I am often shocked and disgusted by the amount of water pumped out over the green areas that fill every little gap in the richer areas. Big tankers rolled down the streets with a giant fire hose. It is well known that the current water supply to Lima will have been exhausted in the next 50 years and this seems like such a waste. What’s wrong with desert gardens anyway? They can be just as beautiful.

The inequality in this country will hopefully change when the level of wealth increases – although this is a little contentious, it is something that happened in each and every European country over the past 300 years, so I can’t see how anyone can disagree and say it will always be the rich that benefit from financial growth in Latin America.

It’s unfortunate that all these people without running water were forced to move from more fertile areas of the country to the safety of Lima during harder times. By building homes in the desert without permission, you are not going to get running water any time fast. Travelling out of Lima to the south though, I ALWAYS seem Lima’s municipality building stairs, installing water and power and doing other social work – all paid for by Lima’s tax payers.

Costeños not knowing themselves? Class is so often linked to race in Latin America, as is economic status. Yes I’d agree that here people would hope to be seen as white, as in the US or Europe people would like to be seen as of a higher class – it just happens to involve race here I think.

It’s strange how the average Limeño is extremely proud of their country and its non-european history, yet at the same time look down on the indigenous people. I dislike what I see as the Limeño superiority complex (I also dislike the Arequipeña one, and the ‘we are the real Peru’ Cusqueña one)

As for how many are racially white, I’d say European genes make up an average of about 40% in the middle classes and up, and in the entire Lima area maybe 15%.
I often see 50% to 100%’s – Spanish, Germans, Dutch, French and British descendants. It’s now the US that’s…

They think they live in fertile valleys, they hate the fact that trees don’t grow all over, like in the movies.

Costenos don’t see the beauty of the Andean Peruvian desert. For example, in Lima the capitol city, they spent incredible amounts of money, work and water to create parks in fancy neighborhoods, while 2 million people don’t have running water in their houses.

Costenos don’t know themselves. Most of them think they are all racially white, or mestizo, or moreno. Never they will accept that most of them are Indigenous and Black peoples.

Someone needs to wake them up!