Pure Peru

PERU | Friday, 11 January 2013 | Views [577] | View Smaller Image

I met this beautiful potato seller at the famed Andahuaylas market in the central Andes, just north of the Sacred Valley. The rich soil allows for the cultivation of many crops, and the land is irrigated by waters flowing down from the higher peaks of the Andes. The market is almost 3 kilometers long, selling everything from second hand clothing to livestock, vegetables and cheap chinese imports. Spices enliven the air and the colours and motion of the place is overwhelming. Farmers from the country, carrying sacks full of hundreds of variety of potatoes (a crop native to Peru), sell their wares on the large concrete pavements set up for stalls, shouting prices and flagging down potential customers. Should you feel the need to escape the chaos, just cross the river to the livestock section, buy yourself a horse and ride off into the sunset.

Tags: market, potato, woman, old, elderly, aged, vibrant, colour, pattern, color

The inscription below this crucifix implores the passerby to venerate this ancient symbol. What is going on in the life of the man who walks by it? Is the book in his hand a bible or a journal? Is he a believer in God? Where is he going, and why does he wear that expression of contentment? What songs play in his ears as he walks the streets of the city? Is it his, or is he one of the many who come to Lima seeking fortune? Despite widespread poverty, pollution and social inequality, the city continues to attract many from the countryside seeking a better life, another passerby in this sprawling metropolis. Another bookcover to a story I'll only have read a line of.

Catholicism, brought by the Spanish Conquistadors, left a deep mark on Peruvian society. The city center of Lima, home to almost a 3rd of Peru's 30 million inhabitants, radiates outwards from the Plaza De Armas, the central square from which all points in Peru are measured. Catholicism played a major role in Peruvian culture and society since conquest and in some respects it's introduction wiped clean thousands of years of knowledge and belief, leading to the death and persecution of many, and as a justification for the Spanish conquest (

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An elderly woman and her daughter sell animal feed at a local market in Jauja, a small town in the central Andean plateau that was once Peru's capital city. Peru is becoming increasingly urbanised as more and more youth move to the big cities to find work as clerks or taxi drivers, leaving the elderly behind to tend to farms.

Likewise, as Peru modernises, farming is becoming more mechanised. As a result, a treasure trove of knowledge about ancient agricultural techniques, as well as many unique cultivars, are slowly being lost. As these elders have no youth to mentor, their knowledge dies with them.

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Pure Peru

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