Peru Fact File
Country name: Republic of Peru
Area: Total: 1,285,220 sq km
Terrain: Western coastal plain, high and rugged Andes in centre, eastern lowland jungle of Amazon Basin
Population: 28 million
Age structure: 0-14 years: 30%, 15-64 years: 64%, 65 years and over: 6%
Life expectancy at birth: 70 years
Ethnic groups: Amerindian 45%, mestizo (mixed Amerindian and white) 37%, white 15%, other 3%
Religions: Roman Catholic 81%, Seventh Day Adventist 1.4%, other Christian 0.7%, other 0.6%, unspecified or none 16.3%
Literacy: Male: 93.5%, Female: 82.1%
Capital: Lima
Languages: Spanish (official), Quechua (official), Aymara, and a large number of minor Amazonian languages
Government type: Constitutional republic
Major International airports: Lima & Cusco
Currency: Nuevo sol (10 Soles = US$3)
Climate
Peru varies from tropical in the east, dry desert in the west and temperate to frigid in the Andes. Cusco is at an altitude of 3300 metres (10,800 feet) in the Andes and volunteers should be aware that some could be affected by altitude sickness.
Cusco is sunny and warm during the day but cold at night, with a main temperature of 15°C (59°F) the temperature drops at night in winter (June to September) to around 6°C (43°F) . The rainy season is from November to March, however, it usually rains for only a couple of hours during the day.
Cusco facts
Cusco is the tourist capital of Peru due to the magnificent lost city of Machu Picchu. This means that the town has many bars, restaurants, ATMs, internet cafes and hotels catering to foreigners needs. Cusco blends pre Inca, Inca and colonial architecture. Massive Inca built walls line the streets and even form the foundations for the newer colonial buildings. The centre of town revolves around a magnificent plaza which was once flanked by Inca palaces, the palaces have since been replaced by impressive Cathedrals and Churches. Taking a walk around the cobbled streets you will hear Quechua speaking descendants of the Incas still wearing their traditional costumes.
The area around the central plaza provides many restaurants, shops, bars and a lively night life. Cusco provides for all tastes, with worldwide cuisine from Thai, Mexican, Indian, Japanese, Italian as well as menus catering to western tastes.
Cusco has plenty of markets, stores and street vendors selling souvenirs, textiles, clothes, food, appliances and just about anything you will need.
Emergency services - there are many heath clinics with doctors and pharmacies around the town for minor ailments. There are also a few hospitals which provide a decent level of emergency care.
Police - Cusco has a dedicated tourist police service for visiting foreigners.
Embassies - All international embassies are located in the capital Lima.
Cusco town
A guide to local expenses.
The official currency in Peru is the Nuevo Sole.
9 Soles = US$3 = UK£1.50
local transport:
Bus = 1 Sole for a half hour journey.
Taxi = 2.5 Soles for a journey up to 10 minutes.
Food:
Meal at market = Less than 3 Soles
Meal in restaurant = From 5 Soles to 20Soles
Keeping in touch:
Internet cafes = less than 2 Soles per hour for fast connection.
Telephone calls = approximately 1 Sole per minute to Western countries. If you are spending a long time in Peru then many people bring their own mobile cellular phone and purchase a sim card locally for around US$5 making text messages a very affordable and versatile option for communicating.
The post office is located near the centre of town.
Money:
ATM, there are plenty of ATM's in town.
Travellers cheques are also a good option in Peru.
Money transfer facilities are also available in town.
Laundry:
Laundry services are all over town and charge approximately 3 Soles per kilo.
Getting to Cusco
There is an international airport 15 minutes from the centre of town. Most flights arrive and depart in the morning due to variable climatic conditions in the afternoon. Lima is a short one hour flight away and is the usual route to Cusco for international travellers. There are many bus routes to Cusco both domestic and international.
Visas - On arrival in Peru, the immigration official will stamp your passport with a free 30, 60, 90 or 180 day visa (this is entirely at the officials discretion). If you require an extension of your visa whilst in Cusco then you can visit the immigration office and pay for the time you wish to stay over your original visa.
Another extension option is to take a timely trip to Lake Titicaca and cross the Bolivian border, re enter Peru the following day for a new free visa.
Machu Picchu
The ruins of Machu Picchu, rediscovered in 1911 by archaeologist Hiram Bingham, are one of the most beautiful and enigmatic ancient sites in the world. The Inca turned the site into a small (5 square miles) but extraordinary city. Invisible from below and completely self-contained, surrounded by agricultural terraces sufficient to feed the population, and watered by natural springs.
Two thousand feet above the rumbling Urubamba river, the cloud shrouded ruins have palaces, baths, temples, storage rooms and some 150 houses, all in a remarkable state of preservation. These structures, carved from the gray granite of the mountain top are wonders of both architectural and aesthetic genius. Many of the building blocks weigh 50 tons or more yet are so precisely sculpted and fitted together with such exactitude that the mortarless joints will not permit the insertion of even a thin knife blade.
Machu Picchu, which means "manly or old peak" was most likely a royal estate and religious retreat. It was built between 1460 and 1470 AD at an altitude of 2,500 metres (8,000 feet), and is high above the river canyon cloud forest.
About 1,200 people lived in and around Machu Picchu, most of them women, children, and priests. The buildings are thought to have been planned and built under the supervision of professional Inca architects.
Trips, Tours, Treks and Spanish classes
Globalteer can assist with your extra activities by putting volunteers in contact with trusted agencies and Spanish schools.
Below is a list of things that you can arrange to do before, during and after your volunteering period:
Pre-departure travel advice and arrangements.
Airport pickups and drop offs in Lima.
Transfers and transport of all types.
Lima tours.
Arequipa and the Colca Canyon.
Puno and Lake Titicaca.
Visits to Machu Picchu on the train.
Sacred Valley and sacred sites.
Amazon Jungle trips to Manu and Tambopata.
Northern Peru and the central mountains.
Beach holidays.
Additional accommodation all over Peru and into Bolivia.
Visits to the Ballestas Islands, Ica and the Nazca Lines.
Trekking to Machu Picchu, Inca Trail and other routes.
Adventure sports, bungee, rafting, paragliding, mountain biking etc.
A brief history of Peru
The first inhabitants of Peru were nomadic hunter-gatherers who lived in caves in Peru's coastal regions. The oldest site, Pikimachay cave, dates from 12,000 BC. Crops such as cotton, beans, squash and peppers were planted around 4000 BC; later, advanced cultures such as the Chavín introduced weaving, agriculture and religion to the country. Around 300 BC, the Chavín inexplicably disappeared, but over the centuries several other cultures - including the Salinar, Nazca, Paracas Necropolis and Wari (Huari) - became locally important. By the early 15th century, the Inca empire had control of much of the area, extending its influence from Ecuador to Chile.
Between 1526-28, the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro explored Peru's coastal regions and drawn by the riches of the Inca empire, returned to Spain to raise money and recruit men for another expedition to the country. Return he did, marching into Cajamarca, in northern Peru before capturing, ransoming and executing the Inca emperor Atahualpa in 1533. Pizarro subsequently founded the city of Lima in 1535 but was assassinated six years later. The rebellion of the last Inca leader, Manco Inca, ended ingloriously with his beheading in 1572.
The next 200 years proved peaceful, with Lima becoming the major political, social and commercial centre of the Andean nations. However, the exploitation of Indians by their colonial masters led to an uprising in 1780 under the self-styled Inca Tupac Amaru II. The rebellion was short-lived and most of the leaders were rounded up and executed. Peru continued to remain loyal to Spain until 1824, when the country was liberated by the Venezuelan Simón Bolívar and the Argentinean José de San Martín. In 1866, Peru won a brief war with Spain but was humiliated by Chile in the War of the Pacific (1879-83), which resulted in the loss of lucrative nitrate fields in the northern Atacama Desert. Peru also went to war with Ecuador over a border dispute in 1941. The 1942 treaty of Rio de Janeiro ceded the area north of the Río Marañón to Peru but the decision was fiercely contested by Ecuador.
Cuban-inspired guerrilla uprisings in 1965 led by the National Liberation Army were unsuccessful, but a series of nationwide strikes coupled with a violent insurgency by the Maoist Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) guerrillas caused political instability in the 1980s. Another guerrilla group - the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) - also gained in strength during this time. However, the 1990 presidential election victory of Alberto Fujimori (erroneously known as El Chino because of his Japanese parentage) over Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, and the capture in 1992 of inspirational MRTA and Sendero Luminoso leaders buoyed hopes for a sustained period of peace.
The main threat to domestic stability remains unemployment and poverty, despite Peru's fast-growing economy. Fujimori was re-elected in April 1995, comprehensively beating former UN secretary general Javier Perez de Cuellar. A treaty was signed with Ecuador in 1998, peacefully resolving a contentious 57-year-old border dispute, paving the way for increased foreign investment in both countries. In November 1999, Peru and Chile settled their last long-standing territorial dispute over the important trade bottleneck of Arica.
The world watched the April 2000 elections intently as Alejandro Toledo, an Andean Indian from a poor family who became a World Bank economist, gave two-time President Alberto Fujimori the election run of his life. One week before the country headed to the polls for a second time, Toledo filed a formal letter with the National Election Board to further call attention to election corruption, a move that brought a response from the Organization of American States (OAS). It announced that the National Election Office needed more time to correct 'deficiencies' in the voting process. Toledo instructed his followers to write 'No To Fraud' across their ballots and ultimately withdrew from the runoff.
Fujimori emerged victorious in that controversial and rigged election. However, he resigned from his third presidential term in November 2000 and fled to Japan following charges of human rights violations and corruption that were made against his intelligence adviser, Vladimiro Montesinos.
A caretaker government presided over by Valentín Paniagua took on the responsibility of conducting new presidential and congressional elections. The elections were held in April 2001; observers considered them to be free and fair.
In 2001, the centrist Alejandro Toledo was elected president with 53% of the vote, narrowly defeating former president Alan García. His rags-to-riches story and mixed Indian and Latino heritage made him popular among the poor. Inheriting a country racked by economic troubles and corruption, Toledo did little, however, to restore confidence in the government. Early in his presidency, he gave himself a significant pay raise while at the same time calling for economic austerity.
In June 2002, a popular revolt took place in the cities of Arequipa and Tacna and in other areas of southern Peru after the sale of two state-run electricity firms to a Belgian company, Tractebel. Toledo had specifically promised during his campaign not to sell these firms. Opinion polls at the time indicated that more than 60% of Peruvians were adamantly opposed to privatization and foreign investment, which in the past had led to price increases, mass layoffs, corruption, and few discernible benefits for the populace. A series of scandals and political missteps between 2003 and 2005 caused Toledo's approval ratings to plummet, at one point as low as 8%.
In the first round of presidential elections in April 2006, voters chose a former army officer, Ollanta Humala, from among 20 candidates. But in the second round in June, former president Alan García, whose 1985–1990 administration left Peru in economic ruin, made a startling comeback, winning with 52.6% of the votes. Election analysts have suggested that voters felt Humala, a former military leader who had once led a coup, was unpredictable and capable of eroding Peru's democracy, and that García, despite his proven economic incompetence and a reputation for corruption, was the marginally better bet.
In August 2007, an 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck 95 miles southeast of Lima, killing at least 430 people and levelling churches and homes. In September 2007, Chile's Supreme Court approved the extradition of former president Alberto Fujimori to Peru, where he will face charges of corruption and human rights abuses. He had been in Chile since 2005, when he was detained after stopping there on his way from exile in Japan back to Peru. He had reportedly planned to attempt to make a political comeback.
On October 10, 2008, García's entire cabinet was forced to resign over an oil corruption scandal. On Oct. 11, 2008, in an attempt to regain popularity, President García appointed a leftist regional governor, Yehude Simon, as his prime minister—a move that shocked many.
Further Resources
There are many guide books written for travellers to Peru:
“Lonely Planet“, “The Rough Guide“, “Footprints” and “Lets Go” are amongst the most popular.
“Lost City of the Incas”
by Hiram Bingham , Hugh Thomson - A special illustrated edition of Hiram Bingham's classic work captures all the magnificence and mystery of the amazing sites he uncovered. In the earliest days of the 20th century, Bingham ventured into the wild and then unknown country of the Eastern Peruvian Andes. In 1911, he came upon the fabulous Inca city that ultimately made him famous: Machu Picchu.
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