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.
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