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
With just under 65% of the votes counted, the fight to get into the second round of Peru’s Presidential election is intense. Although Ollanta Humala is clearly in the lead, the second run-off spot is being fiercely contested by Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (aka PPK) and the daughter of the disgraced ex-President, Keiko Fujimori.
The fifth report of the ONPE (Peruvian Election organisation) puts Ollanta on 28.06%, Keiko on 22.48% and PPK on 22.28%, with former president Alejando Toledo trailing on 15.17% and Luis Castañeda on 11.29%. The majority of exit polls had Keiko safely ahead of PPK but the official election reports have so far been much closer, so it’s still possible that those two places could switch around, with huge consequences for Peru.
Put simply: if it is Keiko that makes the second round, and if Ollanta’s brand of nationalist populism isn’t for you, but you quail at the thought of pardoning her father – one of the central planks of her campaign – then who do you vote for? The centre ground (loosely: PPK, Toledo, Castañeda) would have polled between 55-60% of the vote but would not be represented in the second round. For a detailed look at each candidate you can see my previous blog post but safe to say, it looks like I called it totally wrong…
I’ll be blogging throughout the day on this, so stay tuned!
UPDATE: The sixth ONPE report now out has Keiko increasing her lead: 22.685%, to PPK’s 21,662%. With over two-thirds of the votes now counted, this is looking like it’s hers to lose…
UPDATE 2: With over 75% of the votes counted, Keiko is now 2% ahead of PPK and he has admitted defeat. It’s the nightmare scenario, folks… I foresee much hand-wringing in the Peruvian press as we end up with a President who no more than a quarter of the electorate actually wanted…
Tags: fujimori, humala, keiko, kuczynski, peru elections, ppk
Toledo vs Humala in Round 2?
There was a new opinion poll out from IMA today which gave a bit of a twist to the election story this year and prompted me to write my first blog post here on Llama-rama on the always interesting, occasionally baffling and sometimes downright barmy world of Peruvian politics…
Source: IMA Encuesta Marzo 2011
Alejandro Toledo: 23.9%
Ollanta Humala: 21.9%
Keiko Fujimori: 17.6%
Pedro Kuczynski: 16.9%
Luis Castañeda: 13.8%
For those of you who didn’t realise, 2011 is a presidential election year in Peru, and with the current president, Alan Garcia deciding not to stand for re-election (translation: had absolutely zero chance of getting back in (my bad: unable to run – see comments below) it’s been a very open field: more open than in many years, in fact. There are probably five candidates from all over the political spectrum with a genuine possibility of being in the Presidential Palace in June.
The polls in Peru certainly aren’t always that accurate, but this is one of the last ones that will come out before April 3rd (after which no more polls are allowed by law) and it certainly throws up some interesting possibilities for the first round of voting on April 10th.
Why should this interest you? Well, if you’re reading this you’re probably thinking about visiting Peru and this election offers a really good insight into many of the issues that are currently affecting this beautiful, but developing country. Plus, it will give you something to talk to Lima taxi-drivers about 
So here’s your quick cut out n’ keep guide to the runners:
To give you a bit of background – Toledo is the last-but-one president who left office with incredibly low approval ratings but whose reputation has gradually been rebuilt. He came in promising an awful lot and people (particularly the rural poor) expected massive changes which he was never going to be able to deliver. He was the first-ever president to recognisably look like he had Andean heritage rather than coming from the European/Japanese Lima elite. Personally, I always thought he got a rough deal: he managed to steer Peru through some difficult times and many would say his focus on basic infrastructure projects set the country on an increasingly prosperous path; the flip side is that business people never felt he did enough for them, while the poor felt they didn’t see any of the benefits of the growing economy. Without doubt, that’s true but I genuinely felt he was trying to pursue improvements in terms of social justice without venturing into Morales/Chavez territory. Ironically, having been roundly abused by everybody and having disappeared into US academia since 2006, he may now be the only candidate who can attract enough support from all sectors of society to be a successful president…
Is he named after an Inca chieftan who fought against the Incas or the town where the Incas made their last stand against the Spanish? He doesn’t seem that clear and to be honest that sums up his policies: is he a right-wing nationalist or a left-wing populist? Recent remarks about “peruvianizing” the north of Chile and about “treating Chileans like they treat Peruvians” are lowest-common-denominator politics in Peru but play well to his base in the south and central Andes, where he’s seen as standing up to big business (for which read Chile and the US) on behalf of the little guy. Lots of macho talk about “dignity” and “force” without much in the way of details. Hugo Chavez has referred to him as a “good soldier” and he has also shared platforms with President Morales of Bolivia.. If you haven’t guessed yet: I’m not big on the guy. He’s toned things down a little in recent years but to me he just seems like another of the demagogues who crop up in Peru’s political history every few years and I hope he fades away like most of them do… However, 21.9% of Peruvians obviously feel differently…
Keiko Fujimori – 17.6% – Daddy’s girl?
It’s a good one this: her dad (Alberto Fujimori) was the President before Toledo, elected in 1990 and in power for 10 years. He was widely credited with putting an end to the terrorism which had plagued Peru during the 80s and was very popular in much of Peru, particularly in Lima and along the coast. However, huge human rights abuses and corruption allegations led to him being impeached in November 2000 and him fleeing to Japan. He was eventually extradited from Chile and is now in prison in Peru, convicted of murder, corruption, abuse of power and embezzlement. Like all good daughters, Keiko wants the country to pardon her Dad and that – really – is the only issue she is campaigning on. Given what you’ve just read you may be surprised to hear that many Peruvians (well: 17.6%, I guess) aren’t averse to this: it’s hard to underestimate the gratitude which was felt towards Alberto Fujimori for ending the terrorism in the 80s and even today many Peruvians would welcome him back, corruption, murder and all.
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski - 16.9% – The Comeback Gringo
More commonly known as PPK, this Oxford-educated economist is a Peruvian of German extraction but also holds US citizenship – which he has promised to renounce if elected. He has a banking and economics background but advised Toledo during his presidential campaign and served under him in government, firstly as Economics Minister and then as Prime Minister. He’s widely seen as the pro-business candidate because of his background but I’m not actually sure that’s fair: he certainly concentrates on development and jobs but he recognises that this needs to come to the poorest parts of the country to make a difference to people and he’s actually been focussing his campaign on the poorer southern regions, as well as Lima. Has he done enough? Hard to say, but his poll ratings are increasing little by little every month. They’re starting to call him el gringo atrasador which I’ve found surprisingly hard to translate but roughly means ‘the white guy who comes late”. Will it be his party? Well, if he makes it to the second round anything’s possible but I think he may have started from too small a base…
Luis Castañeda – 13.8% – What went wrong?
Five years ago, Castañeda was the coming man in Peruvian politics; a year ago he looked certain to be one of – if not the – frontrunner for the Presidency. And yet, here he is lying in fifth place in the polls. What’s gone wrong? A two-term Mayor of Lima, he’s been hugely popular there (although he upset many by pushing through big infrastructure projects such as the Metropolitano rapid transit system) but just doesn’t seem to have made the transition to the national stage. Is he too Lima? He was always seen as the candidate of choice by the right but has the field this year fractured that? Many on the centre-right have re-evaluated Toledo’s legacy; PPK has strong pro-business credentials; authoritarian and nationalist right-wingers may favour Humala, or even Keiko: maybe that’s a quadruple whammy that’s been too much for Castañeda to take?
We should also remember that this poll as a 4% margin of error, so it’s possible that the candidates are even more evenly-placed than it would appear. Providing no candidate gets more than 50% of the votes (which seems highly unlikely), the drama will be which candidates finish 1st and 2nd: only they will go through to the 2nd round run-off. I think Humala will almost certainly be there, but who will join him? In some ways I’d like it to be PPK but I think Toledo will sneak it and win the 2nd round pretty convincingly. What would be interesting is if Humala doesn’t make it and voters have to choose between PPK/Toledo or perhaps Keiko or Castañeda – this would mean some fairly similar candidates have to set out their policies clearly to differentiate themselves.
Anyway – less than 2 weeks until we find out… If nothing else, it’s really pleasing to see an election being fought on policies and ideals rather than pure mudslinging…
Tags: castañeda, first round, fujimori, humala, keiko, kuczynski, ollanta, peru elections, peru polls, ppk, toledo