Without googling or looking it up, what comes to your head when someone mentions Peru, my country?
I’m much more interested, of course in what Europeans, or Cannuck, Americans, rather than my fellow Latin Americans.
- The Incas
- Machu Pichhu
- llamas
- The Andes
- Lima
- Rather poor
- Lots of history
- Weird mummies (I took a class on mummies and we covered a lot in Peru).
I knew a girl in college who was from Peru. She comes to mind. From talking to her, I learned that a lot of Peruvians have ancestors from Japan & a mix of European countries. So there’s sort of a cultural split between the melting-pot urbanites & the rural Quechua people.
Other than that, the Shining Path of course, & sometimes I remember Fujimori, whose name is Japanese, which reminds me the incident at the Japanese embassy several years ago.
Or I think about historical Peru & the Incas.
And of course, linguistically, I seem to remember reading that the standard castellano in Peru is closer to the traditional standard dialect in Spain than are the other dialects of Latin America. Ah, yes, this page backs me up. (I don’t know why, but I suspect this is perhaps because Spanish was primarily a school language at one time, while Quechua held on for a long time due to the wide distribution of the Inca empire.)
(And yes, I know there are several dialects of Castilian in Spain, but I was thinking of voseo in Central America.)
Well someone should mention the elephant in the room, Cocaine. To many people in the US it’s the first thing that comes to there mind when you mention Peru. To almost everybody else it’s at least in the top 5. I don’t mean to rude, but you did ask.
– potatoes (over 200 species)
– Cuy, whether fried or on the hoof
–Macchu Pichu
– The central and coastal desert
– The awful traffic in Lima
False_God, Lima resident since August 2005. Catch me next in Kabul in September!
That they eat guinea pigs there.
Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca, The Nazca lines, The Andes, The Inca, Llamas, ceviche, potatoes, Pizarro
(Also Shining Path and Fujimori, but that’s history now.)
Thinking of Peru conjures up a lot of beautiful scenery in my mind.
I was in La Molina not too long ago. It was a pretty escape from Lima. When I think of Peru, I think of balmy weather, beautiful landscapes, huge gaps in wealth, Chifa food, awesome fruit drinks, ceviche, CNG autos, insane drivers, crazy soccer games. And, of course, the largest cocaine-base supply in the world and the various outlaw/terrorist/criminal organizations feeding off of it.
Loved it!
I think of train rides and market places,
Plaza de armas and moneychangers.
The Crossed Keys pub in Cuzco.
Cold, clean, crisp air.
Sunshine and stacked stone.
Peru? That’s a small town in Nebraska, Home of Peru State College.
I’ve no idea why the town or the college is named after that mountainous South American land, which is known for its haunting flute/pipe music, and that old steamboat that used to ply the waters of lake Titticacca; (the water of which incidently is always 68°F, the perfect temperature for develping B&W film).
Forgive the spelling, 'cause I am winging it.
Machu Pichu.
Cuzco is shaped like a puma.
Alberto Fujimori was president, disgraced for some reason (corruption?), but was known for successfully fighting the Shining Path guerrilla movement. He had to hide out in Japan for ages to avoid criminal prosecution.
One of Fujimori’s programs was to provide outhouses to almost everybody.
Famous for potatoes (like Idaho).
Guinea Pig (Cuy?) is a popular if not the national dish.
Shares a border with Bolivia that is partially defined by Lake Titicaca.
Lake Titicaca is the highest lake that is navigatable by large boats.
There’s entire floating islands on Lake Titicaca that people live on that are built entirely out of reeds.
Arequipa has the Ice Princess, a sacrificed frozen young girl, found near the top of some ridiculously tall mountain.
There’s some monastery in Arequipa with a bunch of Rubens’ paintings.
Lima is the capital and has a church with a bunch of artfully arranged human bones in the catacombs below it.
That Spanish explorer (Pizarro?) reneged on his deal to spare the life of the Inca King after the Inca filled a room up with gold for ransom.
Cuzco was the capital of the Inca empire and is home to the most meticulously fitted stone masonry on the planet.
Yeah, I’ve been a tourist there.
Aside from being it in South America… not a lot.
The OP isn’t really a General Question. Let’s try MPSIMS.
samclem GQ moderator
Edgar Prado
I’d have figured more IMHO than MPSIMS. Anyway.
Offhand, I would think of most of the standard things others already mentioned.
The Andes
The Incans and Pizarro
Alberto Fujimori
The Shining Path
And I grew up near the town of Peru, NY. And one of the main streets in Rochester, NY is Lima Avenue.
They eat guinea pigs there?
And they have the largest cocaine trafficking in the world.
Man, all I thought and knew about Peru was Machu Picchu.
I’ve been to Peru once on vacation.
Friendly people. Pretty women. Speak very clear Spanish. Lima was big, congested, thriving, foggy. The cabbies would lock the doors and hide the luggage when driving through bad parts of town. I know lots of people who were mugged in Lima and Cuzco, but I took simple precautions and had no problems. Miraflores had some nice seafood restaurants and nice hotels. Shopping was okay. Lively bars. Some nice museums. Got very sunburned. Lots of folks tried to sell me drugs. Cuzco was high up in the mountains and I drank lots of coca tea. Lots of young tourists and political rallies when I was there. Crazy scene at Mama Africa. Inca Cola everywhere. Tried cuy. Felt sick the first day from the altitude. Cuzco very pretty; stayed at Hotel Libertador which was beautiful. Took the train to Machu Picchu, which was beautiful. Hotel at Machu Picchu outrageously priced and did not stay there. Saw Lake Titicaca and the glyphs at Nazca.
Their version of Catholicism is only vaguely like the Polish Catholicism I was raised in 
Heh, just kidding for the most part although their inclusion of native beliefs and folklore makes for a distinctly different flavor than the vanilla European variety. My fiancée was born and raised in Peru so I know quite a bit about the country by now although I haven’t visted yet to get the real experience.
South American, the Andes, a country up high.