Peru Romance Guide

 Peru dating and romance guide

“Sexual interactions between locals and travellers are common” – Lonely Planet 2009

Well that’s about as realistic as lonely planet can get about the realities of travel, and yes it is true and hooking up with locals is all part of travelling. So writes Coelina Johnston with help from Karl Sheedy.

Beware of this devious sex pest

In general dating Peruvian girls and guys is great fun, Peruvian girls and guys are sexy, fun and live for the moment, often paired with there less attractive Bolivian neighbours Peruvians seem to have a bad reputation for there looks among travellers. That is until they go out any Saturday night in Lima or Trujillo and Arequipa and see the scores of beautiful women around. Peruvian men are very "Latino" and can dance well compared to the gringos and show a lot of affection which is always nice. The men are generally smaller than the gringo men and fiercely macho, though to a lot of Peruvian men being "macho" means being sexist, immature, wolf whistling, heckling, never cooking, hating gays and the new thing to show how tough you are seems to be having a silhouette of a soldier on your car, how tough! But as I discovered after time there were also men with handsome Latino looks who were gentlemen as well, perfect!

If you have blonde hair be prepared for a lot of attention (male or female). For some this is great for others it is a nuisance that becomes increasingly annoying. The writer of this actually cut off her blonde hair because she got fed up with the attention, but some girls will love the attention and enjoy every minute of it. Often they will be seen as a rather unattractive girl back home and will relish all the attention from these rampant Latin men.


In Lima you will find the most trendy and beautiful Peruvian guys and girls and because not many travellers hang around too long because its "so dangerous" so it is easy to meet someone just about out anywhere (a friend even hooked up with a policeman) , and as there are lots of universities and money about people often speak English so you may not even need to know Spanish.  People talk about Colombian women (true) and Brazilian women (myth) but no one talks about the Peruvians and they really are beautiful people! Peruvian men may not be as handsome as Argentines or Brazilians but they are a lot better than Bolivian, I can’t think of anyone who has hooked up with a Bolivian man…


There are some strange stories going around in Peru, if you are in Peru a while you will surely hear the word Brichero/a. These are are often mentioned as money grabbing Peruvians who will try and suck as much money from a poor gringo as possible, indeed this can often be the case as people can "punch above their weight" and date a gorgeous girl or hot surfer dude in return for splashing out on them relentlessly. Stories have been passed on of gringos paying for latinas to travel a month with them for free or buying shopping trolleys full of food for their family, stories have even surfaced of gringos paying for some long lost grandmas medical treatment. Some bricheras even have a national reputation as a professional bricheras who never work but just live off gringo/a´s, these can allegedly be found lurking mostly in Cusco and Mancora. Or is all this talk just nonsense... Well probably,  people spend money on their partners all over the world without getting labelled something so why Peru is different is very strange...

In Cucso lots of  girls (gringo hunters or "Bricheras") will approach gringos asking what their name is and if they want to buy them a drink. They have rehearsed these lines well and perhaps know a couple more usually XXX rated lines that you may hear later on. If you want to spend some money and have some fun then this is all very well, there are no victims right? So everyone is happy.There are some strange terms that they use like if “big fish” if a Brichera captures a rich gringo (apparently). Or is all this talk of bricheros and bricheras just nonsense?  travellers are willing to spend money and if they want to spend money on dating then who cares? Who has a problem with it...? Well this bizarre name means even when hand in hand with your Latino partner, wife or husband you may get heckled, often by a lonely insecure man in a passing car, who is clearly a little jealous and without girlfriend.

The vast majority of relationships between travellers and Peruvians are great fun! and many gringos will find a nice, intelligent and loving partner and maybe long term love in Peru, often Latina girls prefer the exotic more sensitive and inquisitive gringos who don’t try and be “macho” all the time, and the Gringos like the exotic fun loving Latinas. Perfect! Also many girls including this author have found long term love with a Latin lover and have lived very happily, do Latinos do it better? maybe, but i think we are all attracted to something that is different or is it true that once you go gringo/a you never regreso or vice versa?

Inspired by telenovellas Peruvians fall in and out of love all the time, expect to hear "te amo" after dating a girl or guy for a week or so, this can be a bit full on for some travellers but for others its very sweet.  They will also be fiercely jealous and protective of their westerner, is there something in the blood or do they just try to imitate the telenovellas? Who Knows but whatever the reasons, it has to be said that dating in Peru is great and a must do on any single travellers to do list.

Views expressed in this article are personal and therefore not those expressed by The Point.