Peru - Lonely Planet Publications [0]
Destination Peru
Getting Started
Itineraries
History
The Culture
Food & Drink
Environment
Lima
South Coast
Arequipa & Canyon Country
Lake Titicaca
Cuzco & the Sacred Valley
Central Highlands
North Coast
Huaraz & the Cordilleras
Northern Highlands
Amazon Basin
Directory
Transportation
Health
Language
Glossary
The Authors
Behind the Scenes
Map Legend
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Destination Peru
* * *
FAST FACTS
Population: 28.2 million
Median age: 26 years
Poverty rate: 54%
Gross Domestic Product (GDP): US$131.4 billion
Estimated hectares of coca production: 56,000
Rate of inflation: 5.8%
Navigable tributaries in the Amazon Basin: 8600km
Average daily visitors to Machu Picchu: 2500
Loss of forest area in 2005: 150,000 hectares
Native varieties of potato: almost 4000
* * *
For a country born of a tumultuous history, Peru has its moments of incredible grace. There is the award-winning literature, the baroque-style architecture, the soulful music and, of course, the food – a sublime combination of ethnic and regional specialties that have spent the last 500 years on a slow simmer and are now ready to be served. Peru, in case you haven’t heard, is in the midst of a buzzing culinary renaissance.
Led by a charismatic young chef named Gastón Acurio, the country’s native cuisine is the subject of write-ups in international food magazines. Once regarded as a charmless capital city, Lima is now a bastion of excellent dining. And Peruvian gastronomic festivals – once the purview of a few dedicated food-service types – attract tens of thousands of visitors. La Mistura, a culinary gathering organized by Acurio, drew more than 150,000 people from all over Peru and the world to its second annual convocation in Lima in September of 2009. Thousands more were unable to get in.
The relentless focus on food – and it is relentless – has not only generated a great deal of pride among every layer of Peruvian society, it has had a ripple effect on other aspects of the culture. Young fashion designers produce avant-garde clothing lines with alpaca knits. Cutting-edge musical groups fuse elements of regional folk music into mainstream electronica. In the world of architecture, builders are starting to create contemporary structures that pay tribute to pre-Columbian design. In other words, Peru is experiencing a remarkable cultural boom.
The country has also experienced a period of unparalleled economic expansion, linked to significant growth in the mining and agricultural sectors. Since 2004, Peru’s gross domestic product has grown steadily, year after year – even in 2008 and 2009, when the global economy was shrinking. The influx of wealth has helped alleviate some of the most extreme cases of poverty and has allowed the administration to improve infrastructure and expand social services. By 2011, the government expects to complete a US$1 billion electrification project, which will improve energy delivery to the southern part of Peru.
This represents an incredible turnaround for a nation that was torn apart by a period of protracted internal conflict between the military and various guerrilla groups in the 1980s and ’90s – an episode that left thousands of civilians dead and countless others displaced. Peru has yet to completely emerge from the shadow of that era. For two years beginning in 2007, the nation was riveted by the legal trials of former President Alberto Fujimori.
Elected in 1990, in the midst of the conflict, Fujimori, the Lima-born son of Japanese immigrants, cracked down on guerrilla groups, but also tightened his grip on power. Among other things, he staged a coup that filled the legislature with his cronies, reworked the constitution and ran all manner of shady financial and political operations while in office. His presidency ended in 2001, when his security chief was caught on camera bribing just about any official willing to accept a suitcase full of money. The disgraced former president is now serving almost three decades of prison terms for an array of