- That’s no hill…
I don’t know if any of you caught BBC4′s excellent “Lost Cities of the Ancients” series last night, but if you didn’t then I’d hugely recommend watching it on catch-up. This week was focused on the discovery and exploration of the magnificent Valley of the Pyramids in Tucume, and even if you’re reasonably familiar with this area, it had some details that were certainly new to me and some pretty cool reconstructions as well.
Tags: archaeology, chiclayo, tucume
- And they said cycling would keep me fit…
Most cyclists in the UK, whether in London or other cities up and down the country, have plenty of stories about their brushes with disaster, appalling behaviour of motorists, and the various sneaky shortcuts that make cyclists a danger to beloved of pedestrians across the land… But how many of you cycle-lane warriors would fancy tangling with Lima’s traffic on a daily basis? And how many would, quite literally, have the cojones to do it… naked?
Well, move over Gok, ‘cos that’s what around 500 plucky ciclistas did in Lima this Saturday, in the 7th Annual Lima Nude Cycle. To be fair, the route (along Avenida Arequipa from Lince to Miraflores, in case you were wondering) is by no means the worst of Lima’s traffic, and in cycling terms it’s pretty benign, if only because traffic in rush hour is largely stationary, but it does give a good perspective into the problems of cycling in Lima.
If you think provision is bad in the UK, then you want to try Peru! In the whole of the country there is not one cycle lane, and cycling is so unusual that (although there are no figures) I reckon the 500 people taking part on Saturday probably represent about half the total number of regular cyclists in Lima. Outside the capital things aren’t a huge amount better. Although interest in off-road biking is growing, it’s still largely a tourist activity, centred around places like Cusco and the Sacred Valley. Meanwhile, although Peru’s mountain roads offer what should be some fantastic cycling, the standard of driving means cycling is definitely a sport for the brave/confident/well-insured…
Anyway, to get back to the protest, the reason the event is ‘nude’ (in actual fact, most participants are at least semi-clothed) is to highlight the fragility of the human body, and not at all as a publicity stunt. Oh no. You’d be very wrong to think that.
There’s no doubt that Lima could do with a few less cars, however, although the new Metropolitana rapid bus service and the even newer, finally-completed after 20 years, tren electrico (so delayed that the phrase “waiting for the electric train” is now a Peruvian equivalent of “once every blue moon”…) have really changed the face of public transport in the city.
Cycle lanes do have the advantage of being cheap and Lima also offers the advantage for cycling of being fairly flat – at least once you get away from the coast – so perhaps this is an idea whose time has come? The current mayor (Castañeda) would even (almost) benefit from a Boris Bikes-style alliteration but cycling seems so far down the agenda, that it’s difficult to imagine him or any other mayor putting cycling at the top of their transport plans. Another problem is that, as in many countries, cycling is seen as a low-status mode of transport. One of the interviewees on the video below points out that millions of people in China cycle every day, but this does kind of miss the point that as soon as those Chinese people can, they buy a scooter, and then a car: Peru is sadly no different.
There’s some footage of the rally here, just in case anyone in the UK thinks it’s worth following suit. Might be an idea to wait for summer, I reckon…
Tags: castañeda, cycling in peru, lima, protests
Nowhere near Dakar, just for the record...
If motorsports aren’t your thing then you may be wondering what on earth the famous Paris-Dakar rally is doing in Peru. Did they turn left at Morocco and get lost?
Well, this year the race is taking place in Argentina, Chile and Peru in much the same way as the Tour de France sometimes has stages in Spain, England, and so on. It’s almost as if those Frenchies have recognised that everyone’s a bit bored with la belle France, hmm?
Anyway, what’s important is that this is the first time that motorsport’s premier endurance event has taken place in fabulous Peru, and everyone is hugely proud of the recognition. Luckily for the drivers, they won’t have to contend with Lima traffic just yet, as they blast up through Tacna and begin climbing the Andean foothills as they head for the stage finish line in the beautiful White City of Arequipa. After slogging through the Atacama desert there’s no better place in my opinion to unwind and, er… oil your crankshaft, or whatever these nutters do! That sounds ruder than intended, but there we go.
From Arequipa, the next stages involve the drivers heading back to the coast via Nazca and Pisco, before passing through the lovely town of Chincha (home to the best carapulcra in Peru, mmm…) on their way to the podium finish in Lima.
You can follow all the action on @DT_Dakar and I’m sure I’ll manage to post up something on the eventual winners of the different categories as well. Incidentally, I haven’t really had thoughts like these since I played with Lego but these trucks are awesome!
Tags: dakar, dakar 2012, rally
- Hmm… condor eggs, you say?
Ferran Adria, the world-renowned chef and former owner of El Bulli in Barcelona, was in Lima this week as part of a round-the-world trip looking at different world cuisines. We’ve been saying for years that Peruvian cuisine is going to be the next big thing, now that Thai food is in every pub and we’ve got tapas coming out of our ears…
It’s hard for me to even write about Peruvian food without salivating – it’s hands-down the thing I miss most about Peru, more even than the people (sorry guys!) or the scenery. So it’s nice to see such an iconic figure giving Peruvian food the thumbs-up. In an interview with El Comercio he said that he feels Peruvian chefs such as Gaston Acurio (owner of several Lima restaurants such as Astrid y Gaston) are working with “the same spirit” as him, and talked about the excitement and passion he found in Peruvian cuisine.
In fact, he feels that Peru is already an important country in terms of world cuisine (and certainly we’ve noticed it being discussed in specialist circles more and more) but that it really can be one of the top world cuisines. We couldn’t agree more – Che provo, Ferran!
If you’re interested in a culinary tour of Peru, or just some tips for some really special restaurants when we’re there then just let us know. To whet your appetite you can have a look at our guide to food in Peru, or have a look at Sarah Hodge’s excellent blog on restaurants in Lima!
Tags: el bulli, ferran adria, gaston acurio, lima restaurants, peru food
Better hurry up then...
OK, so I started my last post talking about how I wouldn’t usually comment on rumours… but they’re like buses and so here’s another one…
Basically someone at MINCETUR (the Peruvian Ministry of Tourism and Foreign Affairs) is really eating their fish at the moment and all the brain food is paying off with yet more ideas. To be fair, the seafood in Lima is delectable, but just occasionally I wish they’d go for some good old-fashioned English stodge. You know, the kind of pub lunch that means little gets done once you’re back at your desk. That way I’d have fewer panic attacks everytime I read a Peruvian newspaper.
The latest wheeze is to do with the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu (although we’re still waiting for news on exactly how the new tickets for Machu Picchu will work) and may well throw a spanner in the works of lots of people’s Peru holidays…
Every year since (I think) 2001, the Inca Trail has been closed for the whole of February. This is usually the heaviest month in terms of rainfall and so closing the trail prevents erosion of the paths and gives the trail, plants and wildlife a chance to recover. What is now being discussed is closing the Inca trail for not just February but the whole of January and March as well.
Let me say straight out that the environmental impact of the trail is important and could be better managed. In fact, I’m not opposed to closing the trail for three months. Paths are more at risk (as are trekkers themselves) during the rainy season and there’s no question that the environment in close suffers from proximity to the trail. However: this is not a lot of notice – many people will already have booked international flights with the Inca Trail in mind. So if we’re going to do it, can we do it from January 2013, please? And if we’re serious about protecting the trail from erosion, why not cover the whole of the rainy season? Is the trail at any more risk in January than December? And if it’s rubbish that’s the prime concern, why not spend some money on rubbish collection? And improving rubbish disposal at the campsites?
There: and I haven’t even had any fish today!
Tags: inca trail, machu picchu, permits, peru weather
Nice photo? Then off you go.
I’d normally try and steer clear of rumours here on Llama-rama, but seeing as this might be rather important, and seeing as it definitely doesn’t fit in our Peru news section, I thought I’d better write something about it here.
You may have read our news about the new limits on visitors to Machu Picchu, meaning that only 2,000 people a day can now visit the site. I say only – it can feel like quite a lot and in practice this limit is only ever reached during the very peak periods. If you visit in the spring or autumn you’ll have no such worries. As a result, I think some of the talk of crisis has been somewhat overblown – and I’m particularly dis-chuffed about a current proposal to get around the limits.
It relies on the fact that the UNESCO report which has triggered the limits only actually discusses the number of tourists the site can cope with “at any one time”. Can you see the loophole? That’s right – if they make your ticket only valid for half a day, they can get another 2,000 people up there…
I’ve got to be honest: I don’t like this. I think you want a few hours to be able to wander by yourself, as well as the guided tour element of a visit. It’s already an early start to get to Machu Picchu in the morning (in practice if you’re coming by train you’re never at the site before 10am) so how long will you actually get up at the site? Currently the site closes at 5pm so the afternoon ticket would need to begin at a minimum of 1:30 for it to be fair, and even then, two and a half hours isn’t exactly a long time…
Will they have separate tickets for people on the Inca Trail, who may arrive at Machu Picchu at 6am? Or will they have to be out of the site by the time people tip up on the train? I think there are a lot of question marks surrounding this proposal, and I’m not convinced of the need for it in the first place. I know they are talking about putting in a road link, which has the potential to increase the number of visitors but a small increase in the number of visitors, together with the requirement for pre-bought tickets, would surely be enough to cope with this?
As an aside: does Machu Picchu even NEED the UNESCO status? It’s been invaluable in the past for promotional purposes but now that just about everywhere seems to be a World Heritage something-or-other I think it’s really lost some of its cachet but carries an awful lot of strings. Please note that I’m not saying you don’t need to worry about preserving Machu Picchu: you do. But maybe knee-jerk responses to outside agencies aren’t the best way of doing that?
One thing I will say is that if this proposal goes ahead, it’s going to be a good time to be a hotel owner in Aguas Calientes – I can only imagine more people will want to stay overnight and re-visit the next day… Shares in Orient Express, anyone?
Tags: aguas calientes, inca trail, machu picchu, permits
- Clapping through gritted teeth
So the second round is finally over, we have just over 93% of the votes counted and the message is clear: Ollanta Humala will be the new President of Peru by a margin of nearly 3%. So Peru will not be having its first-ever Señora la Presidenta, but it will be having only its second-ever President of indigenous extraction and the first truly left-wing leader in recent history.
Unusually for a Peruvian election, there has been a lot of coverage in the international press this time around, and there’s certainly been more of a balanced reflection than you would have found in Peru’s rather right-leaning media.
The big question is what happens now. Yesterday the Lima stock exchange was suspended after prices fell through the floor minutes after opening, with mineral and manufacturing shares worst hit. But even on the right, many people see that as irrational panic by investors. In any case, most of Peru’s population will remain profoundly unaffected by fluctuations in the stock market, however volatile it becomes: this is, after all, a country where the majority of the population live on less than $3 a day.
Writing in today’s Guardian, Mark Weisbrot sees Humala’s win as a promise to exactly these people and makes some interesting points about Peru’s successes and failures relative to other countries in the region. Certainly I think you have to agree that voting for Keiko Fujimori would have been unconscionable given her failure to repudiate her father’s crimes. And I also agree that the election of Humala is likely to make further South American integration easier, which is likely to be a good thing. However, I think Mark misrepresents some of the facts: he says that “Peru’s traditional elite was defeated – in both the first and second rounds of the election” and sees this as an indictment of previous governments’ failure to deliver on “big initiatives” but as I noted on this blog after the first round, what really happened was that the centre was split among three strong candidates (Toledo, PPK and Castañeda) – both Keiko and Ollanta made it through to the second round with less than a quarter of the total vote. To me, that says that a majority of the population were actually fairly happy with the course steered by the last two Presidents. His quote of Vargas Llosa’s comment about Ollanta’s win ‘saving democracy’ also lacks context: Vargas Llosa previously described the choice between Keiko and Ollanta as a choice “between AIDS and cancer“…
Humala changed his tone during the campaign and distanced himself from Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, aligning himself much more with people like former Brazilian president Lula da Silva. He has made promises not to seek to change the constitution and various economic guarantees. The question now is to what degree this represents a real change in his views and to what degree it was purely politicking. The results from the second round show a very polarised country but with these two candidates that was always the likely outcome. My hope is that Humala seeks to govern with consensus and build on the achievements of the past decade rather than trying to build from scratch. I could quote development statistics and growth rates, just as Mark does in his Guardian piece, but really this is just based on my own experiences of Peru over the past few years. Every time I have gone back you can feel the improvement and see the changes for the better that have occurred. It can be slow: my Peruvian friends don’t always notice it. God knows it’s patchy: parts of Lima feel like California while parts of the Central Andes are some of the poorest places in South America. But it’s been happening. I remember watching Alejandro Toledo’s outgoing speech as President where he listed the roads and bridges, schools and hospitals that had been built during his presidency. After each few examples he said “these are obras concretas“. Literally the phrase means “concrete works”. In this country that I love, there have been real achievements over the past ten years. I really hope these concrete works are just a foundation for the next decade. Viva el Peru!
Seriously... Me and Wills: like that
Every bride has her nerves, and Kate Middleton can be forgiven for having more than most. So it no doubt will come as a huge relief to her that a group of Peruvian shamen have been holding religious ceremonies in Lima to pray for the happy couple…
In scenes I can only describe as bizarre, the four shamen have been stood dressed in full ceremonial gear on Chorillos beach, in front of a giant photo of “our Wills and Kate”,another of Princess Di, a statue of St Anthony and a black skull, shaking maracas and prayer beads and bringing the full force of Mother Nature to bear on proceedings.
“We are doing our bit to make sure there is no divorce, no falling out or accidents, and above all that William and Kate may be blessed by the power of nature”, said Juan Osco, the leader of the group.
He added that although the couple were “surrounded by the envy of many”, they shouldn’t worry and that “they’re going to be fine”.
I don’t know Kate personally, but if anyone could pass this on to her, I’m sure she’ll be mightily relieved to know she has the full spiritual force of the Peruvian nation behind her…
Mitchu What?
Success might have eluded Peru’s football teams on the international stage for the past few years, but that could all change in… say 20-odd years… when a new crop of talented footballers reach their peak. That’s the hope of Santo Cruz, the proud new father of little Messi Cruz, Beckham Cruz and Carty Cruz.
To be fair, Beckham’s own kids suffer under pretty daft names themselves, so maybe the 6 of them will get together in ten years time and curse their parents together. We can probably just all be glad the Beckhams haven’t conceived a child in Peru: although I’d love to see Posh try and spell Machu Picchu Beckham…
The triplets were born in the northern city of Trujillo yesterday, and are doing well, although when they realise what they’ve been called, that could all change… For those who were wondering, ‘Carty’ is a former Peru international and defender for Alianza Lima - my team in Peru, so at least the father’s got some taste… He will no doubt be nervously awaiting the clasico with Universitario this Saturday.
Footage below of the kids and proud (but daft) father:
Ollanta v Keiko: the second round
I’m saving my summing-up until all the votes are counted, but more for sake of completeness than anything else. The results are certainly now clear and the last 5% of votes still to be counted as of lunchtime today are unlikely to affect anything materially. With 95.36% of the votes counted, here are the results from the ONPE:
Ollanta Humala: 31.74%
Keiko Fujimori: 23.50%
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski: 18.52%
Alejandro Toledo: 15.63%
Luis Castañeda: 9.84%
All eyes are now focused on the second round, with both Keiko and Humala looking for support from the defeated candidates. As you’d expect from a Nobel Prize-winner, Mario Vargas Llosa had a memorable description of the second round, which he characterized as “a choice between AIDS and cancer: it’s an academic discussion”.
It’s safe to say that Humala is looking much the more likely winner but then my calling of this election hasn’t been exactly spot on… His prospective vice-presidents (there are two in Peru) have been doing the rounds of the talk shows, playing down comparisons to Chavez and talking a lot about Lula da Silva instead. They still want to change the constitution though…
Anyway, more from me once we are 100% counted…
Tags: election, first round, fujimori, humala, keiko, ollanta