Finally, I can enjoy a moment of fresh evening as the curtains fill with the breeze like jubilant slack sails after a long calm.
Summer in Lima is like living in a baking oven, but I don't mind. It is true that if you venture out between 10 am and 4 pm, you will end up like one of those sponges you'd use to wet stamps, your clothes developing an accordingly close relationship with your skin.
However, there are many ways to alleviate the sense of exhausted panic this may cause in a 37°C organism, for instance:
- buying a fan at the affordable price of one sol from one of the wandering sales people on the buses or at the bus stops (I have two)
- seeking out one of the malls or supermarkets, museums or libraries and their reliable AC-induced 18° indoor climate
- visiting one of the many parks, preferably one with eucalyptus trees, which clear up your respiratory system a bit after all the desert dust
- paying entry to Parque de la Reserva, and following its "magical circuit of water", a large constellation of different programmed water creations, some of them catching unsuspecting tourists unawares when they suddenly change direction and force, i.e. bring an extra set of clothes
- giving in to the call of one of the ice cream vendors who just happen to wait on any given corner
- placing large quantities of fresh fruit, like water melon and grapes in the fridge/freezer and indulging at any hour
and, of course, popping off to the closest beach, which may not be as clean as you'd like, but what with the Humboldt current supplying it with 14° water from depths, it definitely is cold enough to wake you up after lunch.
