It was in my National Geographic some years ago that I found out that chilies and all peppers came originally from Bolivia. Before Columbus there was trade in what one day was to be called the American Continent. Those chilies traveled in trade to Mexico. Cortéz took them back to Spain. From Spain they crossed Extremadura to Portugal. The Portuguese navigators took them to South Africa (the famous Piri-Piri is from there) and from there to India.

Alex Waterhouse-Hayward