Project Text
Perù
(Click
here to see the book)
Many travelers choose to take a trip to Peru for a number of reasons: Machu Picchu, The Colca Canyon, or attracted by the largest lake in the world at nearly 4,000 meters above sea level, but clearly when you get there it is clear that this it is perhaps the least important part.
The entire Peru is steeped in tradition, history (the Norte Chico civilization is one of the oldest in the world) that not even the arrival of the Spaniards was able to diminish.
People are always cheerful and willing to help. Social differences, especially in the cities are strong and are perceived clearly. There is much political fervor and from that point of view the "pueblo" is still tied to the concept of social struggle, but the struggle that does not seem to bear good fruit. There are still old crafts such as shoe shine, and many street vendors of soft drinks, candy and never toasted. Everyone tries to get by as he can and Lima appears as our Naples, but larger.
There is a criminal organization that is called sicariato and acts primarily north of Lima, in the harbor area, which for decades has been one of the main routes for the export of the Coca to America and Europe. Coca (in the form of natural leaves) which is served to the ancestors to withstand fatigue, hunger and sickness offshore and by the way is still habitually chewed especially in the south. The same Spaniards, on their arrival, before the banned then realized that helped her cope better work, "accepted".
Agricultural production in some inaccessible areas of the territory still uses ancient aqueducts era of Nazca population (prior to the Incas), while to the south in the region of Cusco, the "Navel of the World" special terracing allowed botanical studies that favored the cultivation of about 50 different types of potatoes, which has led to today to have over 4000 varieties.
Fishing is still abundant. Near Paracas large companies placed on the coast of the hundreds of local vessels to work the fish to be shipped across the country. The cevice, the national dish of pre-Columbian times is an expression of the importance of fishing in this country.
Towards the south, the region of volcanoes, appears almost a country in its own right. Much more Westernized, almost orderly, in the Arequipa region in the past he has even thought to mint its own currency other than national.
To the north of Arequipa, the Titicaca area where you can get lost in the incredible "social experiments" developed by the inhabitants of Taquile (700 families live and work for a common pot, and then distribute the proceeds to all equally) visiting the islands floating Uros, today virtually an open-air museum that is the way of life of the population of the lake.
Then there is Cusco. The center of the empire Inca. An intense region in every sense with the ruins of Machu Picchu, the Sacred Valley, the salt flats of Maras and the concentric terraces of Moray.