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Background: Ancient Peru was the seat of several prominent Andean civilizations, most notably that of the Incas whose empire was captured by the Spanish conquistadors in 1533. Peruvian independence was declared in 1821, and remaining Spanish forces defeated in 1824. After a dozen years of military rule, Peru returned to democratic leadership in 1980, but experienced economic problems and the growth of a violent insurgency. President Alberto FUJIMORI's election in 1990 ushered in a decade that saw a dramatic turnaround in the economy and significant progress in curtailing guerrilla activity. Nevertheless, the president's increasing reliance on authoritarian measures and an economic slump in the late 1990s generated mounting dissatisfaction with his regime. FUJIMORI won reelection to a third term in the spring of 2000, but international pressure and corruption scandals led to his ouster by Congress in November of that year. A caretaker government oversaw new elections in the spring of 2001, which ushered in Alejandro TOLEDO as the new head of government; his presidency has been hampered by allegations of corruption.

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By Eric from Boulder
July 14th 2008

Arequipa: ...really... Juanita?

South America » Peru » Arequipa » Arequipa

Uno mas por esta noche! After dining on a cup of coffee at my 10:00 dinner tonight, I have found myself incapable of containing my blogging. Damn that stuff is strong down here. It´s good, because my blog needs catching up. We got on our bus from Copacabana with only 4 people. It was only 75 bs! (less than 10$). We met a nice couple. The guy was from brazil a week or so earlier, and had his bag stolen from some elaborate scheme involving a fat man blocking his view from the overhead storage dept on the bus. This included [View Full Entry]

By Doug and Bec
July 12th 2008

Flight of the condors

South America » Peru » Arequipa » Colca Canyon

Morning in Chivay
This was our view as we waited for our transport to the condor lookout.

Blogger Bec Early, crack of dawn, sparrow´s start this morning for a long bus ride to the depths of Colca Canyon to see the famed Andean condors - filthy ugly yet majestic creatures found only in the Canyon. The ride to the condor lookout was spectacular. Incan terraces lined the cliffs and tiny villages dotted the countryside. The sun was out, not a cloud in the sky. Many of us were still a little shaky from the very high altitude but we were compos mentus enough to take in the scenery. I think the photos speak for themselves but suffice [View Full Entry]

By Doug and Bec
July 11th 2008

My head is a bit sore...

South America » Peru » Arequipa » Chivay

Barren landscape
Pretty amazing, but depressing at the same time.

Blogger Bec This morning we drove from Arequipa to the amazing Colca Canyon - a beautiful drive spoiled a little by our REAL dose of altitude sickness. About 15 minutes into our 6 hour journey, we stopped at a shop to buy some coca leaves - a natural remedy to alievate the symptoms of altitude sickness. They taste horrible (like a wheatgrass shot only stronger and without the OJ chaser!) and you have to bundle them up with a piece of soft ash in order to digest the juices properly. The leaves kickstart your saliva glands, making your mouth water. [View Full Entry]

By clairemw
July 10th 2008

Haku

South America » Peru » Arequipa

Right now i'm tired. the bags under my eyes have deepened to a new level, and sometimes when i see myself in the mirror I wince a little because it's so obvious that i need sleep... lots of sleep. Lately my dreams have been filled with faces, of people far away but close in my heart. i wake up and feel as if I've just visited a friend, and for a moment they are right next to me. It usually take a few moments for it to sink in that they are thousands of miles away, and that I haven't seen [View Full Entry]

By Doug and Bec
July 10th 2008

Monastaries and mummies

South America » Peru » Arequipa » Arequipa

National pride
Peruvian flags are appearing everywhere in preparation for their indepedence day, July 28th.

Arequipa is a lovely town in the middle of Peru at a fairly high altitude (about 2,500m above sea level) which meant we had our first taste of travel at high altitute. At that point, we just felt a little more tired than usual and had a wee headache, fixed by drinking lots of water. Unless we had read up on it, we would have just put the symptoms down to general travel tiredness. We had two major sights on our itinerary for Arequipa - the Santa Catalina monastery and the mummified remains of adolescent girl, Juanita - a sacrificial offering [View Full Entry]

By Shalea
July 9th 2008

The Sweet Life of Shalea in Arequipa

South America » Peru » Arequipa » Arequipa

.5 kilo of olives for less than $2.00
I think I might be in heaven!!!

Pretty much the best decision I´ve made in a long time is to stay put in one place for awhile during my summer travels. I love traveling (obviously or I wouldn´t do it so much) but sometimes being on the move just really wears me out. Which is why staying here in Arequipa for over half my trip this year was a brilliant move. So let´s talk about Arequipa. So far I love it. It´s the second biggest city in Peru and yet it just doesn´t feel that way. It´s kind of surprising how much more you can learn about a [View Full Entry]

By jamesinperu
July 9th 2008

stuck in a box

South America » Peru » Arequipa » Arequipa

hola todos como estas? me ... bien gracias so i have finished my two weeks at chacani school, what an amazing experience. quite sad to leave, so many great kids and great people we were working with, will deffinanatly be back one day. two nights ago there was a big earthquake, 6 on the rictor scale, the bigest one here for 5 years. i woke up at 4.15am with my bed jumping up and down, scary stuff, it went on for 1.20 mins, luckyly no injurys have been reported. so we were supposed to leave yesterday evening with our friend sarah [View Full Entry]

By MadeleineB
July 9th 2008

Back again

South America » Peru » Arequipa » Arequipa

Santa Catalina
the monestery

Hello again all! I´ve been told that I´m leaving this too long so here I am! I´ll make it a long one! Ok so my news...I´ll start with the 1st of July. It was the oldest girl at the orphanages birthday. She is Sonya, the tia who takes care of the babies, daughter so she´s not actually an orphan but shes a really great kid. She turned 10. They really do birtdays big for the kids which is sweet. They dress up the room, buy a big cake and all the kids get dressed up. It was a really great day. [View Full Entry]

By trevskii
July 8th 2008

A Condor Moment

South America » Peru » Arequipa » Colca Canyon

Looking Healthy at over 4900m ASL

Having arrived in Arequipa ( a nice change to be only 2300m ASL), it was straight off on a tour to the Colca Canyon - now believed to be the deepest canyon in the world. We drove out across the mountains, passing various sights on our way to a small town called Chivay which would be our base for the next couple of days. The hostel that I was staying in had some interesting residents - I had a herd of sheep for company outside my room! We spent a couple of hours in some hot springs just outside Chivay, which [View Full Entry]

A Glacier with a strange bloke standing in front

Traditional Peruvian Moneymaking Touristy thing

By rachy and jakey
July 7th 2008

Arequipa, phew!

South America » Peru » Arequipa » Arequipa

Plaza de Armas

Jake: Firstly, sincere apologies for the long delay between blogs. We are currently a long way from Arequipa but were moving a long way in a very short space of time! Here´s the first of a series of updates: Having literally run like screaming little school girls away from the family in the last blog we arrived via night-bus at the whitewashed city of Arequipa. The relief from altitude was comparable to recovering from a bad cold; when you have it, its all you can think about, but when you don´t your vanished plight loses all significance. So, having forgotten all [View Full Entry]

Travel Blog » South America » Peru » Arequipa