Life in Arequipa

Matt and I have been here in Arequipa for almost a week now, and the reality of daily life here is only now strating to sink in. I believe they call this culture shock. EVERYTHING is different. Well, that is a bit of an overstatement perhaps, but I can say that nearly everything is different ... the food, the people, the way of life, the sound of the place, the pace of life (which is strangely both very rapid and very relaxed) ... Another challenge for me (less so for Matt, who is a spanish superstar and is struggling only with rather advanced and obscure things like the subjunctive) is that I can't yet communicate well enough to do all but the simplest things. I can order in resturaunts, tell the cab where to go, etc etc ... but otherwise I am rather useless, what with my vocabulary of about 300 words and my lack of a past tense. The lack of a past tense is a bigger deal than I would have ever thought. I guess it's obvious when I write it now, but you can't really tell any stories about the past at all, which means you live in this sort of fractured, tortured present, where what little you can say must be happening now, or about to happen really soon. For now, there is only the present for me -- the past I get to learn in the later part of next week, but the future (in at least one form) becomes available soon.


Speaking of learning spanish, our school is called the ...





It is a nice place, located in a series of offices in a very historical old colonial building in the center of town. I'll have more photos soon. Our profesora is the Senora Lula de Seelhofer, a lovely Peruvian woman who has lived all over the world with her Swiss husband Max. We have other teachers, etc ... I'll have to do a special post about them soon, but for now you'll just have to look at the sign on the door. Every morning at 8 am, Matt and I leave our lodgings in Cayma, a neighborhood 25 minutes by foot from the Plaza de Armas (central square) ... La plaza is where all of the action is. For example, here is a photo from the other day of a man dressed in a green Santa Claus suit being questioned by city police:




Most people in Arequipa get around on foot, by various forms of semi-public transportation, or by taxi. The taxis in Arequipa are everywhere. Most are tiny and yellow, smaller than the smallest subcompacts in the US. Taking a 2 km ride in one costs about a dollar:






The taxis cram the streets near the center, sometimes creating great yellow plugs of honking traffic:





Most people seem to get around in combis, which are shared vans or private taxis that operate as the bus system. A young man (usually alarmingly young, like 13 years old or so) hangs out the sliding door of the van and yells its destinations as it cruises by the sidewalk. Then you just jump on and pay him for the ride. Here is a combi:





There are essentially no traffic laws. There are some traffic lights, but obeying them is somewhat optional unless there is a traffic cop nearby. Most intersections are just charged on into and the details are worked out later. Crossing the street is an adventure.

Anyway, more later, but I just wanted to post a bit about the city we are in. I hope all is well wher you are. All is well here!


-MP