Category: "Life"

Renzo’s Story

April 30th, 2007 |

Written by Simon Bidwell for his new blog Andean Observer, this is the story of Eleven-year old Renzo, who left his parents home in Lima’s San Juan de Miraflores district to live with family in Arequipa.

On the sixteen-hour journey to Arequipa, he was sleepless, panicky and intermittently nauseous.

Over the next few days Renzo suffered from severe separation anxiety. He cried quietly in the room he had to share with Gerardo, and when a call was put through to his parents, sobbed down the phone to his mother.

Cruces más peligrosos de Lima

April 27th, 2007 |

The most dangerous crossings in Lima – this is a report released by the Ministry of Transport and Communication highlighting and mapping the most dangerous traffic intersections in the city, the fourth most dangerous being Surco’s Ovalo Higuereta, which I cross a couple of times each day.

Julio Cusurichi and the plight of Peru’s indigenous peoples

April 24th, 2007 |

By C.J. Schexnayder – Kephblog On Sunday, Julio Cusurichi – a Shipiro Indian from the Madre de Dios region of Peru – was awarded the Goldman Prize, one of the most prestigious awards for environmental activism. Cusurichi was recognized for his work with the Native…

The Peruvian “Desert”

April 21st, 2007 |

I mentioned the giant sand dunes north of the city of Lima, and it was commented how fascinated foreigners are with Peru’s desert coast, but is it a desert at all? Here is someone else’s experience…

My companions and I had been driving south down the stunning desert coast of Peru for nearly a day before we begin to wonder what the locals call this parched stretch of land that skirts the Pacific. We’ve all heard of the Atacama Desert in Chile, and the dry basins of Patagonia in Argentina, but none of us knew Peru was home to impressively huge sand dunes and sprawling, rocky wastelands. Curious, I inquire at a gas station south of Chiclayo.

Peru and Coca

April 19th, 2007 |

There has been much in the news recently about protests from Peru’s coca farmers and forced eradication by the Government.

Peru is the second largest exporter of refined cocaine in the world, and due to its size probably the largest producer of the coca leaf. Peru had a serious problem in the 1980s and 1990s with cocaine production as the Shining Path terrorist group began using the drug as a means to fund their war against the Peruvian State. Since then, production levels had became less of an issue, and what coca was grown was more often used for local medicinal and cultural needs – not all, not most but a slightly larger part (Ratio 9:100).

Inter-Oceanic Highway

April 17th, 2007 |

The Initiative for Integration and Infrastructure of South America, launched in 2000 by the governments of 12 of the region’s countries with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank and the Andean Fomentation Corporation (CAF), includes the promotion of 10 integration axes that bring together 335 projects with a combined value of 37.5 billion dollars. These projects are principally concerned with transport, but they also include energy and communications initiatives, one of which is the Inter-Oceanic Highway between Brazil and Peru.

Private Jet

April 11th, 2007 |

We arrived at Ayacucho’s airport and boarded our private jet back to Lima. No really, we did.

I found myself increasingly ill over our last couple of days in Ayacucho… a bad cold, some bad food and high altitude can really take its toll. I needed to leave Ayacucho despite not visiting Vilcas Huaman, Huanta or the Huari ruins – all things I wanted to do. I wouldn’t make it 9 hours on a bus in my condition so we had to look at paying 3 times more to travel home by air.

Abimael Guzmán – The Movie!

April 10th, 2007 |

Abimael Guzmán was the leader of the terrorist group The Shining Path, and group that brought misery, death and destruction to all of Peru – but Ayacucho in particular. An independent movie has now been made about the leader’s capture.

Dangerous Work

March 31st, 2007 |

This video by CoZzMiX shows the dangerous way in which building work is done in Peru. No safety equipment, no enforced health and safety laws and no-one to care.

There are thousands of building sites across this economically booming country and sites like this are often seen. I’ll try to attach some of my photos to this blog as and when I take them. You’ll see some scary stuff.

Hugo Chavez’s revolution continues in Lima

March 20th, 2007 |

Hugo Chavez’s revolution continues as the Venezuelan embassy is painted bright socialist red

The Gringo Tax

March 18th, 2007 |

Phil from Bolivia Blog explains the concept of the Gringo Tax.
“Although living in La Paz as a gringo is great it can have its problems not least of which is the constant battle against the “gringo tax” that the locals constantly try applying. Whilst not every single local increases the price it is certainly common place as they assume all gringos are rich and they assume all gringos are tourists that don’t know the price of things. A sure sign they are going to ‘up a price’ is when there is a pause after you ask how much something is whilst they weigh up how much they are going to ask for. Don’t be fooled into thinking they are trying to remember how much something is, they are trying to decide how much it is for YOU. “

Peruvian Traffic Death Warrant

March 15th, 2007 |

I almost died twice today. Quite a normal day on Peruvian roads.

I am still not quite used to barely avoiding horrific traffic accidents yet, hence me bothering to tell you with this blog, but it is slowing becoming normal. I smile now, rather than go numb with fear. Today’s potential death scenarios, as you might have suspected, both involved public transport. In these instances, taxis.