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Peel away the multiple faces of Peru – each face is beautiful, fascinating and different. Whether it is the colonial cities with their history of the Spanish Conquistadors, the lost city of Machu Picchu, the Incan city of Cusco or the 58km bio-reserve with its rare flora and fauna, you will be struck by Peru’s historical, natural and geographical contrasts.

Peru has a very high rate literacy rate – 90.9% which is lot, considering it is a poor country.

Historically Speaking

The rich Inca Empire came to an end when Spainard Francisco Pizarro reached Cajamarca in November 1532. He captured the Inca Atahualpa and that brought about the decline of the Inca Empire. Pizarro founded the coastal city of Lima in 1535. He was assassinated in 1541. The Inca continued to resist Spanish rule but all attempts to overthrow them proved futile. For 200 years the Spaniards ruled fairly peacefully but their exploitation of the Indians led to an uprising in 1780. The Spaniards squashed the Inca Tupac Amaru II. Resentment against the Spanish colonists grew a great deal by the 1800. Revolts became inevitable. Chile and Peru fought over the nitrate rich areas of the Northern Atacama Desert. Most of the coastal areas of southern Peru went to Chile though the area around Tacna was given back to Peru in 1929. Peru waged a war against Ecuador in 1941, the issue being some border dispute. The treaty of Rio de Janerio got Peru the area north of the Rio Maranon. However Ecuador and Peru have been fighting over this border periodically .A peace treaty was signed in 1998 and it is expected to finally bring peace between the two countries

Habitat

This country lies within the tropics. You could divide Peru into three distinctive regions – a narrow coastal belt, the wide Andean Mountains and the Amazon rain forest. The coast in mainly desert – the Andes rise from the coast and go up to heights of 6000m just 100-km inland. The Andes are green – the cloud forest becomes the rain forest of the Amazon Basin. The desert coast doesn’t have too many plants, but marine and bird life is beautiful. The Andean condor (one of the largest flying birds) is seen here. Geese, humming birds, beans, tapirs and jaguars are some of the wildlife that will delight you. In the high country bleak Puna habitats are home for unique plants that can withstand the harshness of the high altitude.