, so this contributes to the mortar being nearly thicker than the bricks. Everything is always different here whether better or worse.