…en Perú - Travel Culture History News

The town of Canta sits upon a hill high up in the Chillon Valley of Lima. Sitting on another nearby hill is Obrajillo, and on another San Miguel. This peaceful and picturesque town, green throughout most of the year, is just two hours journey from Lima.

The town of Canta sits in a valley as full of history as any other in Peru. Ruins of Inca and pre-Inca civilisation are to be found in the mountains around the town. Canta though, is perhaps most famous for it’s more recent history.

It was from this city that 150 men prevented the passage of Chilean troops during the War of the Pacific. The Chilean battalion, wanting to pass through the valley towards Lima, were prevented from doing so by locals organised by Coronel Manuel Encarnación Vento.

The people of Canta knew that towns the Chilean army passed through were subject to rape, plunder and mascre. They decided to defend themselves. Knowing the location of the Chileans who where further up the valley, Vento led the Peruvians to engage them. Not knowing when the enemy would be re-enforced, Vento declared that they had to attack “Today or never“. Willing to do whatever it took to defend Canta, he added “Pass what may“. Thankfully, they managed to drive the Chileans back and protect their town and families from slaughter.

Today, with old battles long forgotten, Canta is a peaceful place of simple lifestyles. It’s a town of traditional narrow streets and people going about their daily business. Walking down these streets, the smell of freshly baked bread from the local bakery often filled the air.

Nearby, smaller towns are waiting to be explored.

Join me, exploring more of the Department of Lima, here.

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The rock art at Checta may be as much as 5000 years old, some say more. Carved onto rocks above the Chillon valley in the department of Lima, the petroglyphs hold the yet uninterpreted secrets of some of the most ancient Peruvians.

Once cared for by the elderly Doña Consuelo Livia, who dedicated more than 60 years of her life to protect these stones, they are now mostly left abandoned by Peruvian authorities, only a sign on the highway points to the location in the hills of the unsupervised artefacts.

Depicting all sorts of yet undetermined acts and ideas, the rock carvings are the only clue remaining to the people who used to inhabit this valley millenia ago. Some are obvious; fish, people animals. Others are of strange shapes.

Attached to this entry are some of my photos.
For more lower-quality photos and an introduction to Doña Consuelo, click here.
For a geologist’s story of his stay with Doña Consuelo in 1994, click here.

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LIMA, Peru (AP) — Hugo Chavez has been accused of using Venezuela’s oil riches to meddle in Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia and Nicaragua. Now, Peru’s president says the Venezuelan leader may be doing it here by funding militants and anti-poverty centers that preach populist revolution.

In recent weeks, Peruvian police have arrested nine people the government alleges are militants bankrolled by Venezuela. And the head of a Congressional investigatory committee accused Venezuela of supplying funds to outreach centers he says agitate against the government.

President Alan Garcia supports the ongoing investigation into the centers.

Venezuela and allies Bolivia and Ecuador “want to destabilize Peru so that our country adheres to their type of thinking, so that Peru fails,” said the government’s lead anti-terrorism prosecutor, Julio Galindo.

Venezuela vehemently denies the allegations, and denies funding Peruvian militants or the anti-poverty centers. Venezuela’s ambassador in Peru, Armando Laguna, said the government should “ask me to leave Peru” if it finds proof.

Continue…

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The Chillón valley is the northern most of the three main valleys that end/begin in metropolitan Lima, the others being the Rimac and Lurin valleys.

As with all valleys leading into the mountains from Lima’s desert coast, the Chillón starts sandy and dry but soon starting turning green the higher up you go, especially during the Andean rainy season which is yet to finish.

The small town of Santa Rosa de Quives, home to Lima’s very own Saint Rosa when she was young, lays along the way to the town of Canta, as doing ancient petroglyphs carved into rocks above the valley. Past Canta, continuing along the valley, you pass trout fish farms, ancient ruins, forests of Puya Raimondii, small Andean towns and you eventually reach the cordillera of the Andes at 4500masl and the lagoons that sit below.

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The largest plant in its family, its also the largest thing able to grow at an altitude of 4000m+. This endangered plant, found only in the highest regions of Peru and Bolivia, flowers once in 100 years then dies.

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Huayco is a Peruvian term for the flash floods that occur regularly during the rainy season in the Andes. Often they are regular but minor, such as the one that affected me yesterday in the Chillón valley, blocking the road with mud, boulders and a torrent of water for several hours. Other times they can be more violent, washing away bridges and even towns.

Yesterday for instance, while I was stuck for hours 52 kilometres from Lima thanks to my relatively minor huayco, the district of Chanchamayo in Junin suffered a huge huayco that washed away the road. 12 hours later help was yet to arrive for stricken travellers. That’s usually the way it is; locals having cleared some of the path so cars can pass one by one (in exchange for a small tip from each) long before anyone from the Government shows up to help.

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The Morro Solar of Chorrillos was the scene of a battle, was once an exclusive beach resort in the 1800s and nowadays is home to an observatory, some monuments and the exclusive Regatta’s club.

^{Photo: Peru Pepo} The Morro Solar as seen from Miraflores

Jutting out into the Pacific Ocean, the Morro Solar can be seen all along the city’s coast. It’s history began as home to Peru’s indigenous - as the settlement of Armatambo, long since destroyed and forgotten. After the conquest the area around the hill became known as Chorrillos and country retreats were built by Viceroyals. Later during Peru’s struggle for independence Chorrillos was used as a port - an alternative to the Spanish controlled Callao. Chorrillos eventually became more developed, the sea-front malecon was built and connections to elsewhere by road and train were constructed. Still, Chorrillos was little more than a fashionable seaside resort with large residences owned by the wealthy - the area around the Morro Solar had some of the nicest beaches.

When Chile invaded Peru for it’s mineral wealth in the War of the Pacific, they were determined to reach Lima to ensure complete capitulation. Peru had amassed a huge army that was positioned across the desert from Chorrillos to San Juan. A series of battles took place in which the superior tactics of the Chileans saw a Peruvian defeat and the end of the war. One of these battles took place on the Morro Solar, now home to monuments to the dead. Defeat on the Morro Solar lead to the destruction of Chorrillos as Chilean troops burned and pillaged their way unopposed towards Lima (see also Surco, Barranco).

Today, as well as monuments of the battle you will find hundreds of radio towers serving the whole southern half of Lima, the height of the Morro, of course, being an ideal place to transmit from. The radio towers are accompanied by the Planetary Observatory, the first in Peru, made by engineer Víctor Estremadoyro.
More high-tension steal towers form the shape of a huge cross where the morro meets the sea. The cross, lit up during the night and shining across the ocean, was built to welcome Pope John Paul II on his visit to the country. Next to the cross there is also a statue of the Virgin Mary that is regularly visited by devoted Catholics.
At the base of the Morro Solar is the exclusive Regattas Club, where if you have the money to pay the yearly fee, you have access to various club facilities. Away from the ocean but also at the base you will find the other extreme, invasions - homes built with no permission out of cheap available materials. Near here you will find the cevicheria Sonia and below, on the beach, a pier, fishing boats and more restaurants - continuing the area’s fishing and sea-ferring history.

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Stop producing coca leaves and abandon traditions established millennia ago by banning your people’s coca consumption, the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board has demanded of Peru and Bolivia.

The coca leaf has been used throughout Andean history to alleviate hunger, for medicinal purposes such as coping with altitude and for religious ceremonial practices. The rural poor chew their way through tonnes of the stuff each year as a means of getting by day-to-day on meagre meals at high altitudes. In the cities people drink coca tea when they are feeling tired on ill. Unfortunately, this same leaf can also be used in mass production to produce the drug Cocaine.

The Governments of Peru and Bolivia have condemned the UN’s report, criticising its lack of cultural sensitivity and understanding of coca by declaring it’s sole use as a basis for drugs.

The report suggests that Peru and Bolivia outlaw chewing of coca leaves and production of coca tea. The United Nations also lists the coca leaf… along with cocaine… as being a highly dangerous controlled substance (You’d have too consume many times your own weight in leaves in a short time to have a similar cocaine high).

Peru has been cracking down on illegal coca production in a big way recently, putting a lot of effort into reducing cocaine production.

Outlawing coca in Peru would be like outlawing hamburgers and crucifixes in the US.

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Below the videos of Lima in 1944 from this previous post I explained how explosive growth in the decades that followed ruined Lima’s plans of steady growth, modernity and provision of public services. The disenfranchised rural poor, practically destitute, living off the allotments of their ancestors land now owned by the descendants of the Spanish colonisers, migrated en masse to the capital. In the 1980’s, to avoid the further poverty and death caused by the Shining Path and harsh military responses to their terrorist attacks, this migration only grew.

How did these people settle in Lima? Where?

The fertile green mountain valleys of the Andes were traded for the rocky desert wasteland that is the Peruvian desert coast. There were no homes for the new arrivals, nor land, nor money to buy either - so they had to invade.

It was these invasions, as they are called, that now make up the vast majority of Lima. On the outskirts of the city, people simply claimed the land as theirs and constructed their shacks. Later arrivals built their shacks a little further out, and yet newer arrivals built theirs yet further. As the years past the first arrivals were finally able to buy bricks and mortar. This process continued. People continued (and still continue) to build their houses on any scrap of land they could find north, east or south of the original city and the vast established slums. These slums expanded up the slopes of the Andean foothills and into every little nook and cranny.

Eventually, the city felt obligated to provide these people with running water and electricity, while trying not to attract more invaders. Programs were launched to provide municipal services, local Government, police forces and other basic needs. The costs of this are paid out of Lima and central Government funds, and the costs of providing free or cheap electricity and water is a burden felt by all those who have to pay the high charges.

Today, these slums are huge. Organised into city districts and fully integrated into Lima, large parts are now considered developed. In the north of Lima for example, where there were once shacks you’ll now find shopping centres, gyms and restaurants. The residents, accustomed to not paying tax, run informal or illegal businesses - so despite the huge amount of money that now exists here the roads are still dirty and potholed, there are no green parks and it can often be unsafe. Some consider Peru to have a huge problem with people who believe they don’t have to contribute to society, but society ought to provide them with all they need.

The vast majority of the slums though have roads that remain unpaved, and consist entirely of buildings that do not meet building codes and do not have permission.

The photos above show how Lima’s other side looks from the ground, but seeing it from the air is a different experience.

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A sunny day in Miraflores, as new penthouses tower over the up-scale Larcomar shopping mall, which sits embedded in the cliffs of the Coast Verde overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

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