Peru and the Peruvians - Part 1

Thanks everyone for their birthday greetings to humble old me. For the ones who sent an SMS, I don´t have reception here, who knows when I will be able to read them :-)

I am finally off towards one of the most impressing sites in South America, the fortress of Kuelap. I actually lost track of the days (on my birthday!) which extended my stay here in Celendín for another day ...

As a request from one of the many (3?) readers, I will start informing you a bit more about what actually happens in Peru and what kind of people these Peruvians are. Beware though that, as always, this precious information is completely objective.

Here goes then ... first: the people

Peruvian people come in all shapes and sizes, although they are mostly a bit on the small side. They tend to range from slim to stocky. The only really fat Peruvians you see are bus drivers. Their hair is almost always black, their eyes dark, and their skin is from ´Spanish white´ to a brown tan only my mom can dream of. I have spent a lot of time in the mountains, where the people tend to be darker (except that albino woman I saw, who kinda stands out here).

Most of the people speak Castellano (calling it Español is a bit of an insult), but the old Inca language of Quechua is still widely spoken in the mountains, as well a a number of smaller indigenous languages.

Peruvians can be a bit reserved but open up when you take the initiative, and then they are friendly, helpful and very polite. They seem to be rather relaxed in what they do, not hasting but not tarrying too much either. They will never hassle you, unless they are shoeshine boys or collectivo/combi managers. Although not directly apparent, the society has quite some macho elements in it. It is always interesting to sit in a restaurant and look at what happens when a ´local patron´ comes in and see what a treatment he gets. And as a man I get more done than a woman (ask Ariane).

You might almost forget it looking at how the people take on life, but Peru is a poor country. When you leave Lima, the slums go on for ever and ever. In the bigger cities old women and especially little kids can be seen begging. I will not give the children anything (or else they will never stop begging), but what do you do when there is still food left on your plate and a dirty and hungry little kid asks you if he or she can finish it ... ?
Thankfully there are projects, both local and foreign, to provide food for these children that are orphans, abandoned, or just send into the street by their parents because they cannot support them. (A link to one in Huaraz, ¨Stichting Wees Kind¨ is in the links section on the right. I met some of the volunteer girls in Hotel Churup)

Appearance is very important here. People are very clean and very conscious of what they wear (it even shows more because the crappy state of the streets and buildings). The fashion all depends on your social group. Most of the indigenous groups wear their own style, while the westernised youth is into jeans and the like. Quite a few of the men like to wear football shirts. School children have to go to school in uniform (which sometimes is a trainign suit).
But they all mingle in the towns which results in quite a colourful ensemble (I could write for a fashion magazine, eh ?)

I will end this with some dos and donts of my Peruvan friends:

• They hardly smoke. I think I have seen four people smoking until now
• In stead they like to do the famous gurgle-spit routine ... brrr (but still better than smoking)
• And they do not cover their mouths when coughing or sneezing. I think I´ll have to send my mum here.
• Any white European, North-American or Australian is called ´Gringo´ or ´Gringa´. Sometimes it has a bit of a negative undertone, but usually it´s harmless. And it´s rather cool because it makes you feel you´re in a spaghetti western (right dad?) !
• And all the school girls want to have a picture taken with you. And some of the just a bit older girls love to give you the ¨eye-smile-wave¨, and today I had some girls whistling at me ... :-D
• The people are hard to bargain with. I do quite a bit of shopping on the markets, but the women there eat me raw (as we say in Holland).
• They can move ... dancing is in the genes, oh yeah. (Yes I have been to a club and embarassingly shown my funky stuff as well ...)
• All older men are called Manuel

Now, I must say I do not know what the people really think of ´us gringos´. The only real insight I got was from a guide on a daytrip around Cajamarca. It was a mixed group (one American girl, five Peruvians and myself) and he did all his talking in Spanish. He knew a lot of the whole Spanish-Inca issue and on the way back told the Peruvians his view on El Mundo Occidental (the western world). He said it all revolved around El Dinero. I was hardly in a position to argue with him with my Spanish, with the standard ¨but we take care of our poor people¨ argument, but I got to think of it afterwards.

The man is right of course. The way ´we´ squeeze all we can out of ´them´ gives them their own perspective on things. And as long we (our businessmen and politicians) play along nicely with all the corruption here, because it preserves the status quo and brings in more money, we´re not really helping either, are we ? Ending corruption and, perhaps even more, ending the power of the catholic church here is the way to a better life for the Peruvians. (And I will stop now, because when I start on politics ...)

More later, and if you want to know anything, please ask me. Don´t forget, Hans knows all ;-)