An American in Lima

Valley of Santa Eulalia, Peru, which has sun, big rocks and amazing avocado ice cream There is no sun in Lima during the South American winter. No shifting light. No shadows. No way to tell 8 a.m. from 5 p.m. Just a flat grey sky that stays put, like lint in the dryer basket. I wrote [...]

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The sun disappears almost completely. The sky is the same dead grey color, from 8 in the morning to 6 at night.
A strange weather condition called garua invades the city. Garua is a damp, cold mist that hangs in the air like a cobweb and turns the sidewalks into slippery deathtraps.
It never truly rains, however, so the dirt and soot don’t wash away. Buildings, plants, cars, street signs – everything is covered in layers of dust (polvo) made moist by the garua.
Humidity levels climb during winter, intensifying the cold. As the months wear on, the chilly humidity creeps into the marrow of your bones, until you feel like an old carrot left in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator.

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