Chucuito, Callao

Where old Callao ends and La Punta begins is Chucuito, a little barrio on the rocky beaches to the side of Peru’s, main port. Originally settled by Italian immigrants as recently as the late 1800s, it soon merged seamlessly into its increasing urban surroundings.

May 28, 2009 | Culture & History, Lima City Guide

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Al Jazeera’s take on Lima Street Food [Featured]

With a focus primarily on what Andean communities have contributed to this city’s famous cuisine, Al Jazeera takes a look at street food in Lima.

May 27, 2009 | Culture & History, Peruvian Food

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La Punta del Callao

Jutting out into the Pacific from the old port city of Callao is La Punta. Despite being attached to the noisy and bustling metropolis that is Lima and Callao, La Punta remains tranquil and pleasant, not unlike a small town in itself. Deeply connected to the sea and sea-faring, this is where private owners of yachts tie-up, where boating clubs reside and where the Peruvian Navy has its naval school. Home to Callao’s middle-class, its streets are attractive and tidy, lined with the mansions of the countries Republican period.

May 25, 2009 | Culture & History, Lima City Guide

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The ‘Peruvian vampire’ from East Lancashire [Featured]

Sarah Roberts, an East Lancashire woman who died 96 years ago in Peru, is one of the most iconic cult figures in the South American country. According to Peruvian legend, she had to be buried there as nowhere else in the world would take the casket of a woman believed to be one of the three brides of Dracula. But historians in East Lancashire said Sarah was ‘just a cotton weaver’ and that there was no substance whatsoever in the Peruvian myth.

May 25, 2009 | Culture & History

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Colonial Callao

Starting life as a rocky bay that was the nearest natural port to Pizarro’s capital of Los Reyes, El Callao soon became the most important port in the Spanish colonies. It has witnessed colonial splendour, pirate attacks, disastrous tsunamis, battles, republican splendour and economic collapse. Each of these events have left a mark on the city and the chalacos that live there, many of these marks visible to this day.

May 21, 2009 | Culture & History, Lima City Guide

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Peru’s Garcia tussles with tribes over land rights

Peruvian President Alan Garcia’s push to lure foreign investors to the Amazon basin has run into homegrown opposition, with indigenous leaders saying he has disregarded a U.N. declaration that protects their rights to control land and natural resources.

Thousands of indigenous people have protested in Peru’s Amazon for much of the past 40 days, hoping to pressure Garcia to modify or strike down a series of laws he passed last year that encourage oil, mining and agricultural companies to invest billions of dollars in the mostly pristine region.

May 21, 2009 | News

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Quinoa ‘risotto’ blends traditions of Peru, Italy [Featured]

Marlena Spieler writes in the San Francisco Chronicle about the Andean “grain” called Quinua (Quinoa), and cooking the indigenous food with an Italian twist.

A while ago I popped in to visit James Shenk at his Peruvian restaurant, Destino, in San Francisco. He had promised to teach me how to make a quinoa dish I had tasted at his restaurant.

Entering the kitchen, I found James deep in thought, rubbing his hands together. Was he excited about something? Was he cold? I peered closer and saw that in his hands were tiny seed-like grains, and he was rotating them in a circular motion.

May 16, 2009 | Peruvian Food

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Lima’s sewage pollutes the ocean [Featured]

Lima, with a population of 9 million people, is home to one-third of Peru’s population. But the coastal city does not have a single sewage treatment facility. With no safe place for raw sewage to go, most of it ends up in the ocean.

Almost as big as the pollution itself, is the apathy that seems to exist towards the problem. Until last year, Peru has never had an environment ministry.

Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo reports on the realities that make going to the beach in Lima a dangerous proposition.

May 14, 2009 | News

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Dignity of a Nation [Featured]

Three professional advocates journey from Ohio to Peru, South America to experience and assess basic needs of a community outside of capital city, Lima. The journey follows them as they risk infection, danger, and communication barriers while engaging in global empowerment for change. They discover and pinpoint the basic needs of the community while befriending a high school drop-out and graffiti artist.

May 12, 2009 | Opinion

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Huarco temple complex of Vilcahuasi

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing when I finally looked out around me from atop the huge mound of sand I had just climbed. What I was standing on was clearly the remains of an ancient pyramid, and next to it was another and another and another after that. I counted twelve in total.

May 11, 2009 | Archaeology

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The first Peruvian car

Such is Peruvian ingenuity that this was the first nation in South America to produce high-quality automobiles. World-beating ones at that. But as great as Peruvian creativity… is a lack Peruvian self esteem. What could have been the start of a major Peruvian industry was snuffed out by Peruvians themselves, who then, as now, see everything from abroad as better, whether it really is or not.

May 7, 2009 | Culture & History, Opinion

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Short Film: Machu Picchu Post

Machu Picchu Post is a short 3D film made at Supinfocom Arles in 2008 by Clement Crocq, Margaux Durand-Rival and Nicolas Novali.

This is the story of the unexpected meeting between a young Peruvian boy living with his llama and a pilot from the airmail flying above the boy’s house.

May 4, 2009 | Culture & History

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