Peru a few observations

Before we leave, I have some observations about Peru.....

• People who we have spoken to seem proud of their Incan heritage, they speak negatively of the Spanish invasion which took the old traditions.
• Marco told us though that those who still speak the Incan language are considered by people in Lima for example to be backward and stupid.
• There is real milk here, there are more cheese varieties and the cheese is tastier.
• Foods are much more spicy, not just including chilies but other spices too. I am enjoying cloves and cinnamon again too.
• The culture seems to be more greatly influenced by the American Indian heritage than the Europeans, unlike Argentina, which I would say takes more cuisine and cultural heritage from Europeans.
• Limes are abundant and absolute pops of flavour.
• It appears the Peruvians understand coffee, people seem to drink real coffee and I have not seen a sign of instant coffee here, where as it appeared to be the sole source of coffee in Chile and Argentina.
• Peruvians we have spoken to are very proud of introducing chocolate to the world, they understand the cocoa beans, production process and history.
• Pisco comes from Peru not Chile and the Peruvians we have spoken to are at pains to remind us of this. Pisco sour is the Peruvian national drink.
• Peruvians appear to be shorter on average than Australians.

• Houses are built using steel reinforced concrete columns, concrete floors and orange clay roof tiles. The spaces between the columns are filled in with red bricks and the whole thing is rendered and painted once finished. But that is just the thing, many are not finished and have exposed red brick and concrete columns jutting out of the final floor or even just steel needles bent and jutting into the sky. Still others have the final floor as just columns, open with a tiled roof on top, these often had washing strung up to dry. As many as 50% of the houses in rural areas we drove through were anticipating another storey. I have included a picture from Ecuador where they use grey bricks instead of red, and corrugated iron instead of tiles....  But same construction techniques.
• In Lima and Cusco drivers beep a lot. I think it is to let other drivers and people know they are there.
• Loos are still the same here (nothing but human waste), but I have not seen any bidets yet whereas they were everywhere in Argentina.