Peru Riffs

As I write this, we are on our second of three flights for today, flying from Cusco to Lima to Quito (current flight) to Guayaquil.  We spent four full days in Peru, and are headed to Ecuador and the Galapagos.

Spending four days in a country immediately makes me an expert on the customs and quirks of a country.  Three days?  Not enough, but four is the tipping point, as you no doubt realize.  So here’s some observations, some pro, some not so pro on Peru.

If any of my fellow travelers read this and have observations to share, please do.  I am likely to add those observations (and credit you), unless I don’t, for which I apologize.

Peruvians are, all in all, exceedingly friendly.  Yes they are happy to see tourists back after/during COVID (“after/during” depends on whether we have another spike), but the Peruvian people we have interacted with have been completely friendly.  More friendly than people who are faking it.  They are proud of their country and want to be sure that visitors are enjoying Peru.

The driving has been fun to watch, except in those moments you think you are about to be run over.  As friendly as they are, it appears they believe that not slowing down for a pedestrian is a sign of affection.  “Don’t worry, I’m not going to hit you, I’m just going to come close.  If I wanted to, I would hit you,” they seem to say in their own way.

There are a lot of dogs in Peru, and I didn’t see many cats.  As a pro-dog/anti-cat (allergies, by way of explanation), I’m fine with that.  Most of the time, the dogs moved through towns on their own, paying no attention to people around them.  They all look well fed and well cared for, so my theory is they are allowed by their owner to roam around all day, provided they follow through on the human-dog compact of be home at a certain time and you’ll be fed.

Not all the dogs were just roaming around.  Some sleep on the sidewalk, I saw a pair get in a fight that seemed like the boss dog didn’t like that the upstart dog was getting too close to an outdoor restaurant that clearly wasn’t his territory.  And, of course, there were the dog encounters that often end up creating more dogs of the mutt variety.  The dogs were not as discrete as most people (notice the use of “most” – I’ve been to Vegas a number of times, and the sights you see are ones you can’t unsee.).

The smoking rate is incredibly low.  I saw three people smoking in the entire four days, and this included significant walking around time in towns as well as in the country.  I looked it up, the last data showed just a 9.6% smoking rate as of 2018, the last data available.

Peruvians really are into coca, but it’s not cocaine.  Don’t drink coca tea if you are going to be drug-tested soon for your job, but it is supposed to help with altitude sickness, as well as providing a burst of energy.  Back in Incan times, they would say “Coca gives you wings,” but they never copyrighted the slogan.

Curious, I bought some coca leaves for chewing in case of problems in Cusco, but I never ended up using the leaves.  They were kind of a insurance policy, but I sure wasn’t going to mess with the potential for a weird reaction before going to, or hiking at, Machu Picchu.