A la playa

There is a prestigious sports and social club in Arequipa, 'Club Internacional'.  In additon to numerous swimming pools, tennis courts, football courts, restaurants, general areas for socialising and enjoying the sun (when it's not rainy season), they also organise outings.  Our landlord, Juan, has been a member there for 40 years.

At the weekend, some of the club members organised a trip to Mollendo, on the coast, and Juan invited us to go. After the cooler temperatures and incessant rain and flooding in Arequipa, we jumped at the chance to lie on a beach and soak in some sunshine.

At 5am on Sunday morning, Juan, Tom and I walked to Club Internacional to meet the others and to catch the bus.  This being Peru, the bus was late of course, but by 6.30am we were on our way.  The journey took around 2 hours and during that time we learnt about Juan, who up to this point we knew little about, except that he has an excellent singing voice and loves to blast out opera music during the early hours of the morning.

Juan Guillermo Carpio Muñoz is a well-known writer in Arequipa, specialising mainly in writing about the history of his country.  He also taught at one of the universities in the city for 30 years, but eventually gave it up for a life of leisure and writing.  Who would have thought our landlord would turn out to be a local celebrity! 

When we arrived at Mejia beach, the air was hot and slightly humid, the few light clouds clearing to reveal blue sky.  From there, we took a 4km walk along the sand, the cold Pacific Ocean intermittently sweeping across our bare feet as we walked.  Being a sports and social club, the others ran or jogged, but we were content to stroll.


At the end of the 4km, we were provided with water and a delicious piece of carrot cake, in celebration of Juan's friend's birthday.  Juan then led us to the main road where we hailed a taxi to ride into Mollendo centre.

What should have been a short journey ended up being longer, as we were pulled over by the police and our driver reprimanded for carrying 7 passengers when he only had a licence to carry 5.  It was very cramped in there, with a little girl sat on her mother's knee and me squashed against the roof sat on Tom's knee, wedged against Juan.  The driver got back into the car and continued to drive, so whether he paid the policeman off or not, we don't know.

Once in Mollendo, Juan showed us some sights of interest and then took us to the local market for lunch.  Here, one could really immerse in true Peruvian culture.  We lunched on pescado frito (fried fish) and rice, washed down with a glass of chicha de maíz morado.  I find the plates of food here somewhat overfacing, and Tom even does not always eat everything.  So we were astounded to watch Juan not only clear his plate, but then order and devour another whole serving of pescado frito and rice.

By that time, the 3 of us were hot, full and tired so we took a bus back to Mejia beach to meet the other club members, and lay in the hot sun, relaxing, for the remainder of the afternoon, before taking the bus home.

When we arrived back in Arequipa we could see that the effects of the rain had not ceased.  The road over Puente Grau into the city centre was closed and the traffic diverted.  We paused on the bridge, to look down at the río Chili, amazed by the masses of water flowing over onto the road.

Rainy Season in Arequipa

Well, the sunshine has left us for a while.  January and February are summer months in Arequipa, however this time of year is also rainy season.  For the rest of the year there is nothing but clear blue skies, so I suppose for this reason that is why the city is not equipped to cope with heavy rainfall.

The endless days of blue sky have been replaced with fluffy white clouds, turning darker as the day progresses.  By late afternoon, it starts to pour with rain.  There are no drains on the roads, so the water just flows like a river down the streets.  The flood risk of being a pedestrian is incredibly high.  Vehicles speed by, drenching folk on the pavements.  People leap across the roads, trying to avoid obtaining wet feet and ankles.

Another hazard as a pedestrian are umbrellas.  Peruvian people are of a lower average height, and as such the spikes on their umbrellas are exactly at face height for myself and Tom.  I have nearly lost an eye on a couple of occasions.

No sunshine also equals no hot water, as the water in our apartment is solar heated.  Washing one's hair in cold water is not a pleasant experience!  It also poses a problem for washing and drying clothes, as we are missing the modern luxuries of a washing machine and tumble dryer, meaning I wash everything by hand, as many people do here.

Whilst we were surprised at how modern certain parts of Arequipa are, the rainy season has reminded us of differences between here and home, in terms of how our infrastructure is built differently to handle wet weather conditions.  We are also lucky to have hot water at any time of the day, every day, something I will never take for granted again.