Continuing on from my previous post… and again my apologies for the delay. I appreciate Sand’s Facebook has been a lot more current that our blog in the past month.
After some time looking for accommodation when we were still in Sydney and furthermore after we arrived in Lima, we had not been able to find a suitable sized furnished house for short term rent in Arequipa. Most were either smaller places or the owner wanted a long term lease and this is despite canvassing all options with Real Estate agents, our local Arequipa language school and even friends and relatives of our Peru friends in Sydney (thank you all so much for those helping us with this!).
We were coming to the end of our tenure at the Lima Guesthouse when it so happened to be Sandi’s birthday. During which time another Diospi Suyana missionary Peter Schultz who had been studying language with his family in Arequipa for the past 2 months with his family celebrated Sandi’s birthday breakfast with us that morning (and being German, contributed a European Continental offering adding to the cultural mix). God’s timing I reckon as he noted an accommodation option that a fellow German family was just about to leave Arequipa and they lived in a house that could accommodate the ten of us. They had to vacate 2 weeks early for us, but there was an option with another Arequipa family to accommodate them (a squeeze but doable for them short term).
This is how things transpired and the way was made for us to have a house in Arequipa. We achieved some amazing bargain Lima to Arequipa airfares too – the locals we spoke agreed this was the best deal they had heard of (even with LATAM who arguably have the best reputation and safety record).
We arrived at Arequipa airport greeted by the beautiful Arequipa snow-capped mountain visa of the three local volcanoes – Chachani (6.057 km above sea level), Mt Misti (an active volcano 5.822km above sea level) and Picchu Picchu (5.664 km above sea level). We were picked up by our Diospi Suyana German compatriots (the Schütze’s and the Kühling’s) in Sam’s all-time favourite vehicle – the VW Kombi T1 model with barn doors! So Sam had to have the front seat! ☺ Here are some pictures that captured the moment.
Our initial view of Arequipa’s volcanoes from the airport tarmac
Peter Schütze (left) and the Welch Family pickup from Arequipa airport in the VW T1 Kombi
In the first week we were in Arequipa (NB 2.4km above sea level) Sandi has suffered with headaches and daily blood noses (which seemed to go on and on for like an hour in some cases) the altitude. This was a challenging week as Jake, Sam, Isaac and I started language school – deferring to the Tuesday as Sandi was unwell. But with God’s Grace we got through OK.
For the initial term it seemed there was yet more mandatory admin and finance stuff to night after night. This has also proven challenging balancing the kids’ needs with Sandi and mine, plus doing justice with our language studies and homework each day. I found myself still working away well after midnight as the norm, including calls to Australian institutions sorting out incompatibilities with the Peru systems. For example SMS does not work between Australian and Peru telco systems making many Australian transfer authentication systems. Hopefully that is largely behind us now and we can settle into some sort of routine.
Here below are some pictures of our place which best describe our abode in Arequipa;
We live on the top two floors with the caretakers’ family on the ground floor.
View north of Mt Misti from our bedroom window
View from our bedroom window down to street level
Our house looking up the street from ground level
The kids room (and overflow bedroom)
Our kitchen with gas oven, microwave, fridge etc. all inclusions
Our dining (foreground) and living areas
Our outdoor laundry
Our rooftop getaway with city panoramic views
Operator beware – the Peruvian electric instant hot water shower head (unfortunately does not meet Australian electrical standards and you do occasionally get a tingle up the arm when turning the tap under the shower which is heated by an exposed active element inside! ☠)
Sunset over Mt Misti taken from our bedroom window
Chris
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