FACTS ABOUT PERU

AMAZING FACTS ABOUT PERU

1.                 Lima is the capital city of Peru.

2.                 The total population of Peru is 30,741,062.

3.                 The natives of Peru are called Peruvians.

4.                 The Nuevo sol (PEN) is official currency of Peru.

5.                 Peru shares a border with Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador.

6.                 For someone who loves ocean surfing, you will be impressed to learn that Peru is the best surfing location in the world. With a 1.5 mile long tidal wave that you can surf, be sure to hit its coastlines and surf the wave.

7.                 The government of Peru banned prisoners from using chili sauce in 1973 claiming that it increased their sexual arousal.

8.                 If you think that soccer riots are only common in the UK then think twice. A soccer match between Peru and Argentina in 1964 is recorded as being the worst in soccer history. 500 people were injured, and more than 300 lost their lives.

9.                 It is said that the word Peru was a product of mispronunciation of the word “pelu” that means a river.

10.            In 2013, the United Nations declared Peru as the largest producer of cocaine in the world, with over US$1 billion in revenues and employing over 200,000 people.

11.            Peru is ranked as the sixth largest producer of gold. Remember, this is not in the Americas, but the world. Peru produced 150 metric tons of gold in 2016.

12.            Peru has its fair share of oldest things; this time around, it is not about the oldest university. The sacred city of Caral-Supe is said to the oldest residence of our ancestors as human beings in the Americas, and it is over 5,000 years old.

13.            Talk about accounting and record keeping. The Incas of Peru had one of the most complex record keeping methods ever to exist. Because they did not know how to write or read, they used to tie knots on a rope that varied in size and color. Each knot was unique and thus represented the number of items recorded.

14.            Their national dance is an amazing thing to see. The dance known as the coquettish marinera is choreographed to mimic the mating ritual of birds.

15.            The world has a population of 10 million Alpacas, but more than 3.5 million of them are found in Peru.

16.            Ever asked yourself where John Wayne met his third wife. Well, wonder no more. Wayne met her on the edge of a Peruvian jungle where he was on a set in 1952.

17.            From the longest tidal wave to the highest dune, is there anything massive that does not exist in Peru? Located in the Sechura Desert, Cerro Blanco is the highest dune in the world standing at 1,176 meters tall.

18.            Ever wondered where potatoes came from, wonder no more. It is said that the Spaniards in 1562 brought this precious commodity from Peru to Europe.

19.            You think that the Grand Canyon is deep. Then you are in for a shock. Peru’s Cotahuasi Canyon is the second deepest Canyon in the world after Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, Tibet, China. It is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon.

20.            In honor of Spanish settlers who were forced to eat cats the first time they arrived in Peru, a festival by the name of La Festival del Gastronómico del Gato is held each year where 100 cats are barbecued. But if you are a cat lover worry not for a judge banned this practice.

21.            By the way, about the yellow underpants for a New Year’s Eve present, it is given to a person for good luck.

22.            For someone into living and eating healthy, you will love Peru. Camu-Camu fruit which freely grows in Peru is a healthy alternative for oranges with the highest concentration of vitamin C compared to none other food.

23.            If you love eating fish, you will love Peru, with the second largest fish catch in the world every year, Peru is a fish lover’s paradise.

24.            Ancient Peruvians used corn for currency.

25.            Peru produces more than 55 varieties of corn in a wild range of colors.

26.            And do you want to drink a lot of coffee? Move to Peru. Being the eleventh largest producers of coffee in the world in 2011, you will love Peru.

27.            Another addition to the list of interesting facts about Peru is looking at the Nazca Lines from the sky. The Nazca line consists of geoglyphs that have the impression of gigantic humans, plant, and animals like creatures. These impressions are so great that they have been named to be among the greatest archeological mysteries in the world.

28.            Have you ever wanted to see so many birds in one place? Well, Peru is the place to be. With a world record for 650 birds seen at one place, this is a bird lover’s paradise.

29.            There is no need for a freezer and dryer as the ancient Peruvians already devised a way to do that, and it is still in use today. This method is used to freeze dry potatoes by leaving them to be frozen by frost at night then drying them in the sun during the day.

30.            Hiram Bingham discovered the ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu in 1911.

31.            The word jerky, which is lean meat, was originally the Quechua word Charqui.

32.            The highest growing tree that also has a copper-colored bark that is consistently peeling grows in Peru.

33.            Ever wondered why the climatic condition El Niño was named that way? Well, it was named this way because it hits Peru during Christmas and thus, they decided to name it after baby Jesus (El Niño Jesus).

34.            For thousands of year, ancient Peruvians used the coca plant which cocaine comes from for medicinal use and during religious occasions.

35.            Another interesting fact is that Peruvians love bullfighting. It is said that is was introduced by Spaniards in 1538.

36.            Another fact related to bullfighting in Peru is that the bull-fighting ring that stands in Lima was built in 1768 thus being the third oldest ring globally.

37.            The ancient Peruvian Empire of Inca was ones the largest empire in the Americas.

38.            The world’s tallest flowering plant–Eucalyptus–is found in Peru.

39.            If bird droppings are an issue to you, you would have survived Peru. There was a period in the 1800s when these droppings were among Peru’s greatest exports to Europe to be used as fertilizer.

40.            Peru has some of the driest deserts in the world. For instance, the Atacama Desert which it shares with Chile has some points that have never seen rainfall in 400 years.

41.            The Peruvians had invented nearly all weaving techniques used today by 2,500 B.C.

42.            There is plenty of asparagus in Peru, so much that it was the world’s leading exporter in 2012.

43.            You will be surprised to learn that some Peruvian tribes used wines know as yagé administered by a shaman to promote healing and knowledge. The wine has hallucinogenic properties.

44.            Another addition to the interesting facts about Peru culture is trial marriage. This type of marriage exists in the Quechua tribe whereby men and women are allowed to marry freely and end their marriages whenever they like.

45.            A person is given one poncho (an outer garment designed to keep the body warm) to last a lifetime. This may be because one poncho takes up to 600 hours to complete.

46.            One of the many interesting facts about Peru for kids is that it contains the largest portion of the Amazon Desert.

47.            If you think that shamanism (a shaman is a healer who moves into an altered state of consciousness to access a hidden reality in the spirit world for purposes of bringing back healing, power, and information) is an old thing, then think twice. It is still used in Peru to date. This may be because most of the population cannot afford modern doctors, and it is not a bad thing as the country’s former President, Fernando Belaúnde Terry, employed a shaman to treat them.

48.            For the Peruvian tribe of Inca, the sign that two people are married was not an exchange of rings but of sandals.

49.            Peru Exports: copper, gold, lead, zinc, tin, iron ore, molybdenum, silver; crude petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas; coffee, asparagus and other vegetables, fruit, apparel and textiles, fishmeal, fish, chemicals, fabricated metal products and machinery and alloys.

50.            Peru Imports: petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, plastics, machinery, vehicles, TV sets, power shovels, front-end loaders, telephones and telecommunication equipment, iron and steel, wheat, corn, soybean products, paper, cotton, vaccines and medicines.

51.            The internet country code for Peru is .pe.