Peru: an ugly country with bad food and thieving locals
Thinking about going to Peru? How’s this for advice?
The water? Is poisonous. The food? Gives you diarrhea. The country? Is ugly. The pollution in Lima makes you choke. And everyone, and I mean everyone — taxi drivers, hotel owners,tour operators, souvenir vendors — tries to rob you. It makes you paranoid. I went to Peru, and I thought everyone was out to get me. Then I realized — they were out to get me!
Sound like like the Peru you know? No, me neither.
This was a comment from a talk Lonely Planet author just gave in Colombia. It was given in front of an audience of the country’s tourism professionals – all looking at ways to increase tourism, make the most of the country’s pros and look at how it can pitch itself against other South American countries with more a established tourist industry. But among the very well thought-out observations on what a gringo crowd wants and some excellent advice about not overlooking the backpacker market, there were a couple of throwaway comments that seemed to undermine the debate. The one that stood most for me – and made me shiver – was the above statement on Peru. (Although Ecuador and Venezuela didn’t come out too well either. But for other reasons.)
In his speech, the writer looked at how Colombia is fighting back against generalisations with their ‘the only risk is wanting to stay’ campaign and yet he then makes one of the most extreme generalisations against a country I’ve heard for a long time.
I first saw a link to this speech on South American travel blog, TravelOjos. I’ve been having an email discussion about it with the blog’s editor, Steven Roll. We both have mixed feelings about the speech. Generally, our thoughts are that it has good foundation (ie – Colombia has a lot to offer and it needs to work to its strengths), but this could have been expressed without an attack on Peru.
Was it a joke? We wondered. Apparently not. Steven emailed the writer to check.
This was Steven’s take on the speech:
Writing about Latin America means acknowledging that certain problems exist. While his characterization seems overly broad and probably is unfair, I find his frankness somewhat refreshing. It’s not as if no one else thinks these things. I wouldn’t trust a restaurant reviewer who liked everywhere she ate. A larger question raised by his speech is: where do you draw the line with generalizations/stereotypes etc. To entirely disregard all of them seems like political correctness run amok. To buy into them too much smacks of bigotry.
Interesting. There’s a bigger question here for sure and frankness can be good. A travel writer is being responsible if advising people not to turn up in Lima with an expensive camera slung over one shoulder or drink tap water. However, this is extreme and I don’t think it’s political correctness gone mad to be astounded when someone says all Peruvians working in tourism are crooks.
Back to Colombia, the fundamental point was that although it doesn’t have a Machu Picchu, it has a whole lot else on offer if it finds the right market (less tourists looking for sights, more travellers looking for experiences). The idea of people needing to look beyond the travel icons for their travel experiences? I agree wholeheartedly; I’ve said it time and time again myself. I also agree that Colombia is an amazing country with hugely untapped potential and it’s wise for them to compare their situation with that of other Latin American countries in order to find their niche.
I would love to be blogging now about the good points that were made in the speech, but sadly this Peru comment stuck in my head and I can’t let it slide. Neither, it seems, can the Peruvians that have already got hold of the text from the speech, which is circling on the net. They are, quite rightly, not impressed.
Peruvians, Colombians, travel writers, travellers, anyone: what do you think? Any thoughts on the wider picture of generalisations in South American tourism?
Vicky, while you have quoted my e-mail accurately. You’ve skipped over a key sentence. I said that: “There are also plenty of people out there who will move the discussion forward by disagreeing with him.”
Thankfully, you’ve risen to the task. If we really debate this, it’s impossible to ignore positive things about Peru such as how great the food from there is.
I’ve never been to Peru, so I don’t have first-hand experiences in the country. Lima is on my short list of places to visit–despite what Porup says.
In any case, I support Porup’s right to say what he thinks of the country as much as I support your right to dispute it.
I would seem that he didn’t meet your shaman friend, Vicky…
Hi Vicky,
Vivek here from Lonely Planet. I’ve responded over at travelojos, but I wanted to let you know that Jens stopped working at Lonely Planet in June 2009, and we do not support the views he’s expressed.
We have some major fans of Peru here, and we’re disappointed that Jens has tried to associate Lonely Planet with such a nonobjective view of that country and its neighbors.
vivek
Reading the speech, and considering that it was tailored for a Colombian audience, it would seem that Porup was playing to his audience by relying on caricatures (and therefore generalisation) to engage his audience. Unfortunately, this is where stereotypes and myths are perpetuated.
As someone who’s only ever been to Peru and yet to visit the rest of the continent, I must say that while this snippet has some truth to it, I would add that it’s equally applicable to any other developing country out there to varying degrees. Lack of sanitation, infrastructure and widespread theft are all part of the experience and if you can’t take it, then don’t visit the place.
Ja Ja, I love these “20-something” slackers who say, I’ve never been there, but I don’t agree with your opinion. Go back home and get a job. You don’t have any education or skills, you say? So taking a year off to party at hostels in Latin America is your way of reaching out to society? They call it the Third World for a reason. Enjoy it, but don’t defend it.
Juan – I’m not quite sure who that’s addressed to. A general rant? Or me? If it’s the latter, you’ve jumped to the wrong conclusion.
Vivek – Thanks for stopping by. Please do read the rest of Jens speech if you haven’t already. Shame about the Peru slip, but the rest of it showed he was v clued up on your market and Colombian tourism.
Danielle – You’re dead right. It was geared to a Colombian audience. And actually underneath it all is a fair point. Peru does have its problems; people do get sick from the water; and there are people looking to take advantage. Colombia has some advantages over Peru that people may not have thought about. The speech was about getting Colombia to play to these advantages. I just found it odd that someone who clearly knows a thing or two about national stereotypes should fall into the same trap.
It seems to me that these particular elements of Porup’s speech can lead to nowhere but a facile argument about X country being better than Y country, which is probably exactly what he wanted to achieve in the first place – but it seems a very simplistic line for a professional travel writer to take!
For my 2 pennies worth, I’ve lived and worked in Lima for the past year and I’m planning on staying for a while – I love it here (and Juan, I think I’m reasonably educated & skilled so I hope I have your assent to comment).
But more importantly, I have countless Peruvian friends, in and out of the travel industry, who are all outright offended by Porup’s shameless misrepresentation of their country.
Finally, it’s obvious that Porup has failed in his original task because rather than focusing the discussion on how great Colombia is, we’re all here defending Peru.
So, in light of the new terms of the debate, for a more realistic picture of Peru as a travel destination, feel free to check out this recent interview in which another Lonely Planet author shares some more positive Peru experiences.
Vicky, REALLY?
Do you think you are the only person to travel off the Gringo Trail in Latin America on a chicken bus and write/blog about it? REALLY? There must be 5000 entries on blogs in the last year about this. REALLY? And what was you last job before you becmae a world renowed travel journalist? Did you wait tables in an Irish pub somewhere? REALLY? There are 1000+ people sailing around the world on small sailboats at any one moment. REALLY? People have been doing this baackpacking thing since the 60′s.Really, they have. Who are you related to at the Guardian?
Vicky, REALLY?
In the 1st world, what you are doing would be considered a PAID VACAtION !
Hey, my first troll!
If you want to read some REAL travel journals, read:
“The Innocents Abroad” by Mark Twain 1869
“Sailing Alone Around The World” by Joshua Slocum 1899
See here.
Do we call them trolls? That’s a nice name for them.
I went to Peru and got robbed AND arrested. Good trip.
Hello, I has a lovely time in Lima, people were very sweet, they tend to smile , of course if you are an Idiot dont visit that country, Peru is a developing country so people who visit should be aware of certain facts, those facts will change is you dont like to see porverty dont visit Peru, Colombia is much more conflictive country at least if I visit peru I might be aware of some facts in Colombia people are extremely skill at deciving people, Peruvian people ten to be much more humble. if someone is robe well you shouldn have visit that country in the frist place, Peru has MachuPichu and the beautiful Jungle, Colombias tend to have big mouths, drog dealers, lose women and they are going to get you….
Peru Is a poor country, what do you expect! Colombia is poor too and corupt … how is that for steretyping… colombias are famous for scammers and drog dealers… please do not write to my email i never ever read anything it all goes to my trush bin… Peru lovely people.
oh forgive my english Iam German who tends to travel frequently, Iam a proffesor in modern studies.
do you really belive all the things u say….i mean i have been to peru since i was 4 and im 18 now and nothing is wrong with me. I never got robbed or said this is country “is ugly”. Macchu picchu one of the most interesting and coolest places i have ever been to and the food is amazing. Yeah some of the food and water maybe unhealthy or dirty but peru is not the richest of most perfect country ever. Maybe you were out of your confort zone and you were “paranoid”. Get your facts straight cause you are wrong..
Wow, you are very ignoramt. Have you even given the though that you were in a bad part of Peru? Like the center of L.A. You get robbed there too. EVERY country has it’s bad parts. So for you to be going around calling Peru ugly and judging it is VERY childish. I have been to Peru and plan on going back since it was beautiful and the peeople there are very friendly. They gave me this fruit there it was delicious. Oh and they gave it to me for free. The kids there are always smiling playing their games. Maybe YOU are ugly. At least on the inside.
Very immature of you.
sincerely,
annoyed Peruvian tourist
P.S- Please don’t write back to me, wait of time. Honestly
I think you have just read the title and not my whole post.