No of course I haven't experienced it personally. We went to visit in 2015 and it was lovely, a lot of poverty but a lot of great food and the jungle was awesome. I don't know how old your girlfriend is or where she lived during the 90s - my husband lived in Satipo in the jungle as a kid with his family. He has a lot of good memories but unfortunately living through the terrorism as a kid sort of destroyed his family and probably his trust in Peru. They first fled to Canada as refugees and lost everything in the process. The family has a lot of trauma stemming from this. So this probably colors his vision of Peru.

However I will say that when we went to Peru we didn't stay in the touristy areas. If you only stay in the touristy areas, it looks quite nice. If you go to the miles of shantytowns outside Lima it doesn't.