Some observations by Clark – Peru

Some observations by Clark – Peru

Peru is quite different from Ecuador.  Some of it may have to do with the geography – the Andes are still tall and very difficult to cross, but the highlands area is not quite as steep.  Roads are typically in much better shape, and the valley floors (especially in the Sacred Valley) are quite wide with lots of agriculture.  The farms are generally quite a bit larger than in Ecuador, and although I did see some hand-tilling of the soil, more of it was done by oxen (which was not possible in Ecuador because of the steep slopes).  And, where there are steep slopes, the Incan terracing still allow for animal support on the farms.

The houses in the agricultural countryside appeared to be better off than in Ecuador.  There is clay here, so most houses are larger and built from adobe with metal roofs rather than thatch.  We were able to do a home-stay for a night on an island in Lake Titicaca.  There was outdoor plumbing (with flushable toilets if you add water) courtesy of a government plan and some limited solar power to run a few fluorescent bulbs.  But similar to Ecuador, the kitchen still contains a wood-fire cook-stove with no chimney, there is no running water (but the use of mini-aqueducts from streams pass close to many houses), and the floors are dirt.  But the 17-year-old daughter did look at pictures and listen to music on her cell-phone, which might be an exception.  We saw some other highland houses, and they seemed comparable.

More of the smaller towns seemed to have electricity/generators and some other luxuries (like refrigeration or WiFi), and the folks in the highlands seem to be more prosperous than in Ecuador.  However, the poverty in the outskirts of Lima was beyond anything we saw in Ecuador.  On the west coast of Peru, it almost never rains (the Humbolt Current from the Antarctic keeps the water temperature near 60 degrees – so although it is humid, it rarely reaches the dewpoint.  There are places in Northern Chile where it has not rained in 200 years).  As a result, driving down the coast toward Pisca, it is a barren desert as far as you can see.  The only thing that is visible (other than a couple fishing towns) is shacks.  I asked the guides what these folks did to eke out an existence, and he confessed that he had no idea.

Peru almost seems like three different countries (at least).  There is Lima (made up of 43 autonomous municipalities – each with its own mayor and services), which is the economic center of the country, and has a third of the population; there is the Upper-Amazon rainforest, which has massive commercial and environmental resources which have to be carefully managed; and there are the Andes highland region which produces most of Peru’s agriculture.  And, of course, there is nothing homogenous about the rainforest region (the area near Iquitos, which is the city furthest inland on the Amazon River that can be reached by commercial shipping, is therefore very focused on trade, and the areas further south, which are far less commercial), and there is nothing homogenous about the highlands region (which also includes significant influence from multiple pre-Incan cultures).

Politics here is different.  In the 1980s/1990s, Peru had massive hyperinflation and a terrorist problem (Shining Path).  Fujimori became president and is credited with stabilizing the economy and reducing/eliminating the terrorist threat.  He also did some really good things for the rural poor.  However, his government was corrupt, and had thousands of folks imprisoned and killed for being politically dissident.  By controlling the media through bribes/threats/payoffs, he managed to build huge popularity.  One of these payoffs to a network exec was captured on tape and broadcast, and afterward, a number of other tapes surfaced.  Fujimori fled back to Japan (his native country), and was convicted in absentia on charges of corruption and murder.  Fujimori made a mistake of traveling to Chile, thinking he was safe there (Chile and Peru do not get along due to a war where Chile appropriated an area of Southern Peru rich in guano in the early 1900s).  However, Chile had no problem extraditing Fujimori back to Peru, where he currently resides in prison.  In this next election cycle, his daughter Keiko Fujimori is running for president, and it seems that the primary planks in her platform is that she carries the Fujimori name and that if she wins she will release her father from prison and absolve him of all charges.  Because of Fujimori’s continued popularity, she has a reasonable chance of winning the election (currently polling second).  At first, I was very surprised – but upon looking at our own last election cycle (more the ads than the results), many folks in the US prefer to focus on ideology over facts.  It is no different in Peru.

In Ecuador, many buildings and billboards advertise for political candidates, but it does not hold a candle to Peru.  Here, outside of the major cities, most buildings/billboards are plastered with ads for candidates or parties  – many houses have a whole side dedicated to a preferred candidate or party.  Ads for elections outnumber ads for anything else by 10:1.  And there are a lot of political parties – each has its own logo (though there are only 6 major parties with candidates for president).  Some logos are tied to Incan culture (the Incan cross, the Incan flag, an Incan, coca leaves, a llama, a condor, snow-capped mountains, the sun); others are tied to more expected political objects (a shovel, a loaf of bread, a stalk of wheat, an orange, a road); others are just an odd appeal to the masses (a circle-K for Keiko, a heart, a star, a 3-leaf clover, a mom hugging a baby, and my favorite – a soccer ball).  It is interesting to drive through the small towns and see a subset of these logos painted onto the side of almost every single house and building.  And, it is not uncommon to find these giant multi-hundred foot logos carved into mountains.

The Incan culture is still a dominant influence in Peru, especially outside of Lima.  As much as Spain tried to conquer Peru, the Incan culture still remains.  In some respects, it seems that outside of a national language, and the physical churches/statues, their influence was impermanent – or at best a partial fusion with the pre-existing cultures.  The craftsmanship of the important buildings and aqueducts from the Incan Empire are amazing, and many of these still exist.  The Spaniards made an attempt to destroy as much of it as they could, but found that dismantling the Incan temples was often just too much work – it was frequently easier to preserve the base of the Incan temple, and build a Catholic Church on top.  The Incans worshipped the snow-capped mountain tops, so the Catholic Church placed enormous white statues on the tops of the mountains near the important cities.  And the brand of Catholicism practiced by many of the folks we met is closer to Incan/pagan than it is to Catholicism.  Despite the villages being nominally Catholic, including crosses on the houses, there is a lot of importance placed on balances of energies; understanding natural powers from various plants, symbols, and charms; and on tradition and mysticism.  If you have a medical or personal problem, you can go to a shaman who will pass a guinea-pig over you and kill it in order to perform a reading to make a diagnosis and determine a cure.

Guinea-pigs in Peru are very important.  Most highland families have 40+ of them, though they don’t count them because that could create bad energies, and the number may never increase.  They are a delicacy served on birthdays and special occasions, and as mentioned above, are important for the diagnosis of problems. 

Also, outside of Lima, almost no one smokes (except tourists) – but there is omnipresent use of the coca leaf (an Incan tradition):  primarily chewing the leaf and drinking coca tea, though I’ve also seen candies and cookies.  In certain areas, when friends meet, rather than shaking hands, they exchange leaves.  In the highlands, the men carry special pouches with the sole purpose of carrying coca leaves.  Rather than taking coffee-breaks or cigarette-breaks, a large fraction of the populace take coca-breaks.  The strength of the culture and rituals about coca very much surprised me.

Other topics:

When you do not have modern medicine, you use what you have.  And it is amazing what the folks in the jungle have figured out.  Our guide cut small segments of stem off of a plant (each no larger than a grain of uncooked rice) and had us bite on them.  For about 5 seconds, it felt like I had a series of 9-V batteries on my tongue – and then it went numb.  A chemical in the plant is a natural anesthetic.  And there were many, many other examples.

Outside of Lima, Peruvians have been fascinated by Christopher.  At Machu Picchu, a gaggle of 16-yr-old high-school girls (on a field-trip), were absolutely fascinated by Christopher (they thought he looked a bit like McCauley Culkin from Home Alone).  They wanted to hear him talk (in English) because they are not used to seeing kids speak languages other than Spanish (and they spoke no English, so I had to do my best to be the intermediary).  Unfortunately, C was too shy to appreciate the attention.  Many other ladies have also fawned over him (“Que` lindo!”).  I even got my own moment in the sun at some hot springs, where an elderly woman asked to have her photo with me (Incan men don’t have facial hair and are very dark – and have full heads of hair, so I was a bit of a novelty).

Corruption in Peru is rampant.  We have seen many examples.  As I mentioned, Lima is composed of a large number of independent districts, and each district has its own rules.  The one that contains the airport requires a special expensive certificate to be able to drive there (since a lot of folks use the airport, it is an easy way to generate revenue).  Our driver to the airport had a note that proved that the certificate was in the mail, and said that the note was valid in place of the certificate for a certain number of days, but the police officer stopped him and took his driver’s license.  The driver was going to return to the officer after dropping us off, but feared he was going to be shaken down.  At Aguas Calientes, we  discovered that our hotel manager was treating the local officers to drinks, because you have to build a good relationship with the authorities – just in case something goes wrong.  At Iquitos, our guide told us that he knew enough folks that he could get almost anything done, assuming appropriate funding (he got a foreign friend a business visa in under 24hrs to purchase some Peruvian real-estate, when legally he really should have had to go back to Australia to apply for it).

If you drive a motorcycle, you must wear a helmet.  We have seen up to 4 additional passengers on a motorcycle; helmets are not required for passengers.

A lot of folks use propane, which is delivered in standard tanks (just like the one on my gas grill).  I have seen trucks with loose side-panels carrying on the order of 200 loose propane tanks.  I have also seen a delivery motorcycle with propane tanks strapped to each side.

I would never even think of driving in Peru.  I thought Ecuadorian traffic was bad, but Peru is ridiculous.  Driving in Lima is like a continuous game of Chicken.  No attention is paid to lane designations, and the oncoming traffic lane is always in play.  The first one into the intersection gets right of way, unless you can squeeze in front of him.  I got nervous enough riding as a passenger that I had to stop looking out the window.  In the countryside, driving is less confrontational (fewer cars), but our driver spent an uncomfortable fraction of his time in the oncoming-traffic lane, even on blind curves and when there wasn’t anyone in our own lane (so that he could make the bends in the road at higher speed).  It made me nervous.

Gas is about $5 per gallon – almost 4x of Ecuador.  Coca-Cola is also more expensive, though still cheaper than in the states (approx  $0.80 to $1 for a 500mL bottle).  Twice now, I have won a free 237mL Coca-Cola, but I have not yet found a place that sells this size bottle.

Few hotels have elevators.  Above 12,000 feet, going up three flights of stairs is a task.  I have resorted to paying the hotel staff  to move our suitcases, which do not seem to be getting lighter.  It is the only way I can make it to the room without feeling dizzy.  Unfortunately, on the island of Amantani (within Lake Titicaca), there was no help, and I got to lug a suitcase from the boat to our home-stay, perhaps half-a-mile inland and up 500 feet.  I thought I was going to collapse.

Every year, there is a contest to run a 47 km segment of the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu (it is a steep up-and-down path over tough terrain and high altitude; it typically takes 4 days / 3 nights to hike).  According to our guide, the record is 3 hours and 45 minutes.  It was not set by one of the professional runners/marathoners who have made the attempt.  It was set by an Incan porter wearing sandals (there are professional porters that carry gear along the trail for tourist hikers.  Typically there is one porter per 2 hikers.  They break down camp after the hikers start down the trail, and then run up the trail ahead of the hikers with all of their gear and set up the next camp before the hikers arrive).

Shrek is very popular in Peru.  He is used to advertize KR-Cola on posters (KR is probably the second most popular soft drink in Peru, after Inca Cola).  At a wood-carving shop in an upscale mall, a whole section of the store was dedicated to Shrek characters (there were no other ‘celebrities’ depicted).

The national flag is red and white (like the Canadian flag), but with the Peruvian Seal in the middle.  However, only government buildings or vehicles are allowed to display the seal.  Most buildings/boats display only the three vertical stripes.  Taking the picture of a flag (including a flag on your shirt) at Machu Picchu may result in your camera being confiscated.  Depending who you have to deal with, deleting photos off of the camera or removing the card is not enough to have your camera returned.

Chifas are a big deal in Peru.  A Chifa is a fusion-cuisine between Peruvian and Chinese food.  We went to one of the better Chifas in Cuzco.  In general, it was not that far from what might be expected in a US-Chinese restaurant. 

We have not spent too much time in Lima or the West Coast, but in the jungle and the highlands, everyone we have met has been very nice, especially in the rural areas.

Large changes in elevation can do remarkable things to water-bottles and soda-bottles, crushing them when going to low altitude or causing them to expand greatly at high altitude.  It does the same thing to your digestive system.