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Today, I'm in Lima, Peru, one of the biggest megacities in South America, home to around 12 million people. A place of incredible contrast, from upscale restaurants, luxury hotels, a thriving business district, to the realities of life in a developing nation with deep poverty. With millions of people living in informal neighborhoods stretching across the desert mountains. Today, we're heading into these very neighborhoods to explore their story. In the 1980s, Peru faced a perfect storm of crises. In an internal conflict, Maoist guerrillas waged brutal war against the government, killing tens of thousands. The devastating 1982 to 1983 El Niño extreme weather event brought floods, droughts, and crop failures, destroying
rural livelihoods and forcing even more people to flee to Lima from other areas of Peru. Over 600,000 were displaced, fled to Lima, and built sprawling informal shantytowns. But their hardships didn't end there. They endured desperate conditions, no clean water, sanitation, health care, or reliable food. Disease spread rapidly, adding to the death toll even in the capital. This tragedy helped create one of the world's largest cemeteries. In just 60 years, it grew into Latin America's biggest burial ground, and the second largest globally, after Iraq's Wadi us-Salaam, which has existed for over 1,400 years. A haunting reminder of the lives lost so quickly here in Peru. With over a million people
buried here. Today, we'll be visiting the cemetery. It's like visiting another planet. And on top of all of this, Peru's recent elections triggered violent street riots in Lima over alleged election fraud. The government of Peru is to declare a state of emergency in the capital Lima. Widespread clashes between protesters and riot police. Frustrated Peruvians say they don't see an end to the decade-long political crisis. The government has only just changed, but they're the same people. It is the same corruption pact.
No more talking. Let's go deep into Peru's forgotten neighborhoods. Welcome to Lima, capital city of Peru. 12 million people. Absolutely gigantic. We're going to be leaving the beautiful area here. This is near the famous Miraflores, which is the upmarket area of town, fancy bars and things. And we're going to be heading out into basically a complete other world. We're going to be going to informal settlements on the side of these huge desert mountains. It's a part of the same city, but you won't believe that where I am now has anything to do with that place. So, we got to drive across the city, and we're going to be going
over the Pan-American Highway, the highway that goes from Alaska right down to the bottom of South America. And that basically divides the city into this area, the upmarket area, and then into the informal settlements and everything that goes on over there. So, let's jump in the car, see who we can meet. So, we've come to this huge market here. And it's really quite clean and perfectly stacked fruits and vegetables and everything.
A century overload, of course. But apparently, since the pandemic happened, the cleanliness and the hygiene of all these markets, there was strict rules put upon them. I've been to a lot of markets in my time, and this is definitely one of the cleanest ones. And how the meat is presented, it's very impressive. So many different kinds of potatoes, you know, because potatoes originated in Peru. That's it. What kind of fish is it? So, this is kind of like the Lima, right? This is how it originally was. And most of it still is or Most of it uh yeah, and also not only in Lima, but other parts of Peru as well.
Okay, so Alfredo. Is that am I pronouncing it correctly? Is it Alfredo? Like the pasta, right? Does that get to a lot of people? Say that to you? No. No? Yeah, in English Alfredo, in Spanish Alfredo. Okay. Alfredo, we're currently in the biggest cemetery in Latin America, right? Yes, this is the biggest. One of the biggest in the world. That's what they say. This is only 60 years. In 60 years, there are about a million people there.
Wow, million from the internal conflict. Yeah, many people who built the cemetery actually came during the internal conflicts here. They escaped their hometowns. They moved to areas like this, but they didn't have resources to buy food or to access medicines. So, unfortunately, many of them died here also in Lima. So, that's why they created this cemetery. Wow. So, people were fleeing from immediate conflict, and a lot of them came here, and then a lot of them died from things like starvation and dehydration and things.
Oh, in the first years in the '80s, it was really bad here. You've got the obviously the cross for the Catholic representation, and then they've also got some local plants for the uh Exactly, you will see that this burial sites have some plants on top. Right. They have aloe vera that usually they put it here to chase bad energies or evil spirits. They also have this cactus, which is very important. We call it San Pedro, which is an hallucinogenic Yeah, yeah. They have the psychedelic ceremonies with the They use it in ceremonies, but also protects the sacred place here. You're saying that there's shamans around here and do they do the ceremonies with the San Pedro around these areas as well?
No, basically here is just for protection. Right. Although many shamans come here, especially here to the chapel right here to do some ceremonies cuz they believe this place has some energy very sacred for them. So, you've got the graves on the side of the hill separately and then you've got the morgue down there, right? Where there's just thousands and thousands of places for bodies. Those ones over there like look like blocks, like apartments. Yeah. They're more tradition brought from Europe, what you see in Italy, south of Spain.
This is one of the most unique places that I've ever seen. Look at this. So, in here they have the shamans come in and they give offerings. You can see they got some bread here. This place is otherworldly. Look at the size of this place. As far as the eye can see, you can just see graves upon graves. These houses on the hillside, people are living all around here, right? Yes. And then they have you said that's a pig farm over there.
These houses were built at the same time when people were fleeing from violence. Some of them, but they kept building even in the '90s and early 2000s as well. Right. Some are very recent as well, especially the ones that are on top. The most convenient area is down nearby the main road. Are there roads up there? You have to walk up? There are some roads, but there are also lots of stairs. Uh-huh. Staircases and go down and up everyday to go to work.
They have running water and electricity? They don't have running water. Electricity is easier to get, but running water they've been waiting for it because they don't own the land. Yeah. So, if they don't own the land, the government cannot provide services. It's all informal settlements. So, they get the water from water trucks that come there and they buy the water. They store it in tanks. The electricity, do they just hook into the main line and highjack it or is it legal? Or sometimes the government provides electricity. Could be legal or not, but it's much easier than water.
Hard to believe that this is not that far from the modern bustling trendy areas of a mega city and you just, you know, half an hour or so in a car and you're in this otherworldly place. Yes. It's a world that people who lives there never sees. They only see on the TV, on the news, but they never came here. And that creates a lot of misjudgment. They believe people here are bad people. They are in gangs. They are drugs, these kind of things. But reality it's as safe as in the other side or even in some areas it's even safer.
Is there a big division between where my hotel is, for example, and places out here? Like people are born into those areas and then they never really make it out to these areas. Yeah. It's really hard to break the poverty cycle here. There is no enough opportunities for these people. don't have money. So, if you don't have money, you don't have education. You don't have health. Really complicated. And apart from that, there is also a lot of discrimination and this misjudgment I was telling you about. Is there a gang presence in some of these areas there?
Gangs? Yeah. Uh There might be some, especially the ones that are closer to the city. There are many there, but if the farther you go, there are less and less. Cuz I guess that's where the money is, right? Exactly. There is more commerce, you know, drugs. The buyers are there. Right, right. There's some irony there. In winter, this place turns green? Yeah. Really? This is part of a type of environment we call a fog oasis. Happens only between Peru and Chile in the desert. In areas where we don't have rain almost at all,
and we have fog in winter time. So, all the fog will get trapped here. Look at the mountains around. Mhm. It doesn't move. It stays here for about a month. So, that creates a humid environment for the plants to grow. Wow. But, they stay for a month, then it becomes like this again. So, it looks like a completely different place. And that is why this chapel was built here, and the cross you saw there. This was built during colonial times. The Spanish will build this kind of infrastructure in places that were sacred for the indigenous people. Wow. So, this place was probably sacred because of that.
Wow. So, what does this say here? Remember me with love like I loved you because wherever you go, I will be always present. So, stay united, look for happiness, harmony, and comprehension because by you being happy, I will rest in peace. See, these ones here are for adults, and then over to the right here, you've got children's. It's just endless. Do you have a spare? No. We were just driving along the road and the driver hit a rock, destroyed the tire. Stranded on the top of this mountain. The driver is hopefully going to fix it. And so in the '80s, none of these houses were here.
No. Really? No, yeah. So all these mountains were just bare? Exactly. It was a desert. such a short time period now, it's just quite densely populated with all these informal housing. Exactly. The coast is right there. So this fog is kind of associated with Lima, and it's caused by the sea. Do you know how it's caused? The ocean is very cold. So it would need too much heat for this uh fog to become big clouds and become rain. Uh That's why they get like really this level.
Right. And they are just fog. Climates where the water is warmer than this would normally go up and become rain, right? Okay. Yeah. Also because we have the Andes and the mountains, Right. this fog gets trapped there. Right. Imagine in just such a short amount of time that all these valleys are just filled with these shacks. Arriving in a new country with no working internet can be frustrating. When I landed in Peru, I had so many things to organize. This video is brought to you by eSIM.io and they've made travel life way simpler. Before heading to Peru, I set up eSIM.io on my
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account. So, your balance would be $40. It's affordable and gives me peace of mind from the first minute I arrive in a country. If you have a trip coming up, use the QR code on the screen or click the link in the description. Use my code Indigo100 and give eSIM.io a go. It makes life way easier. Thanks to eSIM.io for sponsoring this video. Now, let's get back to Peru. How is the current state of Peru? I know that there's been a lot of elections lately and things. Yeah. And then generally, the standard of life for the average citizen, would you say it's improving or it's not? I think it is improved, but too slow because we have a lot of resources, a lot of minerals, fish, tourism, agriculture. We export a lot of things,
but most of this money stays with the big companies, not distributed to the people here. Almost 80% of people who are informal Right. Like this? Yeah, yeah. All of this people. In the country? In the country. So, 20% of people are living in like official housing, paying tax, and then the rest aren't? And they get benefits, right? These people don't get any benefits, don't get vacations, insurance, nothing. People from these areas always face those problems with a good attitude. You know, they're really hard working people. They have many jobs. You always see them with a smile in their faces.
Right. You have seen them, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They always making jokes. They're really nice people in general. We were driving down the street before and I was filming out the window and this guy said something about gringo. And then he was pointing at one of these hillsides saying Machu Picchu cuz they don't really see tourists around here. No, never, never. Because like most people thinking of Peru, they'll be thinking of Machu Picchu and Cusco and the Rainbow Mountain and things like this that this is just not what comes to mind, right? Not at all. A place like this. Not at all.
It's beautiful in its own way. Exactly. Very unique. You can see lots of dogs walking around the streets. And apparently a lot of these are not stray dogs or street dogs. They actually have owners, but they're let out during the day to wander, go and do their thing, and then they go home, sleep, and eat. The dog walked itself home, ate a pizza, and took a nap. It's interesting cuz there's lots of different breeds and you can tell that they're actually well looked after. It's not like in, you know, Southeast Asia or India or something where the dogs look all sick and things. So,
you know, a lot of the dogs are actually well fed and maintained, and then they just take them out sales to hang out with their friends during the day, and then they go home. Okay, so we waited here on the side of the road for a while, but the tire's fixed now, so we're going to drive over this hill and we're going to visit this operation that looks after kids and gives them food and things and looks after them during the day because there is a problem here with child labor. So, it's quite sad, but we're going to go over and meet the people there and hear a bit more about what goes on there.
The place we're going to now, a lot of people have fled from weather events. Mostly, yes, and also looking for better opportunities. People came here in the '90s, and many of the people who live in these areas are or were farmers where they were living in their hometowns and they came with their animals here as well. Right. But most of these animals will not survive the desert. Only pigs, they still have pigs here. So people from other parts of Lima will call these areas the pig sties. Okay. Yes. Like in a derogatory way. Exactly. Uh-huh. We've seen some police officers, right? Yeah. And there's an increased police presence because a lot of the mini bus drivers were facing extortion.
Exactly. This bus, the red one that was in front, has been suffering from extortion. They tell them, "You need protection." Gangs? The gang Yeah, these are gangs. These are criminals. If you don't pay them, they commit some crimes like even some of the drivers have been killed because of this. Okay, can you explain a little bit about this project here? Yeah, this is a project we support that helps children from 6 to teenagers that are mostly domestic workers or are in risk of becoming domestic workers. This is very common in these areas. Children
go out and work during their vacations in other houses taking care of younger children Really? or cleaning the houses or they just follow their mothers who do that. Many of them don't even get paid because of this. Right. But it is a big risk to work in another's house um for abuse and things. and accidents, many things can happen. Right. So this project uh tries to keeps them here being kids. Yeah. They can play here and they can also do their homeworks after school. Right. They have some tablets, they have internet.
Hola. She's the director of the project. Hola. ¿Cómo estás bien? Mucho gusto. Gracias. They just finished. This is the place where they were cooking. Okay. You can see chicken. Okay. With potatoes. The money that they get from this selling these dishes Yeah. is for this project. And so are the kids away at the moment or? No, yeah today is Saturday so they are not in school. And they took this day for this activity. Oh wow. So a lot of the time these kids in here playing Here, yeah. You see their tables. They do their homeworks here.
Right. They have some toys. they have toys. So they make Evelyn Mucho gusto. So can you just explain to us a little bit about what you do here? So the idea of this project create a space for children to play. Before this was built there was no spaces for children. They would play in the streets and it would be dangerous. So they created this for them to play safe. They focus on the children who are domestic workers and try to help them. Many cases they hear from the children I don't want to go to work but my parents are taking me with them. They ask could you tell my mom, could you tell my father that I don't want to go. So it's hard for them to change this situation
but that's the idea is to talk with them and to try to make them know that there are many risks working in those places for the children and it's better that they are kids, their children, they play, they learn instead of working. What kind of work were those kids doing? They're working houses taking care of younger kids or cleaning the house. They don't get any payments or an opportunity to go to school if they are working with them. Sell things in the streets All right. like candies or ice cream or anything they can sell. Mhm. So they'd be like at traffic lights like going up to the cars and selling things like that.
Exactly. Yeah, yeah, those one. You rely heavily on donations, right? So, is there a place if somebody's watching this video that they could donate some money to help out? This is why they did this activity to get money for the activities they do here. But, they also have PayPal accounts where people can donate directly. Okay, I'll leave that down below and anyone can donate if they want to. They could serve for many things like paying electricity bills, the water that they have to buy, or to pay the people who work here because they don't really
get a big payment. They get only a little money for their transportation and to buy some food for the children. Right. many ways they can use it. All of the people who work here, these women that you see in the pictures, have also worked in houses like when they were kids. Oh, really? know exactly what these children need. they had a hard time growing up and they want to help kids not to go through the same thing that they did. Totally. Beautiful. Wow. Gracias. So, these lovely ladies in there just gave us lunch. Such kind ladies and obviously doing amazing work here. I'll leave their information down below if you want to read up a bit more and also
their PayPal if you want to chip in a bit. Obviously, the people working here kids that were doing child labor when they were younger and now they're trying to make it so kids in the new generation don't have to go through what they did. Anybody who's been to a developing country seen the kids at the traffic lights selling things out in the hot sun. You know, open to abuse and just horrific things. So, if you want to chip in, help out these beautiful ladies. The energy here is really positive. Just this environment is absolutely something else. So, leave their information down below and uh feel free to check it out.
These lovely local ladies invited us into our house here. It's like something out of like a Wild West film or something. Amazing views. So that house we just went into was just behind me here. I sat down at the table with Alfredo and the two ladies there. Didn't film it, but sometimes it's just nice to, you know, sit with the locals and, you know, have a real genuine conversation with them. This neighborhood is facing extreme difficulties. It used to be Uh it used to be a really safe place, but now they're facing this huge rise in extortion crime. So they go after small business owners, like people that drive vans, and they say, "Unless you pay us protection money, then we're going to kill you or your family." And unfortunately, just a month ago,
uh a young man who actually used to go to this uh Unfortunately, this young man was actually killed in this project where they look after kids that face child labor here. He actually grew up and went to this project, and unfortunately, he was killed, and, you know, it's really thrown the neighborhood upside down, and uh the police presence, as we spoke about before, has built, but it's a big issue here. You're in no danger necessarily if you're just walking around the streets, or if you have a big company, but they go for the small business owners.
Apart from the extortion that goes on here, the crime is low because they're actually self-governed. So, they everybody has a whistle and if in a crime happens, they'll blow the whistle and people come out on the streets and they find the criminal. Uh and they beat them naked in front of everybody. That's the punishment. You know, depending on the crime, the consequences increase. If they come in a moto taxi like one of those little tuk-tuk rickshaw things, then they'll burn that as well. So, normally crime has been very low because the community here is so tight-knit that they avoid those kind of crimes. But now with this extortion, people come from other neighborhoods and it's a bit more gang level crime. So, we've come to this place called the
wall of shame and it's got that name because it separates this working-class neighborhood with a very expensive higher-class neighborhood over this fence here and it's a pretty surreal scene. Barbed wire fence here and then there's a huge wall that runs down the top of the hill that separates this neighborhood here, like all the buildings that we've been seeing. When was this wall of shame built, Alfredo? built in the early '90s. Okay. Yes. And it was built by the people here, of course. Right. And the rich neighborhood? Yeah, the rich neighborhood.
Do you think that it was the right thing to do? Of course not, right? We just came from this side and I know how nice they are. They're not trying to do anything to the people here for sure. It's just part of this stereotypes that people who have never been here think about the people here. Racism and discrimination as well, OF COURSE. JUST TAKE A WALK. YOU KNOW THEY WARNED ME about these Peruvian gangs. Thank you so much for watching. It was an honor to meet the people of Lima today. Check out the link in the description if you want to help out the incredible project that they're doing
with the kids. No pressure to donate, but if you have a little bit to spare, it goes a very long way for these vulnerable children. If you ever find yourself in Peru, please check out Alfredo's information in the description. He's an absolute wealth of knowledge and he runs Alternative Peru. You will not be disappointed by his professionalism and expertise. Also, his tour company gives back to the local people, as you can see in this video. Thank you so much for watching. I'll see you in the next video for more from this incredible country of Peru. And in case I don't see you, good afternoon, good evening, and good night.
