Adventures in Peru!

The four traditional staples of Peruvian cuisine are  corn ,   potatoes  and other  tubers ,  Amaranthaceaes  ( quinoa ,  kañiwa  and  kiwicha ), and  legumes  ( beans  and  lupins ). Staples brought by the Spanish include  rice ,  wheat  and meats (beef, pork and chicken). One unusual traditional food is guinea pigs.

Peru's official languages are Spanish and, in certain areas,  Quechua  and other Indigenous languages. Spanish is spoken natively by 82.6% of the population, Quechua by 13.9%, and Aymara by 1.7%, while other languages are spoken by the remaining 1.8%.

Peru is located on the central western coast of South America facing the Pacific Ocean. It borders Ecuador and Colombia to the north, Brazil to the east, Bolivia to the southeast, Chile to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. The  Andes  mountains run parallel to the Pacific Ocean. Peru has three main geographic regions. The  costa  (coast), to the west, is a narrow, largely arid region except for in the valleys. The  sierra  (highlands) is the region of the Andes; it includes the highest mountain peak of the country. The third region is the  selva  (jungle), a wide expanse of flat terrain covered by the  Amazon rainforest  that extends east. More than half of Peru's area is located within this region. The Amazon basin is the source of the Amazon River, which at 6872 km, is the longest river in the world. Peru contains 4% of the planet's freshwater.