
Peru is a truly fantastic country. It is rich in minerals, terrain and heritage. It is extremely diverse from city to rural, agriculture, desert, beach front, high Andes Mountains, and Amazon Jungle. The countries Inca civilization was once the strongest pre-Columbian group in South America. The core cities of Lima and Cusco were then dominated by the Spanish Conquests. The government has had turmoil and extortion of and on ever since. But the Inca left there mark in time with their massive stone block buildings and pathways. These were so well engineered that they still stand today. Thousands of tourists flock to Peru to see these marvels every year. Though Peru has abundance of wealth and heritage much of the population is under educated and poverty stricken. Things have improved in resent years but a large amount of the rural families depend on their handcrafts and small crop production for survival. Many live a long hard life to become abandoned in older age.
Peruvians are world renowned for their folk art. The number one product is the exquisite alpaca tapestries. The best are hand woven and loomed. The starting production is sheering the alpaca and wool. Then they dye and spool yarn, afterwards the design and production of the tapestry begins. In the best pieces it can take several people, weeks to create a large hanging. In towns like Pisac women display their goods in the Saturday market. The Pisac market is one of the largest and most famous outdoor artisan markets in the world. Though the market is an awesome sight the general vendor travels a long hard road to get there and makes a very small wage per hour on their products.
Today, the Peruvian gov't of Alan Garcia proclaimed that poverty levels had dropped from 44.5% in 2006 to 39.3% of the population in 2007. This implies that a quite incredible 1.43 million people have escaped from poverty in the space of one year, despite a quickening rate of inflation. This proclamation has been titled as a false report by outside analysts. (According to IKN)