okay so you've probably heard of Peru
there's a popular one you know llamas
Machu Picchu ceviche the Incans or you
probably don't see too often it's the
larger scope of what Peru has become in
modern times it's this desert II
Mountain II jungly Asian fused West
Coast business oriented chef of the
Latin world yeah chef no one cooks like
Peruvians and they'll prove it to you
yeah there you go that's my pun for the
episode everyone I'm your host Barb's
geography Jorge Carlos says Peru is a
beggar sitting on a gold bench there's
lots of stuff to deal with yet so many
riches they have and now it's time to
open the treasure map and find the pot
of gold shall we in South America
location matters
everybody wants two things resources and
ocean and if you can have both plus some
really cool straw hats
you're probably gonna do well first of
all the country is located on the west
coast of South America bordered by five
countries the nation is further divided
into 24 departments each with their own
flag and seal the capital and largest
city of the country is Lima which also
acts as its own Department within the
large Lima city limits though lies a
special administrative division and the
smallest one known as the constitutional
province of Keio
this little guy actually holds the
biggest and busiest airport Jorge Chavez
International which even though
technically is not part of Lima is
considered Leamas Airport just a skip
away you can also find the largest and
busiest shipping port the port of Keio
where most major cargo ships dock and
transport traded goods speaking of the
coast down at the bottom of Peru they
have a slight maritime dispute with
Chile which kind of looks like this but
it doesn't really cause too much trouble
just a few fishing vessels might have a
skirmish or two peru doesn't really have
many islands off its coast however the
largest one is actually not too far off
from Lima San Lorenzo Islands which is
actually closed off to the public and
controlled by the Peruvian Navy after
Lima though the second largest city is
arequipa down south and a bit inland
which holds the third busiest airport
Rodriguez biown International and then
through Hyo makes up the third largest
city further up north along the coast
you might be wondering what's the second
busiest airport well due to high numbers
of tourists flocking in to see the
ancient Incan sites like Machu Picchu
it's actually Cusco Alejandro Velasco
estate the international airport
otherwise about 86% of the population
lives either within the coast or
mountains and only about 10% in the
rainforest to the east
this means that the road network is
built accordingly and many of the
secluded areas inland like Iquitos the
capital of the Loretto department have
no Land Transport and they are only
accessible by air travel or
painstakingly long river boat journey
and that's the funny thing
Peru is incredibly lush and green on the
interior but most people prefer to live
in the dry desert eCos s that's good
though I mean less people means less
deforestation for what it's worth though
there's another way can look at Peru
historically Peru was the epicenter of
the Incan Empire which had quite a wide
network of roadways about twenty five
thousand miles long that connected the
entire domain that extended all the way
from Ecuador to Argentina spanning about
a hundred and seventy seven thousand
square miles these paths followed the
Andes mostly and were built in a unique
system that allowed porters called
Chucky's to literally run and relay
items or information or messages to
other tchotchkes from coast to mountain
along the way they would sometimes take
pit stops at small houses known as
tombos that provided shelter and food to
rest soon the next choice Keys would
have to keep running and fulfill the
delivery this Porter system could
sometimes cover over 150 miles a day all
without a single wheeled vehicle or even
horse the wheel had never even been
invented at this time and the only
animal of burden was the llama which
could not carry adult humans let alone
run with them yet a wealthy or royal
family living in Cusco could still have
fresh fish caught from the ocean
delivered to them all within two days
not bad yeah literally just people
running on foot it worked somehow and
speaking of Cusco Peru has quite a lot
of cool places to check out in case if
you decide to visit twelve of which are
UNESCO heritage sites yeah yeah we've
all heard about most of the cusco and
machu picchu stuff and these other ones
that have too many tourists however in
addition there are these lesser known
but equally fascinating sites
this one's you're kind of supposed to
pronounce it like sexy woman socks a
woman there's also so many famous
cathedrals and museums like these
there's also the Lake Titicaca floating
village shared with Bolivia the Sky
Lodge adventure Suites
the last Incan grass bridge saltpans of
Madras Rinconada
which claims to be the highest city in
the world there's even a statue
dedicated to Paddington Bear and the
giant hat building in Saladin and
there's so many natural wonders in Peru
as well for crying out loud they have a
rainbow mountain the world's tallest
sand dune third tallest waterfall in the
world the largest left-handed wave in
the world and a boiling River we're
getting ahead of ourselves
stuff
that belongs in the next section the
first clean water the rest animals
resources or whatever with your powers
combined I am captain Perot and you guys
remain that show nineties kids no yeah
whatever first of all the country sits
right at the Ring of Fire at the
convergence of the Nazca plate under the
South America plate this convergence is
essentially how the Andes Mountains were
formed the second-tallest range on earth
after the Himalayas in addition it
creates the Peru Chile Trench just off
the coast which also makes the country
pretty susceptible to earthquakes and
some volcanic activity the nation is
generally divided into three physical
zones the Costa Sierra and Selva the
coast is mostly dry and desert like with
arid vegetation in fact the driest
desert in the world the atacama hugs the
southernmost tip of peru the next part
the mountains or Sierra takes up about
30 percent of the land and of course is
made up of the highest parts of
elevation including the tallest peak of
the nation Mount huascaran with its two
majestic peaks just to skip south you
find the largest lake not only in Peru
but all of South America the highest
navigable lake in the world Lake
Titicaca shared with Bolivia it is also
in this region that the longest river
not only improved but also all of South
America begins the famous Amazon which
branches out into thousands of other
tributaries and streams but surveyors
claim that the source of the Amazon are
the headwaters of the Montero River
which is sourced at Lake winning or
Chincha kocha the last physical region
the Selva or rainforest makes up about
60% of Peru's land makeup and is
sparsely populated and filled with all
that lush green humid tropical forest
stuff that you can imagine as we
explained in the Chile episode a long
time ago the reason why the country is
like this is essentially because of the
rain shadow effect the winds carrying
moisture are trapped in by the mountain
ranges leaving all the leftover dry air
to blow out westward on the other side
parching the land and leaving it to form
a depleted arid landscape in contrast to
the adjacent region oh and one more
thing the warm waters off the coast are
also the source of El Nino the crazy
weather pattern in the Pacific that
causes all the tropical storms and
whatnot and with that being said it's
time for my triple shot espresso break
which means now it's time for Noah to
finish off this segment with the
physical composition of Peru all in a
day's work
as mentioned Peru is home to a
wide range of flora fauna and overall
physical contrast they are classified as
a mega diverse nation with nearly 6,000
endemic species they have about 1800
bird species including the largest
flying bird in the world that giant
andean condor in addition there's also
500 species of man will including the
national animal the llama and about 300
species of reptiles and over 15,000
plant species including the Puyo raya
Maundy the world's tallest flowering
plant
and speaking of plants the potato
originated here in Peru and they come in
over 4,000 different varieties colors
and shapes Peru is world's largest
quinoa and maca producer they also
produce the world's most expensive
coffee
kawauti dung coffee which is made from
the partially fermented coffee beans
that pass through the digestive system
of a kawauti wait so you're saying this
whole time my espresso breaks could have
been quality poop coffee breaks I want
that how much is it well once a limited
supply of beans are harvested and
produced I mean come on
Kylie's only poops so much Megan so for
up to 1,400 dollars per kilogram worth
it
otherwise resources have always been a
key player in Peru's economy
specifically in the mineral mining
industry they are the world's sixth
largest gold producer in which in itself
makes up over a fifth of their exports
service sector jobs have greatly
increased especially in the transport
category largest company in Peru is
actually Aero condor and finally time to
bring this segment to a close like we
always do food in Latin world Peru is a
culinary powerhouse often some of the
top ranking restaurants in the world are
found in Peru like central or mido some
top modal dishes that you guys suggest
we mentioned include things like Lomo
saltado arroz con Pato
anticuchos rocoto relleno aji de Gallina
alpaca and llama meat lucuma and Calma
Calma fruits Papa Sala Juan keine
and the national dishes ceviche most of
you may have heard of this in a
lesser-known Qui
which is roasted guinea pig yep guinea
pigs that's also a native animal you
know what else is native the people
which brings us to thank you Noah this
great poop coffee when you think of
proving people you think Poncho's pan
flutes and those hats they wear
yeah there are some people like that in
the country but that's only one fraction
Peru is pretty much like all the other
nations in the Americas it has a story
rooted in both native and foreign fusion
today Peru much like its cuisine has a
little bit of everything blended into it
but never compromising the foundation of
where everything got started and it's
gotten pretty asian first of all the
country has about 33 million
and is the fourth most populous nation
in South America coming up with the
exact numbers for ethnic breakup is a
little tricky because not all the census
data seems to match up exactly however
according to CIA World Factbook the
highest percentage of the largest group
mestizos numbers at about 60% and the
Amerindian community population is
supposedly at around 25%
however some estimates I've encountered
claimed as high as around 46% so the
exact number may vary
either way the largest groups of this
category are Quechua and Aymara around
6% of the population are white around 4%
are black a little around 3% are Asian
mostly Japanese and Chinese and the
remainder are unspecified groups at
around 2% and here's the weird thing
though according to certain studies it
is speculated that historical
intermarriage is between Asians and
locals dating back to the mid 19th
century means that somewhere around 10
to 20% of the entire population could
have East Asian roots down their lineage
at some point if this were true it would
make Peru potentially the most Asian of
all the countries not just in Latin
America but all the Americas yeah I told
you those Asians left their mark for
sure mostly the Japanese I mean after
Brazil they have the largest Japanese
diaspora in the world and even one of
their presidents was Japanese it didn't
go so well for him but hey it shows how
far the Japanese have come in Peru
anyway they use the Peruvian soul as
their currency they use the type A and B
plug outlets and they drive on the right
side of the road now back to people
groups the country kind of has like
three official languages of course
Spanish and then there's Quechua and
finally Aymara which is actually more
spoken in Bolivia in the shortest way to
put it the Quechua and Aymara are
basically the largest groups of modern
descendants of the ancient Incan peoples
most of them live in the high mountains
of the Andes which means their bodies
from a young age have actually ECLA
mated to the rather intense conditions
of thin air and cold
the average Kichwa and iMod a person has
a slower heart rate a third larger lung
capacity and more blood volume dude
they're kind of like superhuman kind of
yeah by force from birth I guess kind of
yeah
cool forced superpowers if it'll help
you remember that fact then fine any per
who the indigenous although a vital part
of the Peruvian identity are only one
part of the puzzle though there's so
much to discuss with the people and with
that here's random Hannah with culture
stuff
today with generations of multicultural
backgrounds the population of Peru is
very different from how it started
centuries ago yet they never lost their
roots as mentioned historically the
Incans created an entire complex society
of millions all without the advantages
that were used in Western societies
according to Atlas obscura the Incans
never invented the wheel never figured
out the arch and never discovered iron
but they were masters of fiber
everything from ships armor slings and
bridges were made of fiber one way or
another they even had a system of
communication with knotted fibers called
keep OU's otherwise today traditions
still live on in the indigenous
communities for one Quechua women that
are married often wear various types of
woven hats where our single women wear
knitted hats catholicism of course plays
a huge role as well somewhere around 3/4
of the country claim to be affiliated to
it Catholicism in Peru though has a high
degree of synchronism for example many
herders from the countryside still pay
tribute to Pachamama or Mother Earth
from many of these peoples traditional
belief systems and themselves are still
practiced even apart from Catholic
fusion in fact Peru has the second
highest number of shamans after India
and now we're going to do a list of some
cultural stuff but to help me we're
gonna bring out in oh alright we're back
at it you know what to do yep oh they're
so cute
in addition festivals in Peru are world
renowned and famous for their intense
colorful displays festivals like
capicola which is a sort of rite of
passage for boys there's also the
scissor dance that's on teh day to hit
us the festivals of the Sun MT at I mean
Holy Week is a huge deal and probably
the most colorful and famous one the La
Candelaria festival held in February in
the end though no matter what part of
Peru they're from everyone knows the
song contigo Peru it's practically a
second anthem for them it can literally
stop fights the festivals are of course
riddled with so much food colors and
music which of course brings us to
Keith's absolutely terrible horrible
music segment
use a copper guano Oh Parowan Oh when
you think of music in Peru immediately
most people just think pan flutes pan
flutes and pan flutes pan flutes are a
huge part of their musical culture but
there's a ton of other traditional
instruments one of the most commonly
used ones is the charango chair chair
and on go okay which looks like a
ukulele but has a different structure
and sound otherwise apart from the
traditional sounds over time music and
peru evolved into something very special
the many people groups all came together
infuse their influences in each region
kind of has its own specialty for
example you have Creole music mostly
along the coast which has lots of
influence from the afro-peruvian
community they use the Cajon a lot Peru
was one of the leading founders of
exotic cumbia which uses traditional
Amazonian rhythms with Spanish melodies
everyone knows that song el condor pasa
simon and garfunkel even didn't cover of
it and that's about it remember by Keith
shirt at geography now calm cuz this
shirt is the thank you Keith yes maestro
to geography I'll come now there's a lot
of other things we could have mentioned
like often when drinking beer they leave
a little left in the glass and then pour
it on the soil to give back to mother
earth there's those long skulls at the
Paracas which are brought up a lot in
alien conspiracy theories but
anthropologists say that people would
just kind of push their babies skulls in
between long boards to make that shape
for aesthetic reasons symbolizing
nobility they do have a long history of
political strife I mean the past five
presidents are either dead or in jail
and finally almost every Peruvian has
told me we hate senorita Laura don't
mention her she's a national disgrace
and she was exiled she's Mexico's
problem now yeah thanks Peru in any case
now it's time to do the incredibly
condensed history section in the
quickest way I can put it pre incan
civilizations Incas conquistadors come
in they fight the Incas I'm out of the
second rebellion Viceroyalty years under
Spain Wars of Independence for all of
Latin America San Martin versus Bolivar
quano era
Ramon Castillo abolished slavery War of
the Pacific foundation of a PRA first
military dictatorship democratic
elections second military dictatorship
agrarian revolution democratic elections
support to Argentina during Falklands
War terrorism and economic crisis war
with Ecuador the four suyus march
pan-american games in Lima and here we
are today and now it's time for the
extremely condensed notable peep
section some people you guys the
Peruvian geography suggested we
mentioned in this episode include so
many soccer / football players but this
one is probably the most famous war
heroes like these people tupac amaru the
second patch akuti atahualpa these two
Saints Juan Diego Flores Susana Baca
ever Ione Chaput qug Ronda the whole
women's volleyball team that won the
silver medal in the Olympics in Seoul
Edwin Vasquez Sophia Milanovic and Hwa
piccolo Gladys Tejeda
in s malkor Valentina Shevchenko Ricardo
Palma Cesar Vallejo Maria Vargas Llosa
Claudia OSA and Daniel peridot all right
and that's just about it and now we will
talk about Peru's relations with the
outside world shall we
in the Latin world Peru is like that
neighbor that everyone wants to visit
when they are having a barbecue like
when Peru starts cooking suddenly
cousins you didn't even know you were
technically related to start popping up
it's like what the Cape Baird really I
mean you're invited but dang it's been a
while you don't even speak Spanish for
one they generally get along with all
their South American cousins Colombia
Venezuela and Ecuador like the fun
cousins Brazil is like the business
cousin and Chile is like their biggest
frenemy you know because of the war of
the Pacific but they still get along
with Chile and love to visit geography
Nikolas says all the best restaurants in
Chile are Peruvian and the best stores
in Peru are chilean they both argue
about the drink pisco sour being their
national drinks but otherwise they moved
on and do well together China and Japan
are of course their best Asian friends
China is actually the biggest trading
partner in both imports and exports and
the ties go all the way back to the
1800s when the Chinese migrants to the
new world began through cheap labor
workers after slavery was abolished in
2009 they signed a free trade agreement
and today approves the largest Chinese
community in Latin America relations
with Japan however go even earlier
during the Manila galleon years in which
ships would transfer peoples and goods
back and forth from the Americas to the
largest Asian Spanish colony the
Philippines Japan often got involved and
eventually was exposed to Peru
since then heads of state have
constantly visited bilateral agreements
signed many Japanese companies operate
hubs in Peru and that you are always
close in terms of their best friends
however most Peruvians I have talked to
have said depending on who you ask it
would probably be Argentina and Bolivia
even though they don't border Argentina
they've always kind of kept an eye on
each other business is always usually
good and proved totally supported
Argentina in the Falklands slash
Malvinas war they are part of numerous
organizations like the Latin Union the
Union of South American nation
and so on culturally though Bolivia
seems to tie in better with the
indigenous community as both countries
have high populations of Quechua and
Aymara groups at one point they were
even joined together under a
confederation for three years back in
the 19th century
Bolivia shares the same Incan blood as
they were both historical centers of the
famous Empire prior to Spanish rule they
will forever be Mountain brothers in
conclusion Peru has gone from an empire
that thrived on foot speed fibers and
festivals and now it's fusion finance
and food take a seat and enjoy the
barbecue because Peru serves up quite a
dish stay tuned the Philippines is
coming up next
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