PERSONAL SAFETY
Common sense will go a long way to ensure that you do not have any problems with personal safety. In large cities like Lima (population ~ 8 million), there are certainly areas that you should avoid, particularly after dark. The locals know about these areas, and are happy to share this type of information with you (ask your hotel staff, for instance). Other sections of large cities are as safe as the safest parts of large cities in the US and Europe. Keep your eyes open, be aware of what is happening around you, don't leave personal items unattended, don't wear expensive jewelry, don't flash large sums of cash, and don't consume large quantities of alcohol! Just because you are on vacation, doesn't mean you should give your common sense a break too!

Iquitos, our point of departure for the Amazon, is a city of close to 500,000 people. Despite its size, it has a small town feel to it, and like a small town, crime is big news when it happens. Violent crime is rare in Iquitos, and most visitors feel perfectly comfortable walking about the streets by day or night. There are some pickpockets and petty thieves as in any large city, but again, common sense will help you to avoid most potential problems. Keep valuables secure, money/wallets in a front pocket, and don't leave personal items unattended.

In rural areas of the Amazon outside of Iquitos, crime is even rarer. Everyone knows their neighbors, and people are extremely hospitable and helpful. We make every effort to return that hospitality and helpfulness, and to cultivate excellent relations with the communities that we visit and interact with. Visitors are always an object of attraction in more remote areas where there is no TV and where many people, particularly children, rarely travel more than a few miles from home. A bit of humor and willingness to interact despite language barriers goes a long way toward making friends. Many ecotourists consider their interactions with local people to be a major highlight of their trip. We encourage clients to bring a small amount of school supplies with them to leave at schools in the remote areas that we visit. Even small donations make a meaningful difference to the children in these villages.

BORDER DISPUTES
Peru does not have any current border disputes with any of its neighbors. For ~50 years, there was a dispute with Ecuador over the location of their common border in a remote and mountainous area of the western Amazon basin. There were periodic border skirmishes, usually when economic conditions in one or the other country were poor, and an excuse needed to rally the population. In 1999, a definitive border agreement was reached, and the final border delineated. The final agreement was guaranteed by Brazil, Argentina, Chile and the United States, and included trade and transport concessions, efforts to de-mine militarized areas, and the opening of border areas to transit of goods and persons. There have been no disputes or incidents since the treaty was signed, and the two countries have cooperated in a number of bi-national ventures, including the establishment of a bi-national park in the area formerly in dispute.

Travel warnings may speak of the danger of mines in border areas between Ecuador and Peru. Please note that we do not visit the border area. The mined areas were in the Cordillera de Condor, an extremely rugged and remote mountainous area more than 500 miles from Iquitos, and accessible only by helicopter or foot.

TERRORISM
In the 1980's and early 1990's, there was a serious problem with Marxist- and Maoist-influenced terrorist groups in Peru. These groups derived support from the extremely poor economic conditions existing at the time, rather than from ideological fervor on the part of the people. Terrorist activity was largely confined to remote mountain areas of Peru, as well as to some of the larger coastal cities. Terrorist activity was nonexistent in most parts of the Amazon portion of Peru - a huge area comprising almost 2/3rds of the area of the country. In the Iquitos region in particular, there was never any terrorism, due in part to the isolation of this area from the rest of the country, as well as to the laid-back nature of the inhabitants.

With the election of President Fujimori in the early 90's, galloping inflation was brought under control, the economy stabilized and began to grow, and the economic basis for the support of extremist groups largely disappeared. At the same time, an aggressive and hugely successful campaign was initiated to stamp out terrorism and to bring economic development to remote rural areas, although the civil rights and liberties of portions of the population were compromised. The last notable terrorist act in Peru was the taking of hostages at the Japanese Embassy in Lima in 1998. This act was widely considered as a last desperate stab for public attention and support on the part of the terrorists. Attention was received, but no support, and the terrorist groups that formerly operated in Peru are now largely dismantled, with their leaders incarcerated. Any remaining active terrorist cells are isolated in remote mountain areas, far from any tourist sites in Peru.

The upper Huallaga Valley, a center for the cultivation of coca and cocaine production is one area to avoid. This area is far away from any sites visited by Margarita Tours expeditions - it is at least 500 miles from "our" area, and would require a week of or more of travel by boat and then by road or foot to reach the Huallaga Valley from Iquitos. Some additional remote mountain areas in the southern state of Ayacucho should also be avoided - these areas are 800-1000 miles distant from Iquitos, with no ready means of travel between them.

DRUG TRAFFICKING
Drug trafficking was the method by which terrorist groups (as well as drug-lords with no interest in ideology) funded their activities. With the virtual elimination of terrorist groups in Peru, a stabilized economy, and close cooperation with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), drug production has been dramatically reduced in Peru over the past 15 years, with a sharp decline in drug production through 2000, though production has since more or less leveled off. Part of this success has been due to programs with incentives for coca farmers to turn to other crops, part due to increased drug interdiction effectiveness, and part due to the migration of drug traffickers to Colombia. Since 2000, there has been a moderate increase in drug production in Peru due to heavy interdiction and eradication efforts in Colombia (through the US-funded "Plan Colombia") which has driven some production back out of Colombia and into neighboring countries.

What drug production and trafficking occurs in Peru is very low key, with producers and transporters very anxious to avoid attention. There are no "drug wars" between competing traffickers, for instance. Production of coca plants has never been common in the Amazon lowlands, as the coca plant prefers somewhat cooler and drier climates, and grows best in the foothills of the Andes, and in inter-montane valleys. The Iquitos region has thus never been a significant production area. Although some transport does occur on rivers on the region, traffickers are very anxious to avoid drawing attention, due to a strong Peruvian and DEA monitoring and enforcement presence in the area. Visitors who don't actively seek out illicit drugs are highly unlikely to encounter the slightest problem. It is extremely rare to be approached in Iquitos by people trying to sell you drugs - if you are, it will be for selling marijuana, and all you have to do is say "no".

Drug offenses are severely punished in Peru. Drug dogs sniff baggage upon arrival and departure at airports, and every year, a number of "mules" are jailed with long sentences. Don't bring drugs into Peru, or try to purchase them there. Don't be stupid!

Coca leaf tea is legal to purchase and consume in Peru, and has a long history of legitimate use by populations in the highlands. It is often used by visitors to high elevations to counter the effects of altitude sickness. This tea has not undergone the concentration and processing necessary to produce cocaine, and at best, a very mild feeling of euphoria results. While legal to consume, it is probably not advisable to take any home with you (drug dogs have very sensitive noses, and you might be delayed and have to do some explaining). Additionally, if you are subject to regular drug testing, an extremely sensitive test might pick up minute traces of coca leaf alkaloids.

RECENT POLITICAL EVENTS IN PERU
In the fall of 2000, Alberto Fujimori was re-elected to a third presidential term in a very dirty campaign which was widely regarded as illegal by the opposition. A short time later, videotapes of bribery at high levels turned up, and the Fujimori government proceeded to collapse in scandal. Ex-president Fujimori traveled to Japan, his country of ancestry, from whence he turned in his resignation. It is now known that Fujimori was actually born in Japan, and thus was ineligible to be president! He was blackmailed with this information by the head of the Peruvian equivalent of the FBI/CIA, Vladimir Montesinos. Montesinos became the power behind the presidency, but fled the country shortly before the resignation of ex-president Fujimori. He was captured in Venezuela, and is now incarcerated in Peru's highest security prison.

After the government collapsed, a highly respected congressman, Valentin Paniagua, was named interim president by the Peruvian congress, in strict accordance with Peruvian constitutional law and procedures. The Peruvian military was involved in some of the corruption scandals. Many top military officers were forced to resign, or were charged. At no time, however, was there any indication that the military might try to interfere in the political scene or stage a coup, and the rank and file openly expressed its disgust with corrupt top officials.

Liberties of the press which had been curtailed under the Fujimori government, have been fully restored. Peru also rejoined the InterAmerican Court, with headquarters in Costa Rica. The Fujimori government had withdrawn Peru from the courts jurisdiction after the Court raised questions about civil rights violations by the Fujimori government.

New presidential elections in April 2001 were among the cleanest ever in Peru. Outside observers and monitors were invited by the Paniagua government to oversee the elections. No candidate received >50% of the votes, and a run-off was scheduled for June 2001 between the two leading candidates; Alejandro Toledo and Alan Garcia. In the runoff election Alejandro Toledo was the clear winner, and thus became the first Peruvian of predominantly Indian background to be elected president of Peru. The presidential inauguration of President Toledo took place on 28 July 2001, and was a much celebrated event. July 28 is also Independence Day.

After taking office there was considerable discontent by the public with various government policies, the lack of immediate economic turn-around (from the point of view of the populace), and various poorly-received actions on the part of President Toledo, including the fact that he refused to acknowledge an illegitimate daughter until it was proved beyond a doubt that she was his child. For family-centered Peruvians, this was more scandalous than having a child through an affair. His administration came to be considered as one of the least popular, despite the fact that he maintained the Peruvian economy on an even keel, and oversaw several years of successive economic growth. The problem is that he made too many populist promises that he was unable to keep. Public demonstrations were largely peaceful and orderly (though usually noisy), though strikes occasionally disrupted business or public transport.

The Toledo administration was replaced in 2006 by a re-elected Alan Garcia. During his campaign Garcia acknowledged having made mistakes in his first administration (when inflation soared and corruption was rampant), and promised to continue the economic policies of Toledo and Fujimori. He won a run-off with ultra-nationalist Humberto Humala, largely due to the publics fear that Humala would scare away all foreign investment, and would try to follow the example of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. Since being elected, Garcia has kept his word. The economy has remained one of the strongest in South America, and democratic institutions have been strengthened. As a measure of the close ties between Peru and the USA, in January 2009, the US and Peru signed the first Free Trade agreement to incorporate measures designed to protect workers rights and also to protect the environment. Bi-lateral trade between the two countries is over $9 billion per year, and the number of US tourists, students and business people traveling to Peru each year has been on a steady rise over the past decade.  In April 2009, a Peruvian court found ex-president Fujimori guilty of abuses of power and sentenced him to 25 years in jail. Many Peruvians, however, still fondly remember Fujimori as the president who turned the country around in the midst of crisis, and also as the first president who took concrete steps to help the rural and urban poor.

Perhaps most important is the fact that  Peruvians have long maintained a strong sense of optimism about the future of their country. The fall of the Fujimori government showed that no one is immune to the rule of law, and Peruvians want change and honest government. Peruvians are keenly aware of the importance of tourism and foreign investment to the national economy, and go out of their way to reassure investors and to welcome visitors. Tourists inevitably find that Peruvians are hospitable, helpful, and eager to converse, and interactions with ordinary Peruvians often proves to be a trip highlight.

We are convinced that you too, will fall in love with Peru and the wonderful Peruvian people!