Vuelta a Mejia

Mejia is a small costal village swollen by its summer visitors. The Pacific’s waves roll in over darkish sands and rows of gazebos offer shade from the fierce sun. Most of the visitors are here for the weekend and travel on buses from Arequipa leaving as early as 4am for the 2 ½ hour ride. The village comprises worker's homes to the east of the main road and wooden summer cottages to the west. At the edge there is a significant number of upper class rented or owned summer houses and apartments. There is a small church well attended by the locals and a square where children play during the evening throwing small balloons full of water for it is the time of las carnivales.

typical wooden summer house in Mejia

Mejia beach

Close to the town are the Lagunas de Mejia, an ecological park of several lakes set in marshes. The area supports a vast array of bird life and there are chacras with sheep, cows and goats. The final part of the race passes through the paths that access the lakes offering glimpses of the marshes and the sea to the other side.

Lagunas de Mejia

The day began fitfully as we were supposed to be down in town by 5am. I arrived on time but before anyone else – probably not surprising. This was my second visit to the point of departure as originally the bus was set to leave the night before but plans were changed unbeknown to me and one other.

We left  Arequipa for the race shortly before 6 having stacked about 40 bikes on the top of the bus. We had a small breakfast on board and arrived shortly before 9 to find that the organisers were impatient to begin. I had been signed up for the D category, over 60s but no one had informed me it was a shorter ride, so with much confusion and at the very last minute I changed from D to open D joining the A, B and Cs, some 50 or so competitors.

So we set off and I was quickly swallowed up by the group and equally quickly left behind with some others. I wasn't sure if this was all an adrenalin rush or they were going to sustain the pace. I had thought that my fitness at the lower altitude would be of assistance but I struggled breathlessly in around 30 degrees. I had wanted to keep pace with my new acquaintance Bruce, a wiry Australian of around 50+ who had mentioned his need to retain the ashes, but his lighter frame outpaced me on the hills and I settled into my own rhythm.

The course was roughly circular at first taking in some farm trails before giving way some sandy hills that took us in a wide loop inland and back over the dunes towards the sea. The going was very tough. Even on the flat the sandy surface resisted one's efforts and many times on relatively easy climbs I had to dismount and push. The down hill sections were uncertain as hitting deep sand at speed was a question hope over reason but I managed to stay upright. By the time we got to the marshes and lakes I was accompanied by a small group and we hung together. At times we had to depend on locals to tell us the direction as we only saw one set of marshals the whole race. He final route was straight with a training wind and I was able to make some ground on others. For a while we took to the asphalt and I found a young man with whom to share the work.

Team Inter Group

I fancied I saw Bruce's white shirt off in the distance and felt I was gaining only to fall back again impeded by a trail 20cm deep in warm brackish water. Arriving at he line Bruce told me he only had 30 seconds on me but had been held up somewhat by lack of directions. Anyway I was pleased to have competed and got a small cheer. Bruce and I both gained medal in our class, mine was a first place but since I was the only over 60 in the race it constituted a phyric victory, Nonetheless it was a great ride and was suitable ended by retiring to the beach to share beers and empanadas.

Exploring town and country

Conflating two bike rides over the weekend on Saturday I decided to explore the South of Arquipa and to try to find the velodrome and an old building belonging to the Founder of Arequipa,  variously described as between 7 and 11km South of town. The road out of town is pretty busy as it runs through an industrial park and leads to the main bus station. There is a steel mill churning out much of the bar used for concrete reinforcement. By dint of asking several people I eventually found the Velodrome, a pretty good open air venue in some need of repair but generally usable. There was little evidence of action although people said it was regularly used for competitions but not for training. Pity, I would have liked to have ridden it.

el velodromo de Arequipa

Again, trying to ask my way to my next destination I was mis-directed and ended up at the Palicio of Goyeneche. I gather this is a smaller edition of a colonial palace situated in Central Arequipa and attracting tourists interested in colonial arquitecture. At any rate this one was closed so instead I climbed some steep hills to Sachaca where there is a lovely colonial church and a mirador from where one can see across the surrounding countryside and city. I stopped for cheese ice cream which is an Arequipa speciality. Overall it was a pleasant but somewhat uneventful exploration of this part of the city's edge. 

queso helado

Church at Sachaca, charming village with mirador

view from mirador

The next day 26 cyclists of Team Inter set off for Tres Arbolitos at the foot of the volcano el Misti. Unfortunately the Volcanoe was covered in cloud . Nevertheless the trail up through the ditrict of Selva Alegre offered some good views of the city below and a gorge of about 500feet with the trail at its precipitous edge.  Eventually, after around a 2 hour steep climb we reached the foot of a rocky hill of about 500 feet leading to a plataue where,  surprisingly,  grew some Australian Eucalyptus trees. 

Foto! Foto?

los arbolitos

With the altitude and a chilly wind it was a pretty strenuous ride and climb, and arriving as we did strung out along the trail it was a long and cold wait for the final members of the group to come down the rocky climb.

By the time we left the descending cloud had reduced visibility significantly but notwithstanding we  flew down the trail without mishap except for one of the adrenelin seeking downhillers parting with his bike on the final and steep decent whereby the bike travelled onwards and fell into a 10 foot deep hole and left him parked beyond the mound he had jumped. Luckily he was OK and passed it off as part of the 'downhill' experience.

Adobo

cautious descending

Back in town we sought out a restaurant serving adobo, a sort of spicy pork dish of stew with a large chunk of fatty meet on the bone eaten with bread dipped in the stew. We drank Kola Esocesa a local brand of Kola supposedly originating from a Scottish family business.

  

Arequipa 4 (ride to la Joya)

Ride to La Joya

Sunday's ride gathered 14 cyclists ready to ride to La Joya in the province of Arequipa, a rural town of about 25,000 people. Although we would need to climb for around 45 minutes we would then have to lose around 4,000 feet. We stopped by the road at a small but busy open air market and drunk surtidos. Here is a recipe in case you are interested. I enjoyed watching the Jugodora pulling together the ingredients. It was very tasty and refreshing.

El Especial:
100gr. de fresa
100gr. de piña
100gr. de papaya
50gr. de plátano
250ml. de leche helada
1 huevo
1cda. de algarrobina ó miel de abeja
50 gr. de azúcar

Moving on, and as usual, the road part of the ride was somewhat intimidating with occasional long-base petrol lorries passing frighteningly close to our group of orderly cyclists. Further on there was some great road descending until we gathered by the side of the road to leave it via a well made track.

A little uphill before the payoff

There followed one of the most exhilarating rides I have enjoyed. The path was made of sharp and grippy sand and we sped down winding trails with banked sides, almost seeming as if they were made specially for cyclists. Eventually we left the path and actually made progress by riding the tops of mountain ridges, sometimes crossing down a valley to pick up yet another super ridge. The landscape here was lunar with absolutely no evidence of human or animal occupation, the very occasional cactus but otherwise entirely isolated.

great trails

After a while we came to some abandoned mines and shortly after a deep gorge which it emerged that we needed to descend carrying our bikes whilst scrambling down the rocks and up the other side. 

Hard going

Note the colour coordinations

I look steady but fell off 3 times!

This was very arduous and my lungs were bursting at the still relatively high altitude. Later on unfortunately Jaime our organiser suffered a complete break of his rear mech and we had to remove it, shorten the chain and set him up with a single-speed.

Eventually we joined a trail which led to bridge overlooking the first sign of green vegetation we had seen for 4 hours. Down in the gorge a fast running river fed an oasis like plantation where the deep greens contrasted against the predominant browns and greys of the arid landscape. 

No gold here!

Add caption

Cave

Quite a new bridge, thankfully replacing the one with holes in it!

From here we had a few more hills to negotiate until plunging by way of a rocky trail, accompanied by a fast running man-made river into the dusty town of la Joya. Here we were met by others who had come by a shorter route and were revived with beers and a lunch of fried chicken, potatoes and corn accompanied by Inca Kola, rehydration fluid as good as any. We played with offering chicken bones to several dogs and we attracted a Peruvian dog that was quite cute.

Peruvian hairless dog

Later we lifted the bikes on top of a bus and headed back to Arequipa where, due to the onset of rain I elected to take a taxi, bike on top, back to my apartment. A fantastic day. 

Arequipa 3 (roof talk)

Roof Story of Arequipa

Local roofs overlooked by the snow covered volcano, el Chachani 

I have a love/hate relationship with the roof of my apartment here in Arequipa. It is a place to achieve great things but also the seat of one or two problems. With the current rainy season one can hear (very early in the morning) and also see owners of buildings sweeping the collected water from the roof. There is some urgency in this since although one would hope that the concrete is impervious to rain it is unfortunately porous and water gathers in the ceiling and escapes in drips via the light sockets, sizzling as the circuits short out. Not good.

Yet roofs here are working spaces. Mostly they contain water tanks, large bottle like constructions that pepper the skyline. Generally houses also have some form of solar convection panels that can work well when the sun has been shining but not when it is dull. I don't have solar so we rely on shower heaters one of which has been shorting out, but that's another story!

Typical water tank and solar panel set up

Roofs are also a place for hanging out the washing, which will generally dry by lunch time, and for storing all kinds of junk. Often they can be dangerous due to the steel reinforcing rods that are often left unmindfully exposed.

My washing drying in the morning sun

Many of the local roofs are the homes of a roof residing dog population. From here they can be invoked by passers by into a state of near hysteria and the ground dogs join the chorus which takes several minutes to subside. Although they appear to be pet dogs they do not live a great life sheltering from the hot sun or the seasonal rains.

Most of all the roofs offer great viewing platforms and with clear mornings one can see the volcanoes el Misti and el Chachani, snow capped in the distance.

el Misti

Arequipa 2 (cycling)

Cycling with Team Inter here in Arequipa

Last Sunday I joined the first of the regular Sunday rides with my newly found group of friends. The posted time of meeting was 8.30 and arriving punctually I was only the third person to make the riverside rendezvous. Making use of the the time available before what was bound to be a delayed start Jesus aka Mono (Monkey) offered to show me round his sports club, Club International nearby. I am not sure what makes it International but it is a well appointed club with 2 pools, tennis, football, athletics, Gym, spinning, physio therapy and much more. I have subsequently bought a months's membership. Disgracefully, cycling around the club I got caught up with some plastic sheeting and fell onto the concrete floor emerging with slightly bloodied knee and elbow! Good start.

We set of, 26 of us around 9.00 am in a SE direction straggling out through fairly quiet streets eventually reaching the village of Puacarpata where there is a large church and Plaza. After this we headed for the hills, mostly on rocky single track skirting the edge of newly grown but illegally developed villages of box construction concrete dwellings. As were we, they were sitting precariously above a drop of some 200 feet. Actually most of the path wasn't ridable and we had to dismount and negotiate the loose dirt ledges carrying and wheeling bikes. It turned into more of a scramble than a ride. I found this curious since this route had been selected specially in my favour but it was at least a good upper body workout.

Rocky sometimes unridable path

Eventually we reached a rocky resting point where stood the remains of an Italian house built around the time of the War of the Pacific. It had once been a well constructed dwelling but was now dilapidated and isolated.

Italian abandoned house

We then headed on by foot to an oasis where stood a 100 year old palm tree which dominated the otherwise sparse vegetation. This seemed to be a point for reflection on how it could have grown here and we rested before heading on to an old abandoned gold mine constructed above a deep gorge. On returning most was down hill.

heading back

We eventually reached the restaurant, La Zambita. This belongs to Wilhelm a member of the cycling club and only opens Sundays serving food typical to Arequipa. I had Rocotto Rellena served on a pastel of potato and cheese.

Rocotto Rellena at La Zambita

It was spicy and good but too much to eat. Eventually and in spite of the onset of the afternoon rain we headed back to the centre.

It has to be said that the countryside around Arequipa is not the most wondrous that Peru has to offer but the points of interest we saw, including Andean terraces stand out in the otherwise somewhat bleak moonscape.

Team Inter, great people

All in all a great day out and an interesting and fun ride.

paucarpata

Arequipa 1

Pretty evening sky over Arequipa

I have been in Arequipa, Southern Peru 10 days now. 

This is a great place. Generally quite clean and ordered and except for traffic fumes a pretty good environment. It offers a great deal for the passing traveller and more for its growing expat community. I seem to have had considerable luck and have been more or less fully occupied on some tasks and enjoying what is on offer for the last 10 days and have only just had time to start the usual city tourist trail having today visited the Santa Catalina Convent this afternoon. 

Santa Catalina

Santa Catalina

My interim stay hostal, La Casa de los Pinguinos really couldn’t be better. Run by a Dutch woman called Alex it is safe, clean and better than many hotels. Alex has a young son and has moved to Arequipa permanently. There is a steady flow of travellers enjoying all the mod cons that you need at a modest £12.50 a night for B&B.

With the help of new found friends at Team-Inter mountain cycling club, notably, Henry, Jaime and Hans  I have bought a new and quite good quality bike with the intention of selling it on at the end of my trip.

 Last weekend we cycled to la Playa at Mollendo, some 120km. Setting off at 6am we first had to climb some mountains but overall to the coast we dropped 2,200 metres in altitude. So much of it was downhill. Generally the landscape was either lunar mountains or lunar landscape desert. Most of the ride was by road which was generally OK but the buses passed fast and sometimes very close. The last 25km was downhill off-road which was good except in places the trail gave way to 15cm deep volcanic ash, like riding in talcum powder.

Volcanic ash downhill

Arriving around lunchtime after a stop for breakfast and a few punctures we were greeted at the end of the trail by one of the club members who had taken the road and bought a 6 pack to welcome us. From then on the emphasis moved from cycling to drinking and the following day we hung out at the beach before loading our bikes under a bus to be taken back. Generally it was sunny around 28C with a fresh onshore breeze and a was a really unexpected and memorable excursion to the coast.

Beach at Mollendo

Me and Jaime, the club coordinator

Much of the rest of the time has been taken in locating an apartment. Short let furnished apartments in good areas are in short supply and prices seem high. After visiting 3, 1 located via an agency and the others through newspaper ads I have settled on a 2^nd floor 3 bedroom apartment. This is really too large and will cost $540/month but it was the best of the bunch and in a very safe and quiet area – I aim to move tomorrow and maybe I can sub-let a bedroom.

Other than that I have joined some salsa classes which are offered by Christian in a smallish studio in the centre. These have been OK but the teaching is somewhat random at times and some of the moves are quite tricky. I have also been learning to play the Cajon with my music teacher Marta. She is doing her best with me but I feel she is unused to teaching cajon to adults – this is vacation time and many of the schools are dedicated to making money selling courses to occupy children.

I have been chatting to Chad and Johanna a young couple from Michigan aiming to work here for a year – they too have been preoccupied with finding accommodation and have been industrious in seeking apartments but as yet with no conclusion. Johanna is a break dancer (and other things) and has been encouraged into offering a workshop to locals. She has great skills and has opened my eyes to how formalised and athletic is as a style of dancing. They are both friendly and able young people in search of a moderately different and adventurous experience.

Chad and Johanna

Arequipa is probably overall the nicest city I have visited in Peru. I would wish slightly fewer tourists but the altitude and the weather is fine and people are very friendly. It has its dodgy side with stories of assaults, express kidnappings, some drunkenness and prostitution – I saw a man last evening walking along the street with his dick in his hand but I think he was habitually drunk and possibly disorientated rather than exhibitionist. I was also offered the services of an attractive and rather plump young man, but apart from this I haven't been hassled and generally felt safe. It is very beautiful and from some views is dominated by the presence of the Volcano, El Misti.

El Misti

Lima 2011

Generally I rely on this blog to achieve a number of ends: Partly I try and reflect in writing on some of the interesting aspects and differences culturally and geographically when living in another country, in this case principally Peru. It is also a diary of personal memories and a way of keeping in touch with those I know and love. Other audiences, the world, the blogosphere are welcome to read whatever is written but my idea of what is news or blog-worthy may not be to all tastes or even very interesting to you. I try to focus on on life as it passes normally in Peru rather than offer a catalogue of itinerant tourist experiences.

Arriving in Lima there was a little difficulty with my hotel booking but it was sorted out quickly, but I was tired after nearly 24 hours travelling. My first chore was to buy a mobile phone at a cost of around £20 and after that I spent the day chilling out and becoming accustomed to the sights and sounds of Lima. The next day I met up with Junior a young friend who has spent a year as a volunteer in London. He would now rather be back there with his Italian boyfriend but there really isn't a way to get residency as a student without a bucketful of money which he doesn't have. He has decided to try and work on a cruise ship with the aim of saving enough to buy a college admission in the UK and then see where it takes him. Firstly we went to a 'menu' cafe with a 3 course meal for about £3 and after that hopped a taxi to the centre where we visited the old station which has been beautifully converted into a cultural library narrating the story of Peruvian literature, poetry and theatre. After which we shared a beer nearby in what is described as the oldest wine bar in Lima.

Junior with Alan

Station/library roof

On 2 evenings I enjoyed shows in the atmospheric Jazzzone Club on La Paz in Miraflores. JazzZone The first of these was a really hot latin jazz/salsa band and I was able to watch but didn't participate in the excellent salsa dancing. The second evening I had wanted to see Magaly with a Jazz fusion band called. Magaly Solier is the Peruvian actress in the award winning film Teta Asustada, (Milk of Sorrow) and the combination of her Quechuan lyrics and percussion led fusions of Jayna made for a memorable event. Magaly Solier

The next day I met up with Liam and Jan, friends of Alice Onion and participants in Croydon-Spanish. They are in Peru for an extended stay and tour. Unfortunately Jan suffered a bout of irregular heart beats and they had to cancel their tour and do stuff below 2000 metres which was a real shame. Jan used to live in Lima and Spent 5 years teaching there so was meeting up with old friends. Liam even participated in a 10km run and won his age category. I think they had a good trip after the initial disappointment of losing the tour they had booked.

Liam, Jan and me in Bar Haiti in Miraflores

On my last day in Lima I decided to do a Spanish class at South American Explorers. The teacher was having a health insurance crisis and was too distracted by the need to sort out payment for special medicines so we ended up cancelling. Erik, the teacher, an anthropologist and linguistics specialist was met by a couple of New Yorker friends, Pilar and Bill. We later went to lunch at Punto Sal overlooking the sea and had a nice lunch. I had cerviche and unfortunately fell ill the following days. It turned out I had met Pilar before when she was a waitress in the Real McCoy and English restaurant in Cuzco and we actually recalled each other. Some coincidence! Where we eat is nearby to the hang gliders which are always entertaining to watch.

Bill, Pilar, me and Erik

Hang gliding near Larco Mar, Mirarflores (not me)