About Peru

Peru's position in west central South America has made it the meeting place of numerous cultures for thousands of years. Bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the west, Chile to the south, Bolivia and Brazil to the east, Colombia and Ecuador to the north, Peru is the natural gateway for tourism and trade on this continent of 300 million people.

With a total land area of 1.28 million sq. km., three and one-half times the size of Japan, Peru is a country of tropical coastline, high sierra and Amazonian jungle. The Andes Mountain Range separates a narrow coastal strip of 70 to 200 kilometers in width from the Amazonian jungle.

Nature has endowed Peru with an enormous variety of climates, landscapes and ecosystems. Eighty four of the world's 103 known ecological zones and 28 different climates are present in Peru, which place it among the 5 countries with the greatest biological diversity in the world. This variation allows Peru to produce the world's largest-grained and most tender corn, the smoothest avocado, the finest cotton fiber and the most refreshing passion fruit juice.

The landscape is punctuated by 50 mountains of 6,000 meters or more above sea level and 1,679 glaciers. There are 12,000 lakes of varying sizes and depths, and 262 different river basins.

Throughout its history Peru has also been the place where different races and cultures met. To the native population were added, first, the Spaniards, then later migrations of Europeans , Asians and Blacks. Today, Peru is inhabited by 23 million descendants of all these races. Half the population is under 21.

Like most of the region, Peru's official languages are Castillian Spanish, inherited through the Spanish Conquest, and Quechua, the language of the Incas. English and other languages are frequently spoken by business executives, or used in the tourist trade.

The country is predominantly Roman Catholic, another legacy of the Colonial period. This has not kept sierra populations, however, from maintaining some Inca rituals and mixing them with Catholic festivals. Jews, Protestants and other religious groups have also established places of worship.