Stop & Drop Lima gives you the opportunity to do volunteer jobs in community service with the friendliest people and in the country with the greatest cultural diversity with a mixture of Indian, European (German, English, Italian, Spanish, Austrian, French), African, Chinese, Korean, Japanese backgrounds, among others. You will be able to take part in local activities, learning from life experience in a community. You will get to know Peruvian culture and Latin-American history. You will understand the effects political decisions have on the population. You will make local friends through intercultural communication, carrying out activities as water project constructions, botanical gardens, English teaching, reforestation, organic agriculture, learning traditional dances, helping children and elderly in need, poor indigenous communities, education and environmental protection, among others.

You will also have the option to study Spanish and combine theory with practice, an adventure where besides learning, you will teach, work and relax helping others, combining your Spanish studies with community work together with local people and contributing to society.

History of Lima-Peru

“Lima” Patrimony of Humanity since 1988 by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), also known as “City of Kings” was for 300 years the capital and main city of European colonies in America (Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela, and other countries). The government representatives and Spanish royalty, as the Viceroy, who was the Spanish King’s representative in America and who governed the other colony cities from Lima, lived in this city. Lima was the city with more history, prosperity, beauty and cultural development in all America, having the first university (from North to South America), the “Universidad Mayor de San Marcos”, where the Argentinean aristocracy and from other countries studied. Also, the first schools in all America like“Lima San Carlos” and “Guadalupe”. Lima was important because it has the first port in the continent called “Callao”, from where all the American treasures were shipped to Europe. From its Fortress Real Felipe in Callao-Lima, all the Caribbean pirates and British corsairs’ attacks were repelled, like Sir Francis Drake, who plundered Lima and took a Spanish galleon laden with gold. These undesirable people would constantly attack Lima to steal its great treasures, they would capture and plunder ships (galleons) that transported important quantities of gold, part of the ritual Inca accessories. Through the conquest, these treasures leaving Lima belonged to Spain, who at that time was an enemy to the British government, whereby Lima was a walled city. Since before the European colonization, Lima was strategically located in the middle of the Inca Empire, thus being chosen to be the main city of the European colony in America. Its major attractions are archeological sites from the Inca Empire, churches with different architectural styles proper to Spanish or European design of the time (15th Century), 19th century old houses, palaces with styled balconies, museums, art galleries and others. These remainders are evidence to colonial history, the political and economic center of the Spanish Empire.

In 300 years of Spanish conquest, the Inca population was reduced from 40 to 5 million due to the genocide exploitation of Europeans against Indians in agriculture and gold mining. Lima was a city with prosperity, therefore it needed lots of labor during the colony or republican period. Given the reduction of the number of Indians and the lack of labor, a great African and Chinese migratory movement took place to be used as slaves, and even other migratory movements like the German, English, Italian, Spanish, Austrian, French, Korean, Japanese, and others, had to be added to the former two. Thus, together with the Incas, Peru became the country with a large cultural diversity in the world with its array of races, each one contributing with their knowledge and customs (transculturization). The mixture of this race array with the immense diversity of flora and fauna in Peru generate a rich culinary culture: “Chifa” (Peruvian food with Chinese influence), black cuisine (born in Peru from black slaves’ necessity to eat), Inca cuisine, Italo-Peruvian cuisine and Spanish cuisine, among others.

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