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PERU TRAVEL PLANNER
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The Twentieth century
Modern Peru is generally considered to have been born in 1895
with the forced resignation of General Caceres. However, the seeds of industrial
development had been laid under his rule, albeit by foreigners. In 1890 an
international plan was formulated to bail Peru out of its bankruptcy. The
Peruvian Corporation was formed in London and assumed the $50 million national
debt in return for "control of the national economy". Foreign companies took
over the rail lines, navigation of Lake Titicaca, vast quantities of guano, and
were given free use of seven Peruvian ports for 66 years as well as the
opportunity to start exploiting the rubber resources of the Amazon Basin. Under
Nicolas de Pierola, some sort of stability had begun to return by the end of the
nineteenth century.
In the early years of the twentieth century, Peru was run by an oligarchical
clan of big businessmen and great landowners. Fortunes were made in a wide range
of exploitative enterprises, above all sugar along the coast, minerals from the
mountains, and rubber from the jungle. Meanwhile, the lot of the ordinary
peasant worsened dramatically.
One of the most powerful oligarchs, Augusto Leguia rose to power through his
possession of franchises for the New York Insurance Company and the British
Sugar Company. He became a prominent figure, representing the rising bourgeoisie
in the early 1900s, and in 1908 he was the first of their kind to be elected
president. Under his rule the influence of foreign investment increased rapidly,
with North American money taking ascendancy over British. It was with this
capital that Lima was modernized - parks, plazas, the Avenida Arequipa and the
Presidential Palace all date from this period. But for the majority of
Peruvians, Leguia did nothing. The lives of the mountain peasants became more
difficult, and the jungle Indians lived like slaves on the rubber plantations.
Not surprisingly, Leguia's time in power coincided with a large number of Indian
rebellions, general discontent and the rise of the first labour movement in
Peru. Elected for a second term, Leguia became still more dictatorial, changing
the constitution so that he could be re-elected on another two occasions. A year
after the beginning of his fourth term, in 1930, he was ousted by a military
coup - more as a result of the stock market crash and Peru's close links with US
finance than as a consequence of his other political failings.
During Leguia's long dictatorship, the labour movement began to flex its
muscles. A general strike in 1919 had established an eight-hour day, and ten
years later the unions formed the first National Labour Centre. The worldwide
Depression of the early 1930s hit Peru particularly badly; demand for its main
exports (oil, silver, sugar, cotton and coffee) fell off drastically. Finally,
in 1932, the Trujillo middle class led a violent uprising against the sugar
barons and the primitive conditions of work on the plantations. Suppressed by
the army, nearly five thousand lives are thought to have been lost, many of the
rebels being taken out in trucks and shot among the ruins of Chan Chan.
The rise of APRA - the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance - which had
instigated the Trujillo uprising, and the growing popularity of its leader, Haya
de la Torre , kept the nation occupied during World War II. Allowed to
participate for the first time in the 1945 elections, APRA chose a neutral
candidate - Dr Bustamante - in place of Haya de la Torre whose fervent
radicalism was considered a vote loser. Bustamante won the elections, with APRA
controlling 18 out of 29 seats in the Senate and 53 out of 84 in the Chamber of
Deputies.
Post-war euphoria was short-lived, however. Inflation was totally out of hand
and apparently unaffected by Bustamante's exchange controls; during the 1940s
the cost of living in Peru rose by 262 percent. With anti-APRA feeling on the
rise, the president leaned more and more heavily on support from the army, until
General Odria led a coup d'état from Arequipa in 1948 and formed a military
junta. By the time Odria left office, in 1956, a new political element
threatened oligarchical control - the young Fernando Belaunde and his National
Youth Front (later Acción Popular) demanding "radical" reform. Even with the
support of APRA and the army, Manuel Prado barely defeated Belaunde in the next
elections: the unholy alliance between the monied establishment and APRA has
been known as the "marriage of convenience" ever since.
The economy remained in dire straits. Domestic prices continued to soar and in
1952 alone there were some two hundred strikes and several serious riots.
Meanwhile much more radical feeling was aroused in the provinces by Hugo Blanco
, a charismatic mestizo from Cusco who had joined a Trotskyist group - the
Workers Revolutionary Party - which was later to merge with the FIR - the
Revolutionary Left's Front. In La Convencion, within the Department of Cusco,
Blanco created nearly 150 syndicates, whose peasant members began to work their
own individual plots while refusing to work for the hacienda owners. Many
landowners went bankrupt or opted to bribe workers back with offers of cash
wages. The second phase of Blanco's "reform" was to take physical control of the
haciendas, mostly in areas so isolated that the authorities were powerless to
intervene. Blanco was finally arrested in 1963 but the effects of his peasant
revolt outlived him: in future, Peruvian governments were to take agrarian
reform far more seriously.
Back in Lima, the elections of 1962 had resulted in an interesting deadlock,
with Haya de la Torre getting 33 percent of the votes, Belaunde 32 percent, and
Odria 28.5 percent. Almost inevitably, the army took control, annulled the
elections, and denied Haya de la Torre and Belaunde the opportunity of power for
another year. By 1963, though, neither Acción Popular nor APRA were sufficiently
radical to pose a serious threat to the establishment. Elected president for the
first time, Belaunde quickly got to work on a severely diluted programme of
agrarian reform, a compromise never forgiven by his left-wing supporters. More
successfully, though, he began to draw in quantities of foreign capital.
President de Gaulle of France visited Peru in 1964 and the first British foreign
secretary ever to set foot in South America arrived in Lima two years later.
Foreign investors were clamouring to get in on Belaunde's ambitious development
plans and obtain a rake-off from Peru's oil fields. But by 1965 domestic
inflation had so severely damaged the balance of payments that confidence was
beginning to slip away from Belaunde's international stance
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Published articles and reviews about us

2009
Testimonials
Noelle Melnychuk
Calgary, AB
Our tour to
the islands on Lake Titicaca was a
wonderful day. We had great weather and the people that we met
were very friendly. The island of Taguile was a beautiful little
paradise. The hotel in Puno was very good, with a great
breakfast. It is too bad we could only stay one night. We kept
the room for the second night so that we could freshen up before
going on the bus to Cusco Peru.
Thank you for everything that you have done to make our trip so
enjoyable. Please pass along to Christi our thanks for the great
job that she did in organizing our tour. She was able to
assemble an itinerary that included everything that we asked for
and still was not too rushed. It was an enjoyable, informative
and relaxing time.
Thank you again to all of the staff at
Peru travel Gateway
and your suppliers for making this a wonderful experience.
Peggy Chang
McLean, VA
US
I always wanted to write
you a line and let you know my husband and I had a great time in
Peru. Thank
you so much for the arrangement; everything was really smooth! The
guide in
Cusco, Eriksson, was really great. thank
you also for helping me with all
the reservation and all the changes!! Cusco and
Machu Picchu were all
fantastic, I"m sure we will want to go back to Peru at some point
again, and
I"ll definitely contact you again!! Thank you!!
Sincerely,
Peggy Chang
Mary W. Earp
WINNALSAW, NC
US
We had a very nice trip to Peru.
Thanks for you help. Our hotels in Peru
were what we expected, very nice and the hotel help went out of
their way to make sure we were comfortable and had what we needed.
Our guides were outstanding. Always on time and catered to our
needs. Our groups were small except for the Sacred Valley tour where
we had 25 members. Food was plentiful and tasty at each restaurant.
The Hotel Casa Andina in Cusco gave us an upgrade when we returned
from MP which was very nice. Also, the Radisson gave us an upgrade
when we returned to Lima although we stayed only 6 hours.
Again, thanks for your services. I feel very fortunate that I
selected your travel services, because of the services. Several on
the trip thought I was mighty brave to select an unknown agency. I
was impressed with Ivan during our first emails and phone
conversations. I trusted him and he trusted me, this makes for happy
results for everyone.
Sincerely, Mary Earp.
Wendy Feldman
Los Angeles, CA
US 90025
I just returned back to the US from my trip to Peru. I wanted to let
you know how grateful I am for the wonderful experience that you
help me coordinate and plan. I loved all of the sites and felt I had
a unique experience that I will never forget.
The tour planners and the tour
guides were all wonderful and extremely helpful. Each of them were
very polite and knowledgable about their subjects and locations. I
learned alot about Peru and its customs.
The hotel on Machu Picchu (Sanctuary Lodge) and the hotel in Puno
(The Libertador) were excellent and I would recommend anyone to stay
in each of those locations. The San Augustin El Dorado was just
adequate; I found the hotel to be clean and the staff helpful, but
there is too much noise during the evening and mornings; this is
because many of the rooms overlook the central lobby of the hotel
and the acoustics create echos of sound from the front desk and
those people having conversations in the lobby area. Also, the space
heaters in each of the El Dorado rooms I stayed in did not work at
all. I do not think I would recommend the hotel to people unless
they didn't mind a noisy atmosphere.
The Posada del Inca hotel in Bolivia was very nice; I really liked
the rustic feel and intimate setting and the private gardens--the
views of Lake Titicaca and the mountains were spectacular. Although
I didn't realize it would be a hike (literally) up to it. One of the
couples I was travelling with on the first day in Bolivia had
trouble making it up the hillside (they didn't know they would have
to hike to the top to get to the hotel). I would recommend letting
potential guests know that it is a 40 - 45 minute hike from the dock
to the hotel itself. The guides were very helpful and it was good
that our luggage was carried up separately.
The trip was amazing and I just wanted to thank you for all of your
planning. I would recommend you and your staff to everyone I know
who wanted to plan a trip to go to Peru.
Have a wonderful new year!
Regards,
Wendy
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