Peru

Relief, rivers, lakes and climate from Peru:

Peru has a complex relief with a narrow ribbon at the ocean side representing the country’s only arable land. Going to the east the Andes massif is ascending with some peaks over 4.850 m height. Then the third region is a part of the Amazonian basin covered with equatorial forest. Two of the Amazon’s main influents, the Ucayali and Maranon rivers have their springs in the Peruvian Sierra which contribute to the Amazon’s great debit.

One of the most important lakes in the world, Titicaca is the only navigable lake situated at an elevation more than 3.800 m height which has a surface of 8.300 km². The Peruvian climate is tropical but it varies a lot according to the elevation and relief forms. If the rainfall is low in the central and western part of Peru, in jungle the situation is not similar because the rainfall is impressive and the humidity at a high level. However the snow is permanent on the highest peaks of the Andes and the temperature varies between -7 and 21º C according to the elevation.

Name and population:

The name of Peru comes from a great leader called Biru who lived in the Gulf of Saint Miguel and Spanish people named the country after his name. The first inhabitants of the country were the Nazca, Chimu or Chavin civilizations, but the most important population were the Inca people who had their capital at Cuzco. Nowadays, the historical vestiges of Inca Empire are visited by more than 1 million tourists annually. (Find more journeys on blog.worldlifetimejourneys.com) More than a third of the population is a mix between the Europeans and indigenous populations, but the majority of it are Peruvians, descendants of Quechua and Aymara populations. The capital and the largest city and port is Lima, a blowing metropolis.

Industries, resources and other aspects about Peru:

The main industries for the inhabitants are the petroleum and natural gas industries and also the extraction of the metallic resources. The Peruvians have important resources of silver, plumb and copper and the few arable lands are cultivated with corn, sugar cane, rice and potatoes. The country was frequently affected by the meteorological phenomenon El Nino which brought massive flooding and landslides destroying the harvests. Besides this problem, the country has political problems but also conflicts with its neighbors especially with Chile. The country has many Spanish influences in music, gastronomy, culture, sport and others. Visit Peru!

Impressive ancient city of Machu Picchu in Peru