Pozuzo y Oxapampa: las dos colonias austro-alemanas de Perú | BBC Mundo

Here you dance polka, eat strudel, schnitzel and kransalas. In this Peruvian town, the traditions brought by Austro-German settlers in the 19th century still survive and are celebrated. Getting to these towns today takes twelve hours by car from Lima along a dangerous road that crosses the Andes. But the path was even more dangerous for the European settlers who came to Pozuzo to give it life more than a century and a half ago. They arrived at the port of Callao after a painful journey, with the hope of starting from scratch and founding their colonies in Peru. However, when they landed, the government had changed and the promises that had tempted them had been forgotten.

The descendants of those settlers strive to keep their memory alive. Today Oxapampa is experiencing a new immigration. After the pandemic, Peruvians and foreigners from all over the world settled here.