Mollendo
Highway 115 offers one of the two standard routes from Arequipa to the coast. The view is eastward here, with the highway making a huge loop as it drops down toward the city. The road at the upper right serves the Cerro Verde copper mine. The mountains in the distance are Chachanil, 6057 meters, and Misti, 5822 metrs.
Can't see the mine, but here's a great view of tailings. The Mina Cerro Verde, a world-class copper operation, belongs mostly to Freeport and Sumitomo.
The other road to the coast is Highway 34A, from which there's a good view of the Southern Peru Railway, running from the coast to Lake Titicaca.
For a while Highway 30, known as Interoceanica Sur, doubles up with the Pan-American Highway, and in that stretch passes this remarkable housing project.
The Jardin de la Joya.
We've left the Pan-American Highway. You can tell we're nearing the coast: think fog.
Fishing boats at Matarani.
Five miles farther south, here's Mollendo, a town created as the railway terminus. The track now terminates at Matarani, though a spur continues to Mollendo.
There's a bluff and a low coastal fringe, where you want to be careful.
Progress on Calle Mariscal Castilla
We're dropping down to the coastal fringe. Calle Blondell is the easiest way.
Same street, named for Armando Blondell, one of Peru's many heroes killed during the disastrous war with Chile (1879-82).
Could we be in Maine?
A few large buildings overlook the ocean.
Warehouse?
The railway station is barely above the high tide line.
Inside.
The station seen from below.
A view of the station, the deadend track, a sport facility, and the ocean.
Mollendo was never a good harbor, but this deadend channel provided some refuge for small boats.
The track used to go south about 10 miles, looking for an easy path up the mountain front. That line has been abandoned now, but this bit survives as the spur to Matarani. The Castillo Forga, from 1910, was formerly a party house called Casa Blanca. The owner defaulted on taxes in 1930, and the building was bought by the archbishop of Arequipa. Abandoned again, it awaits restoration.