Peru is located on the western side of central South America. Its borders are the Pacific Ocean to the west with an
extension of 200 miles, Ecuador and Colombia to the north, Brazil to the east and Bolivia and Chile to the south.
Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia and Peru form the Comunidad Andina de Naciones (CAN, Andes Community of
Nations). The population is 29,132,013 people [1], the total area is 1,285,216 km2 and it is divided in three natural
regions: la costa (the coast) with an area of approximately 11% of the country, la sierra (the mountains) containing
of the Andes mountain range and accounting for 27% of the country’s land area, and la selva (the jungle) which
covers the majority 62% of the country. Peru has twenty-four departments and one constitutional province.
From the time that the Spanish first began colonizing Peru, people from all over the world have emigrated and
settled in the country. The first Spanish conquerors brought African slaves and most of them have remained in Peru.