All about Peru
By Hannah Annas
Buenos dias
The official language in Peru is spanish. Other common languages spoken include Quechua and Aymara. Buenos dias, buenas tardes, and buenas noches are different ways to greet people in different times of the day. When you greet someone in Peru you should always be very respectful especially if you are speaking to an elder or a person of authority. When formally greeting someone you should slip in a handshake or a quick kiss on the right cheek.
Currency, population, and education
If you went to Peru and got your U.S dollars converted they would give you 1 nuero sol for every 30 cents you had. The population of Peru is about 29,849,303 people. They have an education system pretty close to ours. They have public and private schools. Primary school starts in the 1st grade and goes up to the 6th. Secondary school goes from 7th to 12th grade. In Peru after you have 3,000 study hours in college for a certain subject you are considered a technician in that major.
Government
Peru has a constitutional republic type of government. The current President of Peru, Ollanta Hurnala (2011-2016), and the one hundred thirty members of Peru's congress are elected every five years by a universal, secret and direct vote.
Popular Foods
Cuy (guinea pig)
Cuy is a very popular type of food in Peru. It is usually grilled and served whole.
Alpaca
Alpaca and alpaca jerky is another popular food in Peru.
Lucama
Lucama is a popular desert item in Peru. It has been said that it tastes like maple syrup.
Weather
Summer in Peru lasts from December to February.
Winter lasts from July to September.
The best time to visit would be during the spring and summer.
What is there to do?
In Peru there are plenty of things to see and do. They have many tourists attractions including mountains, beaches, deserts,and mountains. Some popular mountains are the Ancash and the Huanuco mountain. They also have some very popular rivers to see including The Amazon, Marañón, and the Huallaga river.
Chan Chan
The city of Chan Chan in Peru was once the largest city in pre-Columbian America. It is estimated that around 60,000 people lived in the city. The city was built by the Chimu around 850 AD and lasted until its conquest by the Inca Empire in 1470 AD. Although Chan Chan must have been an amazing sight at the time, devastating floods and heavy rainfall have severely eroded the mud walls of the city. Today the most impressive aspect of the site is its sheer size.
Machu Picchu
One of the most beautiful and impressive ancient sites in the world. Machu Picchu is number one among the top tourist attractions in Peru. The “Lost City of the Incas” is invisible from the Urubamba Valley below and completely self-contained, surrounded by agricultural terraces and watered by natural springs. Although known locally, Machu Picchu was largely unknown to the outside world before being rediscovered in 1911 by historian Hiram.
Mountains
Ancash
6,768 meters above sea level
Huanuco
over 6,000 meters tall
Hunadoy
6,395 meters
Rivers
Amazon
The Amazon River in South America is the largest river by discharge of water in the world, averaging a discharge of about 209,000 cubic meters per second.
Marañón
The Marañón River is the principal or mainstem source of the Amazon River, arising about 160 km to the northeast of Lima, Peru, and flowing through a deeply eroded Andean valley.
Huallaga
The Huallaga River is a tributary of the Marañón River, part of the Amazon Basin. Old names for this river include Guallaga and Rio de los Motilones.
Beaches and deserts
The extremely dry northern desert coast is graced by Peru's finest long, sandy beaches, but for decades their inaccessibility kept them poorly developed and the secret of pioneering locals, land travelers on their way down from Ecuador, and surfers drawn to the Pacific Ocean's extraordinary swells and breaks.
Rain forests
The Peruvian Amazon (Spanish: Amazonía del Perú) is the area of the Amazon rainforest included within the country of Peru, from east of the Andes to the borders with Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil and Bolivia.