Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Living in Peru
Jobana Soto



The JW Marriot is determined to bring out all the holiday cheer during this Christmas season, starting with their 353 pound chocolate monument of Machu Picchu.

An eye candy of sorts, this delicious display is open to the public at the Marriot hotel lobby. It took 45 days to prepare using milk and white chocolate and an extreme amount of delicacy but the chefs made it through with their culinary masterpiece.

The hand-made chocolate city of Machu Picchu has more than 2,000 pieces that make up the ruins, houses and tunnels.

Hotel Marriot is known for its traditional gingerbread and chocolate houses during the Christmas season. This year, the hotel decided to do something more extravagant and build something a little closer to home.

The chocolate city of Machu Picchu will be on display at the Marriot hotel lobby in Miraflores until January 5 next year.

Living in Peru
Jobana Soto

Peruvian President Alan García Pérez attended the opening ceremony of the brand new Mall Aventura Plaza shopping center in Callao this morning located at Oscar R. Benavides and Elmer Fauccett.



The shopping center is one of the many chain stores opening up in Peru. So far, the company has invested US$38 million in the shopping center which offers a wide variety of stores including retail giants Ripley and Saga Falabella, warehouse stores Tottus and Sodimac as well as new restaurants and food courts.

Over the weekend, APRA party congresswoman Nidia Vílchez took the oath as the Peruvian minister of Housing, Construction and Sanitation before the president Alan García, while Enrique Cornejo took charge of the Transport and Communications portfolio.

The ceremony took place at the Golden Hall of Government Palace.

At the International Media Center (IMC) in Lima, Peru, a display of various potatoes native to the country will be open to the public during the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leader’s Week. The display was set up on behalf of the Agriculture Ministry to provide more information on one of country’s leading products.

Click here to see more pictures.

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

Political parties, unions, citizens and investors across Peru continue to react to Alan Garcia's appointment of leftist Yehude Simon as the country's new Prime Minister.

Raúl Castro Stagnaro, general secretary of the Popular Christian Party affirmed that the head of his party, former presidential candidate Lourdes Flores had affirmed that she was willing to speak to and negotiate with the new Prime Minister.

Salvador Heresi, the mayor of the Limean district of San Miguel spoke of the new Premier's past but affirmed that Alan Garcia should completely support Simon.

"The president of the republic must act as the head of state and let day to day activities be handled by the president of the council of ministers (Yehude Simon)."

Nationalist leader and former presidential candidate Ollanta Humala assured the new Cabinet Chief had the full political support of his party.

APRA lawmaker Mercedes Cabanillas also affirmed Yehude Simon had the party's support, stating there was a team of APRA congressional representatives ready to support the cabinet chief and his ministers.

Renzo Reggiardo, a spokesperson for the "Fujimorista" political party explained that Keiko Fujimori had expressed her desire to speak with Simon and keep an open and constant line of communication with him.

Luis Carranza was replaced today as Peru's finance minister by Luis Valdivieso, a former official for the International Monetary Fund. Valdivieso was sworn in on Monday afternoon by President Alan Garcia, He affirmed that keeping inflation under control and spreading Peru's wealth were among his ministry's top priorities.

In an effort to finance a liquefied natural-gas project, Peru LNG, a partnership between Hunt Oil Company of Dallas, Texas (Project Leader, 50%), SK Energy of South Korea (20%), Spain's Repsol YPF (20%) and Marubeni of Japan (10%), has landed $2.25 billion in loans from the Inter- American Development Bank, the World Bank's International Finance Corp. and the U.S. and Korean Export-Import Banks. The consortium has gathered the funds to build a $3.8 billion plant in Peru, which is expected to begin operations in 2010 and produce 4.4 million metric tons of natural gas a year.

A cleanup and maintenance project was begun this week on a 4,000-year-old Peruvian geoglyph known as El águila milenaria. The eagle was found by the world-renowned archaeologist Walter Alva one decade ago. It is located in the northern region of Lambayeque and is 60 meters (196 feet) long and 50 meters (164 feet) wide.

With the sound of Andean instruments, over 500 actors from Peru's School of Fine Arts as well as performers from around the country began the annual festival known as Inti Raymi Tuesday morning. Over 800 people were hired to provide security for the tens of thousands of spectators that attended the event. Click here for more information on this amazing celebration.