Rachel Gamarra explains that while the world’s economies fall into recession, Peru’s is racing ahead as Peruvians increased their spending by a huge 19% in 2008. With the country’s economy only growing at about 9% and wages remaining stable, where is this money coming from?
Category: "Lima City Guide"
Loosing weight in Peru [Featured]
Rachel Gamarra explains how Peru’s abundance of fresh, unprocessed, nourishing, tasty and cheap food can help keep you slim, and tells of her first experience in a Peruvian supermarket and how it compares to one in her home country, the super-sized United States.
World’s Biggest Ceviche
As the birthplace of ceviche, Peru just couldn’t stand by and let another Latin American country hold the Guinness World Record for the largest dish ever made.
Colonial cannon discovered beneath Lima’s streets
A cannon dating from Peru’s Spanish colonial period has been found by workers constructing part of Lima’s new Metropolitan transport system and underground central station. Unearthed at the intersection between Camaná and Emancipation, the cannon measures 2.79 metres long and is in good condition.
An archaeologist from the country’s National Institute of Culture (INC), Carmen Gabe Benaki, explains that the cannon was likely to have been reused in the 1800s to protect an old mansion that once occupied the site but no longer stands. During the building’s demolition it would have been left in place and become buried.
Lima’s toxic smog of death is now 11.77% less deadly
Air quality in Lima has never been good, mostly thanks to the high humidity and fog. But when dictator Alberto Fujimori passed laws to allow second-hand ancient, deadly and heavily polluting cars to be imported from abroad, air quality took a massive hit. Though it never rains, grey clouds took on a hint of black, and a thick soot blanketed the city.
APEC 2008 comes to a close
As the security fences and blockades are pulled down, and life in Lima gets back to normal, Peru can be proud that it successfully held such a large scale international event. The numbers of delegates and the numbers of heads of state all in the capital city at the same time was unprecedented for the country, but despite Peru’s reputation for inefficiency everything went surprisingly well.
China’s Hu Jintao arrives in Lima
China’s President Hu Jintao arrives in Lima, is greeted by Peru’s Alan Garcia and taken in style to the Plaza de Armas and the Presidential Palace.
Lima ready for APEC leader’s conference
As the leaders of Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, the United States and Vietnam arrive in Lima, the city for a short time at least, is in the international spot light.
Makatampu
The pre-Columbian town of Makatampu stood on the outer edges of the city of Maranga, and as its name suggests, it was a tambo, or resting place, set in the scenery of fields irrigated by two artificial aqueducts. No longer standing – the complex was destroyed in the 1940s to may way for the construction of factories on the old hacienda Conde de las Torres – it was said to have been an important site.
A walk along the Costa Verde
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there’s nothing nicer than a walk along the Lima’s Costa Verde on a sunny day. Big changes have been taking place over the past 5 years. The old historic but sadly decaying houses along the cliff front have been gradually pulled down and new apartment blocks built in their place, while the once ugly and unsafe cliff-top between the lighthouse in Miraflores and the district of San Isidro is now greener and wealthier than ever. Expensive apartments now overlook children’s play areas and green spaces with pristine pathways, benches, and flower gardens.
Ruins of Pachacamac
The history of pre-Hispanic Lima is deeply entwined with Pachacamac. Worshipped across the central Andes since before the Inca conquest, the powerful creator god Pacha Kamaq is even revered today, almost 500 years after the Spanish conquest by Catholics in Lima. Today this powerful being has taken shape as the Cristo Morado and has been absorbed into Catholicism, and just as he is today, this ancient figure was also known as the Lord of the Earthquakes.
El Fayke Piurano
I’ve been spending a lot of time in central Lima recently, so naturally I have been using a significant amount of that time to eat. After serious study, I have come to the conclusion that the best place to eat in central Lima is… drum roll… El Fayke Piurano
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