Among the most expensive cities in the world were Luanda, Hong Kong and Zurich. Up till now, Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo ranked the top for Latin America.

In 2015, Lima rose 13 places in the rankings of Most Expensive Cities, acccording to a servey by Mercer and now takes the position number 122 (compared to 134 in 2015).

But on the contrary, on the Latin America list, Lima ranked 10 last year and 12th in 2015. The survey measures the annual cost of living and housing from region to region.

Peru has been nominated by the World Travel Award 2015 for seven categories: Best Adventure Tourism Destination, Best Culinary Destination, Best Green Destination, Best Cultural Destination, and Best Beach Destination, among others in the past Peru has won awards before such as best Culinary Destination of South America and others.

The World Travel Awards 2015 has nominated Peru for 7 awards within the South America category for this year’s event. Peru’s official tourist tourism board has made a post on social media: Get to know the nominations and support with your vote”. (more…)

This week, the Chaccu National 2015 or the Fiesta de la Vicuña will be held in the Pampa Galeras National Reserve, that hosts the biggest population of vicuñas in Peru.

One of the objectives of the festivities is to seek protection and to promote the conservation of the camelid.

Once the vicuñas were used for production of cloths of the elite Incas and they were capture by the ancestaral “Chaccu”, technique: a big group of people would corral the vicunas and storn them to use the fur. Afterwards they were released back in nature. (more…)

Coffee is an important export in Peru. Last year it was worth an amazing US$ 739 million to the country. That number will surely grow as deals such as these take place. The product which is called, ‘Starbucks™ Origin Espresso Peru Cusco’ will be on the shelves in more 2,000 shops throughout Europe.

The coffee is grown in the Quillabamba area in the south of Cusco region. It is made with Arabic beans which are grown at about 1,600 meters above sea level. It was described by the Peruvian Minister of Tourism, Magali Silva, as “…a balanced coffee, with a proper sour taste. (more…)

Thanks to an investment of about 40 million dollar, a new tourist center is planned to be built next to the Inca Citadel Machu Picchu. The plan is already approved by the Cusco Region Council.

The center will articulate the tourist entries throught a schedule and there will also be seeral complementary services, such as a museum, a cafetaria, or a lounge.

At the same time, complimentary road works will be built with the objective to access Machu Picchu through different routes which will lead to a better conservation of Machu Picchu citadel.

867,503 tourists have visited Peru in the first semester of 2015, the mayority of them from Chile, the United States and Ecuador.

Magali Silva, the Peruvian Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourisme, has announced that the amount of foreign arrivals to Peru has increased by 8,4 % compared to 2014.

Especially the number of Chilean travelers has increased. Other Latin American travelers arriving in Peru are Ecuador, come from Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. The United States represente 14% of the arrivals between January and April 2015.

Thanks to a special agreement between Peru’s Sernanp (the National Service of Natural Protected Areas) and Google, images of three Peruvian National Parks have become part of Google Street View since June 5, 2015.

SUNARP allowed Google to capture images of the national areas since 2013. In this first stage, the parks included are the Paracas National Reserva, the Salinas and Aguada Blanca National Reserve (Arequipa) and the Punta Lomitas Reserva. More National Reservas will be included in a second stage. (more…)

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has predicted that the economy of Peru will probably register a growth of 3.6%, while Latin America as a whole will record only 1% growth.

Countries such as Brazil and Argentina are expected to register – 8% and -1% respectively. It’s thanks the number of Peru as well as to Mexico (growth 2,9%) and for instance Colombia (3,3%) that the total number for Latin America is positive. According to the Secretary General of the OECD, Angel Gurria, the Latin American countries are losing strenght and the economic growth is deminishing. (more…)

Tripadvisor has just announced the 2015 winners of the “Travelers’ Choice Landmark in the Word” and the inca citador of Machu Picchu proudly ranks number two on the impressive listing.

The enegmatic city of Machu Picchu “has never revealed all of its mysteries, including the secrets of its construction” according to Tripadvisor. Highlights of a visit to Machu Picchu include the Sacred Plaza with its amazing view across the Urubamba River Valley and the ruined Temple of the Sun. (more…)

The Peruvian capital Lima is expected to win a 2nd consecutive year the recognition of Most Visited City in Latin America.

According to the Global Destination Cities Indexof Mastercard, Peru is expected to reach 4,2 million visitors this year, compared to 3,9 million last year; an increase of 7.7 %!

In 2014 not only Mastercard, but also Euromonitor and Amércia Economía, rewarded the Peruvian capital The Most Visited City in Latin America. Lima finished ahead of other Latin American cities such as Bogota (Colombia) and Buenos Aires (Argentina).

Peru ’s position as largest producer of Potatoes in Latin America has been consolidated, according to the Director of Propapa-ADERS, Celfia Obregon. With 4,69 millions of tons of tubers produced last year, peru is now in the 14th position world wide thanks to, among others, the rescue of inca traditions combined with a modern vision of agriculture.

On the recently organized Festival of Native Potatoes, 12,000 kg of almost 50 varieties of small producers have been shown.
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The pre-columbian peoples of Peru were more diverse than we ever imagined, claims a team of anthropologists from the United States. Their findings come as support for the theory that there was significant variation before Europeans arrived on the scene.

The team of anthropologists studied the skulls of pre-Columbian skeletons searching for small but important differences. These differences help scientists understand where people came from, who their ancestors were in other words, and how these people interacted. (more…)