Perú is located in the central and west part of South
America. It limits to the
north with Ecuador and Colombia; with Brazil and Bolivia to the east; with Chile
to the south and with the Pacific Ocean to the west.
It covers a surface of 1,285,215.6 square kilometers, distributed as
follows: 12% in the coast, 28% in the sierra, and 60% in the jungle.
The population reaches 24 million of inhabitants, 7
million of them in the city of Lima.
The Peruvian population is mainly mixed, with an important native
minority dwelling mainly in the Andean south and the Amazon.
Politically, Perú is divided into 24 departments, subdivided
in 194 provinces and a constitutional province, which is El Callao (the main
Peruvian port). On the other
hand, the territory was divided into 13 regions, including provinces of one or
more departments.
In Perú, there are two official languages: Spanish and
Quechua, which is spoken by a 24% of the population.
Most of the people who speak Quechua are bilingual, being Spanish the
second language. On the other
side, there are 55 more amazon languages in the country, apart from the Aymará,
spoken in the high plateaus.
Most of the population is Roman Catholic (80%),
official religion of Perú, existing cult freedom.
The city of Lima is located on the shoreline, on the
outlet of the river Rímac; it is divided into 49 districts and it is the
biggest city of the country: 30% of the population lives there (more than 6
million of inhabitants), most of them coming from the provinces.
It is, then, an overcrowded city, very messy and full
of contrasts: at every step you bump into traditional features of an
agricultural society, in contrast with the modernity imposed by the market
economy.
Lima
Map
