Day 339: Mollendo, Peru
The best thing about blogging is the people you meet online who become great friends despite never meeting them in person.
At times you are fortunate enough to be in the same city and in Cusco I met up with Mica from KayPachaTravels.
She’s also in her 30s and a former chef. After a few beer she made me dinner.
Needless to say I liked her immediately.
I met up with Mica again in Mollendo, a small beach town outside Arequipa.
I was happy to see it wasn’t a touristy beach slum polluted with barefooted foreigners refusing to bathe and instead was filled with Peruvian tourists.
We learned that we had arrived on Sunday, the day after a huge party and the last weekend of Carnaval.
However, the festivities hadn’t ended and there was much to enjoy as the beach was packed.
Along the way we saw teens pelted in paint and learned that it is tradition to assault people in coloured paint and spray foam.
It’s amusing to observe – from a distance.
But as we searched for a spot on the beach that wasn’t overrun with children a teen walking by slapped me in the mouth with green powdered paint.
I was shocked and so was the teen when Mica proceeded to tell him off.
I had no idea the severity of the prank until Mica turned around and I saw the look on her face.
My teeth were completely green, my face was green, the powder had run down my body and it was now green.
I could not see any of this.
Mica, worried that it would stain asked some people how to remove it and they offered me their kiddie pool to wash it off.
After conceding I would be slightly green most of the day we continued our way down the beach.
And then Mica was hit.
Fortunately with just a bit of spray we were able to laugh it off as part of the local festivities.
But I wondered if people were staring at us because we were the only foreigners there or because I was as green as the Irish hostel I had berated earlier that week.
That night I showered and tried to remove the rest of the paint. We put some nice clothes on and went to a concert some speedo wearing lifeguards invited us to.
But within 5 minutes of arriving I was slapped in the arm with white paint and Mica had foam sprayed in her face.
Our sense of adventure wasn’t as great so we decided to seek solace away from the action at an oceanside bar.
Besides we didn’t need to meet up with the speedo sporting life guards as we had already seen all they had to offer.
These pictures? PRICELESS. I love that she caught you sitting in the kiddie pool on camera!
Oh she took about 25 photos, I could make a flip book out of it!
Speedos should be outlawed. There. I said it.
I know I couldn’t help but just stare at it!
I have to agree…lol they really should no matter how great of a body or not. They are just not cool…lol!!!
Yep great bodies look better in board shorts.
I’m going to disagree. Any more pics of lifeguards? Post them so you guys could disapprove while I enjoy.
Too funny, that is the only one I have – but I´ll try to find new ones for you.
Then don’t go to Brazil because you’ll see banana hammocks every where. @(^_^)@
The women are too hot, they make me look bad. Already decided not to go because of that 😛
Haha I was thinking the same thing of the picture!
God, it reminds me of an uncle who used to wear speedos…and he shouldnt have…
Yup, the kiddy pool pic will go dowen as one of the more memorable photos on Bacon Is Magic…
Hahaha, very funny!
The speedo indeed looks horrible
hahahaha, too funny. We have the same tradition in Campeche, we call it “Pintadera”. People use balloons filled with (mostly) water-based paint, so it is really easy to clean.
Hilarious!!
There’s something about Speedos that really unnerve me… I hope you were able to get the green paint off eventually!
Your green-ness reminds me of Pagwa, a spring festival that involved lots of powder and paint throwing, from when I lived in Guyana.
LA
P.S. That’s some grape smuggler!
Ahha! The speedo!! For sure they’re still talking about us…”they would have had so much fun at our private beach spot”… Come back soon so we can go out and play again!
Even though you’ve left the hostel, you just can’t escape the Irish :). If all the lifeguards look as good as the one in your photo, I wouldn’t mind if they all wore Speedos.
I can imagine the look on Mica’s face when you turned around…It would be a bit startling to have something thrown in your face…however, I love the picture of you in the pool…you actually fit!
Haha, I think the pic of you green in the kiddie pool needs to be your new profile pic on FB 🙂
What a fun experience! I’m glad you and Mica got along just fine even if it’s your first time seeing each other. I can simply tell that you’re kindred spirits 🙂
Mica is a great girl, anyone heading to Cusco should try to catch up with her.
Yes, make the kiddy pool picture your profile. It’s unique.
Ha, it would certainly be one of the more memorable ones.
I have to agree, the best part of blogging is meeting people offline. I recently got to meet a bunch of bloggers in Austin at SXSW.
It’s really cool how there is no awkwardness, it’s just like you haven’t seen them in a while even though you just met in person.
Yeah, it looks like the speedo dude already showed you the goods 😉
You went to SWSX? So jealous, I really hope that´s something I can do next year.
I Love this pictostory. The moments of extreme awkward integration make for some of the best stories I’ve had.
BTW, I talked about “gender equity in Brazilian men’s swimwear” in my penultimate post.
I love your guy’s look. 1/2 knowing; 1/2 proud; 1/2 terrified
I´ve heard Brazilian men also like to go skimpy. I think some things in life should be a surprise, and that´s one of them.
I think that is Karma for not liking us Irish folk.
There, I said it
🙂 🙂
And I think you should have a contest to caption your kiddie pool picture 🙂
Of all the colours of paint going around I did start to wonder if there was a reason I was slapped with green.
Sounds like a really fun time! And yes, the speedo leaves nothing at all to the imagination.
Did you notice his tan line 😉
I did.
Wow. That is definitely a Speedo right there. *ahem*
My friend had an experience like this. He and his friend went to Thailand just in time for the Full Moon Party. They arrived during the day to a real rundown old hotel. As they came back out, this gang set their sites on them and pulled out guns.
They went running through the city for a good 20 minutes or so before they cornered, expecting to be shot (Yes, they were 19 and had never been travelling before) and got pelted by paint pellets. Apparently it’s tradition to throw paint, flour and water over foreigners during the Full Moon Party. Hahaha. Love it.
It would be nice to know these things before you go! I saw the kids with paint over them but never thought they would just throw it on strangers!
The last line made me laugh so hard. Well played.
Ah, speedo wearing lifeguards. Probably good you got out while you still could.
I´m pretty sure in other areas of the world they allow them to wear shorts and they still manage to save lives, why haven´t they figured that out in Mollendo?
How neat to meet up with a fellow blogger in real person, and what fun this sounds like (although I wouldn’t want to be the splattered in paint either!). The locals must get a kick out of “foreigners” just seeing their reaction. Wonder if they targeted you two!
Punk ass kid! I wouldn’t know how to react either, though. What a jerk.
Based on his reaction from Mica yelling at him I don´t know if he did it to be malicious. I was just stunned that someone touched me, that never happens here.
Nice kiddie pool, but those speedos belong to the 80’s 😉
We actually saw quite a few speedos on the beach. I guess they´re still all the rage down here.
That pool is not for adults! Stop stealing toys from little kids Ayngelina…
The funny thing is that the grandmother did not see the mother take me over to the pool so she came by and wanted to know what the hell I was doing.
I hope you just looked up and said: “taking a bath.”
Thats one brave teen to just walk up to you and smack you in a face thats just crazy. Whats with the speedos?
I know! Two lifeguards came to talk to us every day and once invited us out to another beach. One wore a shirt so it wasn´t that bad but this dude was always just out there with only his speedo. If I didn´t have this photo I wouldn´t know what his face looked like because I couldn´t help but stare at the speedo the whole time.
I would’ve chased that kid down and buried his face in the sand.
On the other hand, he did give you fodder for a great story and photos 🙂
“…remember that time I was slapped in the face with green paint in Peru…”
Ha! I was stunned but Mica was really upset and gave him a few choice words in Spanish. He seemed really shocked that she was mad.
Nice! Carnaval is very different around South America and yes a lot of it involves paint, throwing water and having fun.
How did you like Mollendo? I have yet to visit Arequipa and haven’t heard much about the beaches there.
I really liked Mollendo, and Mica liked it so much she´s going back at the end of the month. It´s a typical beach town but for Peruvians, I think we only saw a handful of foreigners when we were there.
HAHAHA! I nearly spit out my coffee with the comment, “Besides we didn´t need to meet up with the speedo sporting life guards as we had already seen all they had to offer.”
LOVE it. I think I would have flipped out with the green powder stuff. Normally I hate being taken by surprise.
Throwing colored powder on people is the strangest prank! So random and bizarre…
And that dude in a speedo looks so uncomfortable, lol.
Okay so I found out it´s actually flour with food colouring – makes sense now that it stained my skin.
Carnaval just ended, a couple days ago was St. Patty’s, today is Holi in India, and spring is tomorrow in the northern hemisphere… if there was ever a fitting time to be hit in the face with green powder, this is it 😛
haha although I think I would have been shocked/pissed at first, in the end you just gotta laugh and be happy to be part of it all!
Ok…so just as I am on the dude with the speedo, my husband looks over and says “what are you LOOKING at???”
Now that is hilarious!
You actually look a little, er, monster-like in that first one, haha. If I was a little kid, I’d be scared of you.
Aww I also notice you were wearing black. Imagine if you had white shirt.. you’ll need a bottle of shout to spray on it. hehehglad you got it off.
Yep I was lucky, my swim suit not so much, it’s still a bit green.
Haha enough bulges for one day? I hear that sistah! You’re such a gringo… hurr hurr… get it? Cause you were green? Eh? Eh?
Actually, one time my dad too my friend and I out of school to Canada’s wonderland and I wore my awesome, new, green shorts. When I got wet the dye went down my legs and they were green for literally a week. Being 12, this highly upset me.
I am fashionably late posting a comment. I have to say, Irish doesn’t make you look any less beautiful. I got a kick out of your conclusion, and thanks for posting that pic that goes with it. I am a bit Speedo deprived up here in Canada. Darn, woke up to minus 4C – and that in the Shuswap.
But Fida did you spot his tan line?
lol…I didn’t dare to look that closely 😉