Faces of Peru
For those of you who missed my last post, I have just got back from an amazing weekend in Lima. It was a great weekend in many ways – the food was seriously good, I met some very knowledgeable (and nice) people and I played my small part in representing Rio as one of Latin America’s great cities.
After a weekend so densely packed with goodness, I hope you’ll forgive me if there is a distinctly Peruvian flavour to the next few posts – as someone who has been living in Rio for more than 3 years, I found the contrasts fascinating.
One of the most striking differences I noticed was in the faces of the people I met. The Mistura festival had brought together farmers and producers from all over Peru and I found myself marvelling at their wonderful faces. Here is a selection of my favourites.
[I’ve put these into a Lightbox series, so just click on the first image to get started]
This is an olive farmer from Tacna, a region in southern Peru very close to the Chilean border.
Another farmer from the south of Peru.
What a great guy! This man was squeezing out lime juice for one of the busiest ceviche stalls.
This woman was part of a cacau growing collective that attempts to teach farmers who to process the cacau into high quality chocolate and thus reap more profit from their crop.
A coffee grower from Amazonian region of northern Peru.
Typical Andean woman.
Another great face and another great hat.
A potato farmer from central Peru.
Fun fact: Peru has over 4,000 different varieties of potato.
A few years back I did some trekking in the Colca Canyon (southern Peru) and quite a few of the woman wore clothes like this.
So those were a few of my favourite shots of the people of rural Peru. But seeing as this is Eat Rio and not Eat Lima, I’ll finish off with on of my favourite Brazilian faces.
Back in Brazil: I spotted this guy at carnival a few years ago, playing the Cuíca, a quintessentially Brazilian instrument.
Wow. Looks amazing. Ive never been to Peru but there are many in Madrid and im always amazed at the variety of dishes they have between the coast,mountains and jungle. As with Brazil its on my travel list.
Yes, the variety and range of both dishes and ingredients is really impressive – 4 thousand varieties of potato – seriously! And after Rio, everything felt super-cheap :) I was in Peru a few years back, but this was my first visit to Lima – it seems like it sits under a continual blanket of grey but they tell me it hardly ever rains – pretty much the exact opposite of Rio! All in all I was really impressed and will definitely be going back.
Perú seems to have it all. Beautiful landscapes, millennium cultures, rich food, costumes, indigenous arts and from my Panini stickers as a kid some of the best haircuts/barnets from Spain 82. On a serious note it’s a must-do in Latin America. I just finished a travel book called ‘Andes’ and the author raved about the many Perus.
Many faces, true; but isn´t it funny that when it comes to coffee growers the Amazonian one you featured looks pretty much like a coffee grower from Minas Gerais, or São Paulo, or México, or Argentina, Arizona, Nevada, and so on. I reckon that if they ever manage to grow coffee in Japan, Sweden, or Venus the local doing it will somehow resemble a stern looking olive skinned gentleman that probably drives both workers and family crazy.
Coffee growers: send your letters to Tom (and your coffee to me).
Ha ha! He could easily be from any of those countries/regions couldn’t he? Looks like he takes his business pretty seriously and I can vouch that it shows in his excellent coffee.