Latin America offers up some of the most dramatic contrasts to be seen anywhere in the world. The Atacama Desert, one of the hottest and driest places on the planet, is almost completely devoid of life, but just a few hundred miles away lies the Amazon rainforest, home to the greatest biodiversity in the world - it is estimated that millions of different species live here.
What sort of people live on this fascinating continent?
And the contrasts are not limited to geography and plant and animal life. It is estimated that as many as 5,000 different tribes lived in Peru when the Spanish arrived and that 90% of these were wiped out after the European incursion. However, that means that 500 tribes still remain in Peru, many in the Amazon where they were able to avoid all contact with the Incas and then the Spanish conquistadors. Even those who were not in the Amazon often threw themselves behind the conquistadors in order to rid themselves of the overbearing Inca and his demands for gold and labour.
These days the contrast between native Peruvian and foreigner is nowhere more marked than in the city of Cusco, located close to Machu Picchu. This city receives 1.5 million visitors a year who come to marvel at the Inca and Spanish legacy and travel to the "Lost City of the Incas". Even with all these "modern" people passing through the city there are thousands of indigenous people living on the edges of the city and in the nearby countryside that work, socialize and dress as they have for hundreds of years. When these true residents come into the city, the contrast between native and foreigner is marked, not only in the color of the skin, but in their dress and even things like height. Andean people are a lot shorter than Europeans or North Americans, so as a foreigner you often feel like a giant as you walk the streets of Cusco. Going home after a long time in Peru, you then feel like a midget when everyone is suddenly as tall as you, if not taller.
Aside from the physical differences, the contrasting way of life can also come as a shock. Get a little off the tourist route and within 30 minutes you will feel as if you have been transported back 200 years with people using hand ploughs, manually carrying water and goods, using many farm animals (such as teams of donkeys to thresh corn) and following old traditions that we in the west consider ridiculous (such as moving a live Guinea Pig over a patient to find out what is wrong with them, which is ascertained when it squeaks over a particular part of the body!).
The vast majority of indigenous people live at or below the poverty line, but amazingly seem very happy with life. When you walk through remote villages local people smile and say hello, and want to talk to you. They are obviously not tainted by the city dwellers' expectations of the tourist trade. An unfortunate side effect of seeing a lot of foreigners come through the city and eat at restaurants where one dish can cost more than a local will earn in a day is that a lot of the poorer Peruvians living in the cities see tourists as a limitless source of money, whereas the indigenous people in the countryside are generally happy to strike up a conversation for free.
As a foreigner in cities like Cusco, it is easy to become hardened to the poverty around you, especially when being seen as a walking cashpoint by the majority becomes too irritating. However, try giving a piece of bread to one of those children in the street and you will see that the mercenary attitude is only skin-deep - they really are grateful for everything they receive.
