Hi there,
Today I am going to summarize the good and the bad of the country by points:
The good
- People
In general, I fell in love with Peruvians for their education from day one. They are friendly and always willing to help you. In addition, I got the impression that there is social and cultural work to generate a change in mentality for people to stop throwing garbage and polluting the environment.
- Accommodation and hospitality
In Lima we found the cheapest accommodation in our history as digital nomads. In addition to being the cheapest, in general, the hosts knew hospitality, which is rare to find on Airbnb.
As we are digital nomads, we need accommodation with a work area for two, good kitchen equipment, good quality furniture, etc. After doing a lot of research, we only found accommodations that fit our needs in Lima.
If I compare with what we saw in Colombia and in Playa del Carmen, the buildings in Peru are of better quality.
For the rest of the country and especially for places where it is cold, I recommend that you stay only in hotels.
- Security
Peru in general seemed like a safe country. You can walk anywhere at any time. We were in humble areas, and we didn’t feel insecure either. In addition, police are always patrolling.
- Food
The food in Peru is exquisite and, in fact, in Lima there is the best restaurant in South America: Central Restaurante. We didn’t go because they didn’t have vegan options. Also, they have the best corn in the world. I think that’s what I’ll miss the most about the country.
There is a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, and legumes, and of excellent quality. We even found a variety of seedless avocados.
The bad thing is that prepared foods, as in all Latin America, continue to have carcinogenic ingredients such as monosodium glutamate.
- Covid measures
From day one I was amazed at the perfection in compliance with the regulations by Covid. In fact, I think that since the pandemic began, I had not been in any country where they were so strict with the rules, much less where I did not see anyone wearing the mask wrongly.
In Lima, above all, there were many deaths from Covid, and they learned to take care of themselves.
In addition, Peru is one of the few countries where tourists are vaccinated for free. You simply must register on a page and go to any vaccination point without making an appointment. In fact, they were much more advanced than Spain in the vaccination process.
- Migration
As they explained to me, the process to obtain residency in Peru is easy, although expensive.
Initially they give you a residence permit for one year and from there, you can opt for permanent residence.
You don’t have to have a job to get a residence permit. This is unthinkable in Europe because if you don’t have a job (or a passport from an European country) they don’t give you a residence permit, they don’t let you open a bank account, nor do they give you any identification as a foreigner.
- Economy
Peru has a strong economy and even more so if we compare it with the rest of the Latin American countries. You can withdraw dollars from the ATM and in no other country have I seen that you can withdraw another currency from the ATM other than the national one.
There are things cheaper than in Europe and others more expensive. For example, skincare and laser hair removal are much more expensive than what I am used to pay in Europe. Botox, hyaluronic acid and PRP are cheaper than in Europe.
Diosmin costs almost $25 a month, in Spain it costs me 13 euros a box for two months. The cheapest magnesium I found cost $10 (60 pills), when at Lidl it costs less than 5 euros for a bottle of 100 pills.
Gyms in the areas we were staying in, were quite expensive. Many were over $100 a month and you could only do 3 classes a week.
The prices of houses, cars, and plastic surgeries are dollarized. In fact, to buy a house, the bank gives you the loan in dollars, even though the official currency is the sol.
During the third month that we were in Peru, there was a transport strike, several demonstrations against the government and even a day of curfew due to looting. Still, I didn’t see any empty supermarkets. So, I dare to say that, in general, Peruvians are quite civilized.
Think that, in Spain, on the first day of the transport strike, people had already left the supermarkets empty.
The bad
I want to emphasize that we were happy in Peru and even more so when compared to the horrible experiences we had had since November 2021, but the people we spoke to in Lima were very unhappy with the government and with the general situation that the country was experiencing. While it seemed to us that Lima was cared for and arranged, the Peruvians told us that the city was getting worse and worse.
Here I denote a very positive aspect that is “being critical”. The Peruvian complains, criticizes, and fights for the country to improve. On the other hand, in Colombia, they filled their mouths saying how wonderful the country was and bragging that Medellín is the most beautiful city in the world when they are sunk in crime and misery.
Let’s go with what I did not like about Peru:
- Noise and pollution
Cities are extremely noisy. You have car alarms going off all day, construction noises, cars honking like crazy, garage doors beeping when they open, cars beeping when backing up, etc.
This was a nightmare for the three months we were in the country. We could not believe that there could be such an excessive amount of noise in the streets.
Although you don’t see too much garbage on the streets, there is a lot of air pollution; although it is not as extreme as in Colombia.
- Circulation
People drive badly and there is no respect for pedestrians, to the point that many times they do not stop when they have a red light. The motorcycles directly skip all the rules.
- Centralization
The country is completely centralized in Lima, to the point that the rest of the areas feel a bit abandoned. Callao, for example, is 30 minutes by car from Lima and the difference is enormous since it is completely neglected, and the buildings are falling apart.
In fact, the area around the airport, which also belongs to Callao, still has dirt roads.
Aguas Calientes, the town that is next to Machupicchu, remains the same as when I visited in 2011. Talking to the locals in Cusco about that we did not see where the money from tourism was invested since there was no infrastructure, they told me that all the money went to the capital.
- Work
I knew that, by law, Peruvians have 30 vacation days a year; even more than in Spain, where there are 22.
But not everyone has the right to enjoy those vacations. In the first accommodation in Lima, I met a security guard who was Venezuelan, and he told me that he was going to Chile because there he had better work conditions. In Peru, his contract was for 12 continuous hours per shift, and he ended up working 16; In addition, he only had one day off a week that he lost completely recovering from the 16 hours of work in a row. Besides, he never had a vacation.
A cousin who lived in Lima also went to Chile because “life in Peru was very stressful.”
On the other hand, a friend lived in Lima for many years and told me that he did have 30 days a year and good working conditions (good salary and other benefits). But he explained to me that in Peru there are informal sectors coexisting with formal ones and that there is abuse of power and discrimination with the lower strata, that is why not everyone has the same rights.
- Car rentals
Car rentals are more expensive than in Europe. In Portugal and Turkey, we paid 25 euros per day with full coverage and without having to leave any security deposit. The most expensive we had paid so far was in Sardinia and it came out to approximately 65 euros per day.
At Hertz, we saw prices between 60 and 70 dollars per day and having to leave an $800 security deposit. Plus, it turned out that they only had vans that cost $90 a day.
At Alamo rent a car they gave us a price of $65 per day.
Beyond the prices, the problem is that there was no availability and the reservation you made online was useless. The only way was to go the same day to see if there was any car left. Logically, there is no way to organize or book hotels because you risk losing money.
- Tourism management
In Peru, as in many Latin American countries, everything is designed so that people pay for tours. It is very difficult to sightsee independently and almost impossible to rent a car. Outside of Lima, public transportation is scarce.
In addition, there is disorganization in the management of tourist sites. You could already read about the disaster that Machupicchu turned into. In addition, there are many places that are managed by local communities and if these communities start fighting over money, the tourist site is closed indefinitely.
We wanted to go to Paracas and we tried for 3 months. First, the absurd situation with the car rentals and not being able to book the car in advance like in any normal country and then, the bus strike affected the bus service so it could not be booked in advance either.
I ruled out going to Iquitos because even though they highly recommend getting to know the jungle, after researching and seeing photos on social networks, I realized that it has been turned into an “amusement park” in which the aborigines are dancing for tourists and there is a lot of exploitation of wild species for tourism. So you are far from having a real experience in the jungle, just the contrary.
- Airlines
The cheapest is Sky Airlines, and it is an absolute disaster. Then there is Latam which is more expensive and works a little better.
In addition, if there is a bit of fog, they cancel the flights.
- Tax Free doesn’t exist
The first few days we asked around in a few stores and people had no idea what we were talking about. Then we read that the government at some point had it as a project, but it was never done.
- Loss of indigenous languages
I thought that the native languages were taught at school, but they explained to us that they were not. In fact, all these languages such as Quechua are being lost as they are currently only spoken by older people. Apparently, the government does nothing about it.
In general, the stay in Peru was not bad, but the country has a lot to improve when it comes to infrastructure since you are totally limited to tours. It is almost impossible to rent a car or go to the sites by public transport. The only “city” with all the services and amenities is Lima. In addition, there is the excessive noise in all the streets.
Even so, I was delighted with the education of the Peruvians and completely in love with the wonderful landscapes that the country has and the infinity of archaeological complexes.