Peru - A Slightly Embittered Review

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Crossing the border to Bolivia with scenic views of Lake Titicaca had me contemplating Peru. Though on the whole my time there was fantastic, incidents over the last days had left me with something of a bad taste in my mouth for the country as a whole. I decided to try break the country down and put my finger on what it was but to be honest, my main issue was fairly easy to work out.

The People

I am loathe to ever make a blanket assessment of the national attitude because in any and every situation you need to take a person on their individual merits. But when you’re travelling most exchanges take place over a couple of seconds, so the impression you get of that person is made fairly quickly. And eventually, when a series of these situations work out in a similar fashion, you can’t help but start to develop your own picture of the national attitude. So here’s mine:
50%!o(MISSING)f the people of Peru were smiling, friendly, happy to help and expected nothing in return save a word of “grazias”. The other 50%!h(MISSING)ad a chip on their shoulder the size of Wayna Picchu. I’ll admit my Spanish is almost nonexistent and that turning up to a foreign country with very little of the language automatically puts you on the back foot (if a Peruvian came to Australia and expected me to speak to them in Spanish I’d tell them very swiftly where to go). Nevertheless, I always made the effort with what little Spanish I had and the first word I learnt after arriving in Peru was “Perdon” (pardon or sorry). So whilst I will chalk a degree of it up to me not knowing the language, I think it’s fair to say that more of the rude and dismissive ways I was treated was due to a widely held resentment of foreigners. I was treated more courteously by the French the last time I was there. Maybe it’s due to an automatic assumption I was an American (which, due mainly to their intrusive foreign policy with the war on drugs, is a crime in itself in many parts of South America) or just because I was a rich white person. Whatever it was, copping shoulders on the streets or being totally ignored whilst standing at a counter were occurrences I stopped being accepting of and started to get genuinely pissed off about.
What was odd was that a large portion of the rude populace I encountered were people whose livelihood depended on tourism. The apathy shown to a foreigner making a simple enquiry or asking for help at restaurants, bus companies and bars was staggering.
Whilst football is said to be the national sport, the true national pastime is work. The service, or lack thereof, in almost any given store, bar, travel agency or what-have-you bordered on the comical. Whilst it could be said that just about the whole population took it easy at work, this meant one of two things. Either that you were there to be treated as a friend and your company enjoyed whilst the person worked or that you were a pain in the arse getting in the way of their good time.
A perfect example of both was when the Boss and I split up to go to two different travel agencies to compare prices on a bus from Puno to Copacabana. I walked in to the agency to discover an older woman, the only person working in the agency, quite literally asleep at her desk. “Hola,” I ventured. She awoke and straight away, with a smile on her face, replied “hola!” She filled me in on prices and gave me all the information I required.
I walked out the front to meet the Boss. “Well we’re not booking with them,” she said. The two women who had served her had been clearly annoyed at having to deal with her and gave her the price in as dismissive a fashion as possible. The two prices were the same. No prizes for which agency we booked with.
As I said, 50%!o(MISSING)f the population were only too happy to help. But in a country where so much of the economy is based on tourism, the other 50%!h(MISSING)arbouring a deep-seeded resentment of tourists is a baffling prospect.

Money

It’s South America, so the first thing you need to know is that your money is going to go a long way. On average the Boss and I were spending around US$45 a day between us. This was getting us three square meals, a private ensuite, a couple of drinks and tickets to whatever touristy things we were getting up to. Though bartering is accepted, it’s usually not necessary - particularly when for the sake of 30c to you, the person you’re bartering with is looking at 10% of their daily income.
The times we were determined to barter were with cabbies. When getting off at a bus station or airport the cabby knows that you have no idea about the area and so will overcharge you. As a general rule when getting a cab to town from any given port of arrival, the price is about 2/3 what the cabby will ask for.
Forged money is all too common in Peru (although I only ever met one guy who had been duped with a fake s/20) and so almost all notes used to pay will be scrutinised by the attendant who accepts it. They hold it up, check it for a few seconds before taking it as tender.
Far more frustrating than being held up for a few seconds whilst someone checks the validity of your bank note is the way that US currency is treated. Many places all over Peru will accept US notes as currency, generally giving you the exchange rate of 2.8 soles to the dollar. What they won’t accept is anything less than a crisp new note. Having come from Hawaii where US currency is accepted as legal tender virtually no matter what, I was surprised when my US$10 note was not accepted at the first hostel I stayed in due to a small tear in the centre of it. This wasn’t a huge chunk of the note missing, just a small rip from seven years of being in circulation. I soon discovered that this wasn’t just my hostel being petty. At some point, someone in Peru decided that they were not going to take any US currency that had been so much as folded in a wallet and the trend stuck. A torn Peruvian sole is fine. A torn US dollar is not.
Most ATMs will charge a fee for using them. The only bank we dealt with that didn’t was Scotiabank. Globalnet are the most common ATMs around the country and charge s/10 per transaction, which they warn you about before the transaction takes place. Others are sneaky and won’t tell you about the transaction fee until you have gone ahead with the transaction and it is merely stated on your print out. You generally won’t get stung for more than s/10 but s/15 isn’t unheard of (even if it is ridiculous).

Food and Drink

Food in Peru was adequate. For a small amount of money you could fill your stomach but it wouldn’t necessarily tantalise the taste buds. The best value meal you will get is a set menu which is, in theory, a three course meal but generally “pastre” (dessert) is a choice of tea or coffee. The first courses is usually “sopa” (soup) which means a watery broth with noodles and bits of meat or veg, depending on what you order, or crema, which is the cream of any given veg - usually mushroom, tomato or asparagus. Your main meal will then be a choice of pasta, chicken or steak (both served on rice).
“Chifa” or Chinese food is easy to come across, good value and surprisingly tasty, although this is obviously subject to the restaurant. The Chifa in Huaraz was fresh and delicious, the Chifa in Puno wasn’t so great.
What catches you out about food is that, even though it’s cheap, it can be the thing you spend most of your money on in a day because so few hostels have kitchens. So you end up eating out two or three meals a day and there’s nothing worse than realizing at the end of the day (as we did frequently) that you’ve spent s/30 on accommodation and s/100 on food. Bread rolls were a money saver. Fresh rolls were around 4 for s/1, an avocado from a street vendor was never more than s/3 and cheese and a tomato were dirt cheap too. Rocket science, I know, but it was delicious and cheap and could get two people through two meals for less than s/5.
As for local cuisine, the two most common typical South American dishes are cui and alpaca. Cui is guinea pig and is surprisingly expensive, meaning that we haven’t tried it yet. Despite growing up with dozens of guinea pigs running around our backyard, I have every intention of trying cui, even if the name of the food is the sound a guinea pig makes (it’s pronounced Kwee). Alpaca we did try and both found it to be delicious. It’s a slightly salty meat but otherwise I guess you would compare it to steak. It’s quite tough, which leads me to think that alpaca is the kangaroo of South America - a cheap meat that gets marked up in restaurants to sucker tourists.
Drinking was outrageously cheap. Most places did a happy hour that would, as most happy hours do, last four to five hours. Generally it meant two for one drinks, but some did three and even four (as we found out in Arequipa) for one. Buying a bottle of vodka or rum in a club was the best value for money if you were in a group. Although that’s debatable because they free pour at all bars, so the idea of twenty drinks to a bottle doesn’t really apply. Far and away the smartest way to drink was to do it before getting to the club since you could get that same bottle of vodka you’re charged s/100 in the club at a market for s/10.
The beer was beer. I have previously made mention of my belief that when drinking a cheap lager they’re all pretty well the same thing. The beer we drank the most of was a brand called Cusqueña. Most areas had their own variation on that familiar theme, such as Arequipeña in Arequipa. Overall they were easy drinking and usually around s/10 for a 620 ml bottle, although in some smaller towns s/10 would get you a 1.1 litre bottle.
What was odd was how few and far between good coffees were. Isn’t Peru right next to Columbia, the coffee bean capital of the world? Come to think of it, didn’t I see farmers growing coffee beans in the country? I can only assume that the best stuff gets exported and what’s left stays at home. The most common cup of coffee was a cup of hot water with a brown syrup in a bottle put on your table. You added the coffee syrup to your liking and dealt with the taste. Starbucks became my refuge for a reasonable Americano (long black) because you knew they were at least using beans. I learnt early on that cappuccino isn’t an option (they have it, you don’t want it) and, since almost all milk in South America is UHT (I haven’t seen fresh milk since Hawaii) I’ve taken to drinking black.
An honourable mention must be made of Yajuu (pronounced Yahoo, and appropriately logoed) juice bar in Cusco. Though their fresh juice was delicious - to be fair, all fresh juice is delicious in Peru and usually costs less than s/3 - they served me the worst coffee I’ve ever had. I was surprised and optimistic when, rather than a cup of hot water and brown syrup, they went to a coffee dispenser and pumped what looked to be hot fresh coffee in to a cup. Then they took that cup and put it in the microwave for two minutes. “Azucar o leche?” (sugar or milk) I was asked. I replied no to both. They put both in. Then they sticky taped a plastic top on to the paper cup and put a straw in it. I had a laugh, tried it and threw it away.

Overall

Well that’s about it for my assessment of Peru. I’m fairly certain that I’ve been overly critical and negative and would like to point out that a good meal, good service and friendly “Holas” in the street don’t make for good stories. So whilst I may sound down on the country, I would merely ask you to re-read my blog posts. Because I had an amazing time in Peru and have truly loved my time there.

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Photos

Me and Walter
Legend Peruano

Angry lady in square
Your livelihood depends on tourists. Maybe a smile wouldn't go astray?

Church in Plaza
Yanque

Colca Canyon
With free plug for WakeUp! Sydney Central

Elections
Local elections were held whilst we were in Peru. This was a car plugging a candidate in Cuzco.

Small town
Middle of nowhere

Election poster
I knew Apu wasn't that kind of Indian

Coca fields
Walter and Sarah from our MaPi trip

Alpaca (or is it a Llama)
The boss has a particular fascination with these things.

Touristy hot pools
Near Chivay

Comments

[Aussies por el mundo]

how you learn.....
graCias, pOstre, cuY