What is life like in Peru?
The highly advanced Inca empire and ancient city of Machupicchu, with its steep terracing for crops, llamas and alpacas is a frequently seen image of Peru. The reality today is a land of stark contrasts where the mainly Quechua-speaking descendants of the Incas live in extreme poverty with little say in how the country is run. Life is little better for the majority in the city, where migration has led to huge shanty towns without clean water and other amenities. Basically, things are pretty desperate for most people. Cost of living is high and the wages are low. The civil war of the 1980s, between the Maoist Shining Path guerillas and the Peruvian army, led to the death of over 25,000 people, and the displacement of countless others due to violence and atrocities. Martiano Malpica, one of those who had to flee, gives his testimony: “We left our homes because of terrorism. We’ve escaped death. I left in the 1980s with all my relations because my village had terror, fear … At home we had
