Peru - August-Sept 2000

Disclaimer: I may or may not hold these opinions any more

I made a 2 week trip to Peru with Ranga. Visited a bunch of cities and saw quite a bit of the amazing diversity Peru has. This is a patched up travellogue made from the mails I sent from Peru.

My observations about the country

It Looks like most 3rd world countries are like India. Peru was also a lot like India. The buildings and traffic were a lot like India. When we visited, we detected a strong police presence all over. We saw a shop in Nazca that I could have sworn was identical to anything I could expect in India. Lima seemed a lot more cosmopolitan than India and what really struck me was the extent of the Spanish conquest. Unlike India where the British influence was for a little over a 100 years, Peru and the other South American countries seemed to have almost completely lost their native culture. An interesting thing was that when we were in Lima we could almost somehow feel that it was an artificial city and didn't have much history. The people seemed very friendly and the surfiet of Chinese restaurants soon became our favorite.

I was very impressed with the San Isabel's (a chain of grocery stores - like Randalls) all around and the size of the grocery stores. One thing that will always stick in my mind and it will take a lot of convincing for me to change my mind - Peru is practically a culinary desert. The food they eat seems to have no variety and I relished very little of what I ate - except for ceviche and a dinner we had one night in Lima. Most places - they just seemed to eat grilled chicken with rice. Very little spices thrown in. Their wines though are really great although I am not a big wine fan.

The respect for us and the fact that almost everybody recognized us as people from India and were very curious really struck me. Almost everybody above 40-50 years old was very excited to see people from India and seem to have a lot of respect for India. This happened even in a small town like Pisco. Must be because of India's leadership role in the early 50s-60s.

Cuzco will stay in mind as an echanting place. The roads of the city are still from the Inca days - roads paved with stones instead of tar. Cuzco - city center (Plaza de Armas) was amazing and the return journey in the train from Machu Pichu was amazing. Cuzco is by far the most scenic place - architecturally in Peru.

They have a lot more technology than India. Phone cards are ubiquitous, as are ATMs. They have made huge strides in telecommunications. Even the remotest towns not accessible through decently paved roads have fast internet cafes and ubiquitous telephone services.

Miscellaneous

Unfortunately all the photos we took on this trip were destroyed because we had a faulty camera and we missed the brilliant pictures in the rain forest, in the Inca trail and the priceless picture of the Llama in Machu Pichu. Looks like I have to make another trip to Peru!