Peru - or the other Bolivia

Peru is like Bolivia in 50 years from now... or maybe even a 100, but still about 50 years behind Argentina, which in itself is probably 50 years behind Italy... in short, it has more malls, pubs, vegeterian restaurants and cellular phones per capita. still rice and potatoes but much more edible. better coffee. more exotic fruits. toilets that flush. more paved roads. but everything is 2 times the price... and the tourist is not an alien from auter space anymore. in fact it seems to be a national sport to hunt "gringos" - a collective name for everyone who`s not from the continent.



In Peru i went to see the Colca Cañon. It´s a canyon with villages located on both sides of it and a wild river running at the bottom. What i found fascinating, more than the landscape, or the fact that a whole plate of fresh trout with rice costs less than a small bottle of mineral water (which one is cheap and which one is expensive decide for yourself) - i was amazed that the villages that were on the other side of the canyon, meaning on the other side from the town that was connected to the rest of the world by roads and public transport, to get there you had to walk, sometimes for 5 hours, using no other mechanical vehicals than a mule, and not just walk, but climb up and down superbly steep hills, in superb heat. but the locals seemed to not care - by the age of 10 they were already fit enough to do that path in 3 hours instead of 5, wearing only sandals and sometimes carrying heavy loads, and sometimes being really old, but still walking faster than us, and always drinking coca-cola...