Economy

The presidents of Colombia, Peru and Chile sat down to lunch with the economy minister of Mexico at a "CEO summit" in New York in late September. The four chatted amiably about the Pacific Alliance, their nascent trade bloc, and promised to sign an agreement this month to do away with 92% of trade tariffs between their countries.

Peru will maintain its lead role in driving growth in Latin America by posting Asian growth rates, Peru's President Ollanta Humala has said in an interview with CNN's Spanish-language channel. 

I believe Credicorp represents a great investment opportunity under a long-term horizon, and expect the price to triple within the next 10 years. The company pays a rich dividend, has an excellent management team, and dominates the retail banking space in Peru, the fastest growing Latin American economy.

Since investing in Credicorp basically represents investing in Peru, let me start my thesis with a quick presentation on Peru's macro strengths, which is considered by many analysts as the best economy in the South American region. 

Mining & Energy

Thirteen years ago, I flew to the state of Madre de Dios, in Peru's southeastern Amazon jungle, and was mesmerized by the view from my plane's window: a vast forest canopy stretching to the horizon. The purpose of my visit was to check out the recently created Tambopata National Reserve, a two-hundred-and-seventy-five-thousand-hectare protected area and surrounding buffer zone, created to preserve one of the Amazon's most biodiverse zones from gold mining and other destructive practices. 

Agriculture

In order to encourage business organizations of the northwestern coastal region of Piura in Peru, to optimize cotton production costs, productivity and price, the Peruvian Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (MINAGRI), in coordination with the Piura regional government has launched a Competitiveness Plan for Cotton Campaign of 2013-2014. 

The output in the Peruvian farming sector has recorded a 1.7% between January and September 2013 compared to the same period last year, reported on Monday Peru's Agriculture and Irrigation Ministry (Minagri). 

Scientists and farmers work together in Peru to safeguard the future of the potato.

Modern agriculture and its reliance on monocultures is shrinking the genetic diversity of this important food staple, leaving it vulnerable to pests, disease and climate change.

Holding the world's largest collection of potatoes in the world, the International Potato Centre in Lima, Peru is fighting back. As well as storing 7,000 potato samples in their gene bank, the organisation encourages locals to grow forgotten potato varieties in the Andes.

Diplomacy

Peru and France have signed two cooperation agreements on defense and protection of information and sensitive materials, the Peruvian Defense Ministry announced.

Peruvian President Ollanta Humala Tasso and the Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Carissa F. Etienne, met in Lima on Monday to discuss Peru's progress in its health reform.

Health

The Peruvian government is working on the consolidation of a universal health system that includes cancer care, President Ollanta Humala said when opening the 5th International Cancer Control Congress in Lima on Monday. 

 

Gastronomy

Born in the alleys of Lima's barrio chino sometime after the turn of the 20th century, the Peruvian version of Chinese food was a fusion right from the start, a dazzling cross-cultural improvisation that blended Cantonese recipes with Andean accents.

When Chinese immigrants arrived in Peru to work on the country's railroads in the late 1800s, they found themselves unable to obtain the ingredients needed to replicate their ancestral cuisine. Their solution: substitute locally grown spices and foodstuffs, creating a culinary hybrid that soon became wildly popular among Lima's upper crust.

Wawas are traditional Andean bread figures, usually resembling babies. They are made from a sweet, brioche-like dough, and their unusual name comes from the Quechuan word "guagua," which means baby. Wawas are very similar to "pan de muerto" from Mexico.

Tourism

Like many marine mammals, humpback whales are a spectacular bunch. They dance, they jump, they sing, they splash- and they don't seem to mind when people watch.

Humpback whales travel thousands of miles every year, and between July and October can be seen along the Peruvian coast.

Tourist arrivals to the jungle region of Ucayali expects to see a month-on-month increase of 30% after the implementation of the Strategic Regional Tourism Plam (Pertur), a top tourism official said on Monday. 

A few hours later we arrived to the Monasterio hotel of Cusco. An old monestry which more than 10 years ago was turned into a luxury hotel and still is one of the finest hotels of Cusco. The atmosphere and especially the courtyard is absolutely fascinating, both during night and day and is a MUST-visit, when you're in Cusco.

There is something special about walking around the city with a camera in your hand with the ONLYpurpose to shot pictures. One starts to see so many details in everything you walk by, and we must have taken more than 2.000 photos...

Culture

Guillermo Danino has published more than 20 Spanish-language books on Chinese culture, including nine translations of classical Chinese poetry. And his latest work -- "Encyclopedia of Chinese Culture" -- was just released in mid October in China.

Aimed at helping Spanish-speaking audiences understand the oriental giant, the encyclopedia contains more than 600 entries about its history, culture, religion and important figures, and Danino deems it his "most important work so far." 

Miscellaneous

On billboards rising high above the streets; on displays adorning the sides of bus stops; on posters decorating the walls of bodegas and markets - a certain commonality is on the rise in Lima: familiar brands. At almost any point in Lima, it is hard not to witness the influx of transnational brands and their growing popularity among the denizens of the forty-three districts, whether it's as simple as noticing a bag of Lay's chips at the market, or standing outside McDonalds on the impressive �valo of Miraflores.

Former presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori said her party would return a campaign donation made by an individual that the US government has added to its "Kingpin List" this week, over allegations of laundering money for drug traffickers.