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 Peru
Travel Tips
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A
collection of important information that can make your trip more enjoyable.
| HISTORY |
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Archaeologically, Peru is the richest country in South America. Remains of archaeological sites are widely dispersed, especially in the coast and highlands. People from the world over are amazed by Machu Picchu. Peru is perhaps best known as the heart of the Inca Empire, but it was home to many diverse indigenous cultures long before the Incas arrived. The Incas conquered the Andean people and fostered among the most advanced of ancient American civilizations. |
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Pre-Inca The oldest remains of human presence (nomadic hunter-gatherers) have been found in the Piquimachay cave (Ayacucho) with a date of 20,000-10,000 BC. The starting point of Peruvian agriculture was by 4,000-5,000 BC with crops of cotton, beans, corn, chili and squash. Since 1,300 BC advanced cultures appeared, such as Chavín, Paracas, Mochica, Nazca, Tiahuanaco, Wari and the regional states of Chimú, Chincha and Chanka. This period lasted until the 15th century where the Inca Empire reached its highest expansion.
Inca From its capital Cusco, the Tahuantinsuyu (Inca Empire) expanded to Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. Pachacútec, the ninth Inca, was a great conqueror and builder. The Tahuantinsuyu reached its end when Huáscar and Atahualpa began a civil war to succeed their father Huayna Cápac. By this time (1532), Francisco Pizarro, the spanish conqueror, returned to Peru and took advantage of the situation. He captured, deceived and executed Atahualpa. Although, the Inca people resisted for nearly 40 years, Spaniards finally defeated and put and end to Inca Empire. |
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Colony & Independence Pizarro founded Lima, called since then the City of Kings, which became the center of all political, social and commercial events in South America. The Viceroyalty of Peru, rich and powerful, had to fight against those colonists who where tired of abuse and explotation of indians. An Inca noble, Túpac Amaru II, rebelled in 1780 but was defeated and put to death with other leaders in Cusco. This event and others like it only fueled the desire for emancipation. Emancipators were helped by Argentinian General José de San Martín, who declared Independence on 28 July 1821, and Venezuelan Liberator Simón Bolívar, who finally was in charge of the liberation of Peru with the decisive battle of Ayacucho on 9 December 1824.
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| WEATHER AND CLIMATE |
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Peru’s three distinct regions have very different climates and weather conditions. In fact, they say that of the world’s 103 categorized ecological zones, scientists have identified 83 within Peru’s borders.
That should give you an idea of the variety one may find. So, here are some general guidelines.
To start with, the seasons are flipped - December, January and February being Peru’s summer months and June, July and August being their winter. Summer and winter will mean different things in different parts of Peru.
On the coast summer is hot and dry, winter is often cool and grey - the exception of this is the northern coast where it is quite warm and sunny all year round.
Summer in the mountains means the rainy season as it does in the jungle, in both cases it is the warmer season despite the rains.
The best time to go to Peru’s coast is their summer, and the best time to go to the mountains in my opinion is September or May when you get a bit of both worlds. The nights aren’t as cold as in June or July but it still tends to be dry.
Peru is a huge country which varies in climate. There’s rainforest in the Amazon Basin; the area around Lima has desert-like climates and little rainfall (there is a cold ocean current here which produces lots of mist and cloud so temperatures don’t become too excessive); and in the Andes you’ll find tropical temperatures at low altitudes but as you get higher it gets extremely cold with frequent frosts during the dry season. The peaks are snow-capped year-round.
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| ECONOMY |
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Mining, agriculture, industry, and fisheries are the main components of the Peruvian economy. While the development of mining and industry over the past three decades has been very substantial, that of agriculture, especially for the domestic market, has been slow.
The GNP per capita was $ 1,470 in 1987 and has grown in recent years at an average annual rate of approximately 8 percent. The unemployment rate was 8.2 percent in the same year. Underemployment, however, is very widespread and, in the mid-1950s was estimated to affect 51 percent of the workers. The inflation rate was 114% in 1987. Tourism is assuming a growing importance in Peru's economy. |
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| CULTURE |
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Art prior to Spanish colonization concentrated almost entirely upon the production of fine pottery, metalwork, stonecraft and textiles. The Spanish subsequently introduced their version of urban planning, with cities laid out in checkerboard fashion, and constructed mansions, churches and monasteries which slavishly mimicked Spanish renaissance or the rather phlegmatic Spanish early baroque. Over time, these European styles increasingly showed signs of a native Indian influence, leading to a style known as mestizo. (The best examples of mestizo architecture can be found in the churches around Puno and Arequipa.) Painting too mimicked European influences but as local artists grew more confident, a new and distinctive Cuzco style developed, in which artists turned their attention away from the visible world, and concentrated instead on fairytale and fable. The influence of these works on artist Paul Gauguin, who spent his childhood in Lima, is noticeable.
Peruvian music is almost entirely folk music, while its literature encompasses everything from independence-inspired polemic to the anarchic individualism of its many poets and the boyhood reveries of the internationally renowned author Mario Vargas Llosa. The main religion is Roman Catholicism, though the Indians, while outwardly Catholic, often blend Catholicism with traditional beliefs. Spanish is the main language. In the highlands, most Indians are bilingual, but speak Quechua as their mother tongue. There are about 70 other languages, and in remote parts of the Amazon, Spanish is rarely spoken. English is understood in major hotels and airline offices. Typical Peruvian dishes are tasty and vary regionally. Seafood is, understandably, best on the coast, while the Inca delicacy - roast guinea pig - can be sampled in the highlands. Other dishes include: lomo saltado (chopped steak fried with onions); cebiche de corvina (white sea bass marinated in lemon, chilli and onions, often served cold with a boiled potato or yam); and sopa a la criolla (a lightly spiced noodle soup with beef, egg, milk and vegetables). |
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| ENVIRONMENT |
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Peru is in western South America and shares borders with Chile (to the south), Bolivia (southeast), Brazil (northeast), Colombia (north) and Ecuador (northwest). It has three major regions: a narrow coastal belt, the wide Andean mountains and the Amazon Basin. The coastal strip is predominantly desert, but contains Peru's major cities and its best highway, the Carratera Panamericana. The Andes comprise two principal ranges - Cordillera Occidental and Oriental - and includes Huascarán (6770m/22,200ft), Peru's highest mountain. To the east is the Amazon Basin, a region of tropical lowland, which is drained by the Maranon and Ucayali rivers.
Bird and marine life is abundant along Peru's desert coast, with colonies of sea lion, the Humboldt penguin, Chilean flamingo, Peruvian pelican, Inca tern and the brown booby endemic to the region. Common highland birds include the Andean condor, puna ibis and a variety of hummingbird. The highlands are also home to cameloids such as the llama, alpaca, guanaco and vicuña, while the eastern slopes of the Andes are the haunts of jaguars, spectacled bears and tapirs. Peru's flora contains a number of hardy and unique plants, including patches of Polylepis woodland found at extreme heights. The vast wealth of wildlife is protected in a system of national parks and reserves with almost 30 areas covering nearly 7% of the country.
Peru's climate can be divided into two seasons - wet and dry - though this varies, depending on the geographical region. The coast and western Andean slopes are generally dry, with the summer falling between December and April; during the rest of the year, the garúa (coastal fog) moves in and the sun is rarely seen. In the Andes, the dry season is from May to September, while the wet season takes up the remainder of the year. On the eastern slopes of the Andes, the drier months are similar to the highlands, though the wet season (January to April) is more pronounced. |
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| PEOPLE |
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The People
Almost half of the population is Indian, while another third are "mestizo." "Mestizo" is a term that usually refers to a mixture of Amerindians and Peruvians of European descent. There are also significant African and Asian minority populations. Peru’s population of 23 million is almost equally divided among the population centers of the coast and the highlands.
Religion
90% of Peruvians are Roman Catholic, a legacy of the Colonial period. This has not kept the Indian population from maintaining some Inca rituals and mixing them with Catholic festivals.
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| GOVERNMENT |
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PERU, IN 1980, was one of the first countries in South America to undergo the transition from long-term institutionalized military rule to democratic government. By 1990, however, Peru was in the midst of a social, economic, and political crisis of unprecedented proportions that threatened not only the viability of the democratic system but also civil society in general.
More than a decade of steep economic decline had resulted in a dramatic deterioration in living standards for all sectors of society and a vast increase in the large proportion of society that was underemployed and below the poverty line. Per capita incomes were below their 1960 levels. Accompanying the economic decline in the 1980s was a rise in insurgent violence and criminal activity. There was also a marked deterioration in the human rights situation--over 20,000 people died in political violence during the decade.
The crisis had partial roots in the failure of successive governments to implement effective economic policy and to fully incorporate the marginalized (informal) sector of the population into the formal economic and political systems. Politics were dominated by personalities rather than programs and by policy swings from populist policies to neoliberal stabilization strategies.
The concentration of decision-making power in the persona of the president and the major swings in policy took an enormous toll on the nation's political system and state institutions. The judicial and legislative branches, already inadequately funded and understaffed, were constantly bypassed by the executive. State institutions, meanwhile, already burdened by excessive bureaucracy, were virtually inoperative because government resources had all but disappeared. Political parties had been increasingly discredited, having failed to provide credible alternatives to the malfunctioning state system with which they were associated. Both extrasystem movements, such as neighborhood organizations and grassroots groups, and antisystem movements, such as guerrilla forces, particularly the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso--SL), had increased in size and importance. The breach between the Peruvian state and civil society had widened. The political system was fragmented and polarized to an unprecedented degree, and society, which was immersed in a virtual civil war, had become increasingly praetorian in nature.
Despite the desperate nature of the socioeconomic situation and the extent of political polarization, Peru successfully held its third consecutive elections in April and June 1990. Agronomist Alberto K. Fujimori, a virtual unknown, defeated novelist Mario Vargas Llosa by a wide margin. The victory of Fujimori and his Cambio '90 (Change '90) front was seen as a rejection of traditional politicians and parties, as well as of Vargas Llosa's proposed orthodox economic "shock" program.
Despite his wide popular margin, Fujimori faced substantial constraints early on. One was his lack of an organized party base or a working majority in either of the two houses of Congress. Another was that, as a result of hyperinflation, the lack of government resources, and the clear preferences of international lending agencies, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, he had little choice but to implement the orthodox shock program that he had campaigned against.
Although Fujimori made impressive strides during his first year in the implementation of structural economic reforms, there was substantial popular disaffection owing to the high social costs of the "Fujishock" program and to the government's failure to follow through on promises of a social emergency program to alleviate those shocks. Resource constraints inherited from the previous government severely limited the Fujimori administration's ability to act on the social welfare front. Fujimori lost the support of much of his Cambio '90 front when he turned to orthodox economics. In addition, he was forced to rely on a series of "marriages of convenience" with various political forces in Congress in order to pass legislation. He also had to rely on a sector of the army for institutional support.
On April 5, 1992, Fujimori suspended the constitution, dissolved the Congress and the judiciary, and placed several congressional leaders and members of the opposition under house arrest. The measures, which were fully supported by all three branches of the armed forces, were announced in the name of fighting drug traffic. They amounted to an autogolpe (self-coup): a military coup against the government led by the president himself. The government held elections for the Democratic Constituent Congress (Congreso Constituyente Democrático) on November 22, 1992, and municipal elections on January 29, 1993.
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| ENTRY REQUIREMENTS |
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A valid passport is required for the duration of your stay in Peru, in addition on entering the country you will be issued a 90 day tourist Visa. This is commonly done free of charge at border crossings or onboard international flights arriving at Lima. Extensions are available up to 60 days once you are in Peru, the appropriate British consulate will be able to give you guidance on how to obtain such an extension or you could check the Peruvian embassy’s homepage. If you intend to be working or staying for longer than 150 days you will need to contact the Peruvian embassy in the UK in order to obtain the appropriate visa.
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