When I was a kid I thought Peru wasn’t a real place. I mean, Paddington Bear is from ‘deepest darkest Peru’ and he’s a character in a book. (Yes, I do know the difference between stories and real life. Mostly.)
So when I was told Peru actually existed I was deeply dubious. This was like being told Oz was real.* But, after some searching, I did find it on the globe we had in the house. This failed to quiet my doubts, instead causing me to develop a theory that Peru was the product of a vast conspiracy of cartographers. (I was a rather untrusting child.)
Lacking any primary evidence to contradict this idea I continued to be vaguely suspicious of the existence of the entire country. Until today.
* Which, okay, Australia is often referred to as ‘Oz’ and Australia is real but… shut up. We don’t have an emerald city.
arkayspark
23/08/2012
You lie you lie!!!! Emerald is a town located in the Central Highlands district of Central Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 census, Emerald had a population of 10,999…. so maybe not a city!!
and even green

Kandace Mavrick
23/08/2012
I stand corrected 😛 That makes twice in one day… That’s it. I’m checking my closet for Narnia.
arkayspark
23/08/2012
and Dad exclaimed that Sydney is
In 1987, David Williamson (Australian author) wrote a play about Sydney called Emerald City. The term ‘Emerald City of Oz’ comes originally from the Wizard of Oz, and in Williamson’s play one of the characters describes Sydney as the ‘Emerald City of Oz’, a place where people go to expecting their dreams to be fulfilled, but end up with superficial substitutes and broken dreams.
Since then Sydney’s unofficial nickname has been ‘the Emerald City’. And the 2006 New Year celebrations, which also celebrated the Diamond Anniversary of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, were called ‘A Diamond Night in the Emerald Cityhttp://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081129152449AAkEc1i
Photographs from the Emerald City
http://sydneyemeraldcity.blogspot.com.au
Daniella Mires
08/08/2015
Hi,
I don’t want to be mean, or sound mean either, I live in Perú. Lima, Perú.
Perú is a real country, I live in it, I am real. A lot of people don’t know Perú (Personaly I feel mad and sad about it but well..), and some people that DO know us think we are stuck in the Ice Age. No we aren´t, we are like anyone else, with computers, phones, iphones, tv etc. We are a normal city. I am peruvian, but I talk Spanish, English and French (Yes I do speak french) I speak english since Im 3 years old. Still don´t believe it is true? Well, google the words ‘Machu Picchu’ it’s a natural Inca fortress (Kind of, but is more of a temple) In Perú (Cusco). It is one of the 7 wonders, yes, you read well, 7 wonders. Google ‘Peruvian Food’ in Google, beware its like #foodporn.
I hope you can now be able to end your theories and realize I exist, I mean, we exist. 🙂
Kandace Mavrick
08/08/2015
I know! I actually posted this the day I first landed in Lima because I was so excited to be visiting a country that, as a child, I had thought was made up. A few days later I also posted this: https://platformthing.com/2012/08/29/to-climb-or-not-to-climb/
I had a wonderful time visiting Peru and I’d love to do it again.
Daniella Mires
08/08/2015
Yey! I hope you LOVED it here 😀 Thank you for being nice!