Potatoes: Chile vs. Peru
Did you know that in Peru alone, there are more than 4,000 varieties of potatoes!? It’s not surprising since most people claim that potatoes were first cultivated in the Peruvian Andes.
Well, if only it were that simple. Chile also has a claim to the potato fame, though mostly everyone can agree on the fact that spuds originated in South America.
This is such a widely debated topic that scientists have taken matters into their own hands. That’s how they discovered that more than 90% of modern potato varieties could be traced back to a region in southern Chile named Chiloé Island.
Things get even more confusing when you find out that contradictory studies proved that ALL potatoes derived from a single ancient variety. Ant that variety just so happens to be found by Lake Titicaca, on the Peruvian side.
