Organic Food in Lima

Healthy, organic and in all cases tasty. Organic options are growing in availability in the gastronomic capital of the Americas.

June 7, 2010 | Lima City Guide, Peruvian Food

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Video: People of the Mountains, 1940

First presenting the contrast between the republican grandeur of Lima and the Andean stylings of Cusco, this video goes on to follow the day to day live of rural Cusqueños. In the images you will also see Machu Picchu before its restoration, as well as Sacsayhuaman, Ollantaytambo and a Cusco without cars.

June 2, 2010 | Cusco Guide, Film, Modern Peru

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Drug Lords vs. Chocolate: From Coca to Cacao in Peru [Featured]

Chocolate could revolutionise a part of Peru once better known for Tupac Amaru rebels, The Shining Path terrorists, and cocaine. Tapping into a niche market for organic cocoa, some Peruvian farmers have turned away from growing cocaine in favour of cultivating beans for high-end chocolatiers in Europe and the US.

February 8, 2010 | News, Peruvian Food

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The Village of Cura Mori

Cora Mori is a small desert community located twenty miles south of Piura. Maribel’s uncle Manuel and aunt Laura live here. I like to visit because the contrast between Cura Mori and Chiclayo is vast. The only sounds you’ll hear are from the livestock and occasionally children’s voices.

December 19, 2009 | Commentary/Opinion, Lambayeque & Chiclayo Guide

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Rare sheep population rebounds after terrorist massacres

After many years, Junín Sheep, a unique breed from the region of the same name, are finally making their comeback, helping poor Andean farmers earn a living.

August 7, 2009 | News

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Terraces of Moray

Some say Moray was an Inca laboratory used to test how different crops would perform at different temperatures. Others say it was a more of a nursery where crops were bred and cross-bred, varieties created and new foreign crops tested. A third group say it was just an ingenious means to grow warmer climate maíz or corn in the local cold climate. Whoever is right, this archaeological site of concentric circles of terraced farms, forming craters in the landscape, are a fascinating sight to behold.

August 5, 2009 | Archaeology, Cusco Guide

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Maca sunscreen?

The past year has been a great year for Maca. We have discovered among its many properties that the Andean root has a fantastic ability to combat osteoporosis, now there is news that maca may become a key and natural ingredient in modern sunscreens.

Grown above 4 thousands metres of altitude, in a land of extremes – including a strong unrelenting sun – perhaps its little wonder that maca has a strong resistance to high levels of UV light.

March 30, 2009 | News

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Potato Planting in Chinchero [Featured]

VIDEO – In November 2002, I was blessed with being invited to Chinchero to help plant papas. Puma and his family and others all work together to get the job done. The clouds come in with rain and sleet, then they burn some brush to send the clouds and rain away. – crickethanna

October 22, 2008 | Commentary/Opinion

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Farmers strike

It has only been a few months since the last series of violent protests brought the country to a halt. This time, rather than being about teachers having to know how to read and write by law – something they are still complaining violates their human rights, farmers have been protesting, partly about their impending doom brought on by the Peru-USA free trade agreement.

February 20, 2008 | Commentary/Opinion, News

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Peru and Coca

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).

April 19, 2007 | Commentary/Opinion, News

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Alpaca farmers of Peru trying to compete

This article by the BBC shows the measures the poor Peruvian alpaca farmers of the Puno region are taking, with the help of charities and the French government, to compete with rich countries like Australia, New Zealand and the United States. These are just some of the countries who have purchased the Alpaca animals from the region and are using their greater resources and technology to farm better quality wool.

October 23, 2006 | News

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