Week 3 – 09/22 Lecture Report

1. In the lecture, the lecturer talked about the treasure left over by those ancient
civilizations which existed 5000 years ago, and that’s far earlier than the well-known
Inca civilization. The lecturer stressed that many people have been affected by the
movies too much, including myself. Before the last lecture, I didn’t pay much of
attention to those civilizations before Inca, but now I know I should stop watching
those movies, and live it for real.
2. I used to think Machu Picchu is a place where is quiet and full of amazing historical
architectures and ruins. However, the lecturer told us it is now full of tourists instead
which made me feel a little disappointed, since I hate those crowded places, so as the
solution, he told us there’s a similar place in Cusco but with fewer people.
3. He said there ‘re more than 4000 kinds of potatoes in Peru. It’s actually pretty hard to
imagine because our staple food is rice, but we only have hundreds of kinds of it. 4000
is really an insane number, and this makes me wonder if there’s anyone who has tried
all of them.

I think the most important thing I learned from the last lecture is to see more and witness
more but not just from those media. Nowadays, we have been affected by those high-tech
devices too much, ironically those devices lessen the distance between the people but pull us
away from the truth. I’m not saying everything spread on the internet is false, and what’s
more seeing is not always believing. What I hope is that I could see things and feel things in
person and establish my own perspectives even though they’re not all correct. Before the
presentation, I only knew about Nazca Lines and Machu Picchu, but now after the lecture, I
realized my knowledge was too narrow and lacking of certification. If possible, I would like to
travel Peru by myself. Maybe Machu Picchu is not that crowded.
In my opinion, climate change will hit hard on Peru’s agriculture industries resulting in serious
problem with their economy. The main incomes of Peru are from mining, agriculture and
tourism. For the first one, exporting raw materials like copper, zinc and so on, representing a
great part of their export, however compare with the other two, it is not sustainable. One
day, the resources will run out eventually, and for the last one, the outbreak of the COVID
virus makes people unwilling to travel around, but the situation is now better. As for the
agriculture, climate change will affect the yield directly. Depending on these reasons above, I
will say Peru’s economy is kind of vulnerable, so if their crops are no longer competitive as
usual, they might meet serious problem.