A Peruvian in Australia: Summer ´13

Where did time go? Last time I posted something was January. What an irresponsible blogger I am! But the sweet warm air of summer was here and I couldn´t stop. Now the chill that announces winter starts to blow, the sun sets at 530pm and we already forwarded our clocks. It is time to go back inside the house and write about summer.

Melbourne is like Lima when it comes to the seasons. They are 2 different cities during winter and its opposite, summer. During the latter, people are happier, colourful, active, barely wear clothes and the city offers a variety of activities to keep its inhabitants entertained. This time, with a bit more street knowledge than last year (when I was feeling rather like a clueless tourist holding my hand NOT to bring a map out of my pocket), and a bit more money too, I tried and enjoy myself this summer around. Of course if you ask Mel, she will probably say I did that a bit too much…

Every band comes to visit Melbourne when it´s hot. It´s also when the festivals take place. This year I did not go to any festivals but rather to gigs from bands I had wanted to see for a good while. Like that I saw Manu Chao, a legend in Latin America, on his first ever gig in Melbourne. It was a fantastic 2+ hours of jumping in the middle of the moshpit right in front of the stage, listening to a guy I had missed by a matter of days or weeks in places like Barcelona, LA, Lima and Mexico City. The Palace Theatre proved to be a great venue for it and I will for sure go back there again.

Manu Chao @ The Palace

Manu Chao @ The Palace

From Manu Chao’s FB page

Chan Marshall aka Cat Power offered a great show at The Forum and made me forget for a bit that there was another show that same night that I would have also wanted to be at: The Stone Roses reunion tour. But Chan is a great singer and musician and I loved her show.  Her band is amazing and they were put to the test when she dissappeared from stage for about 10 minutes. No Cat Power concert goes on without a dose of spontaneity.

Goran Bregovic took 30 minutes to finally get the poshy HamerHall in the Arts Centre to get up and dance. From that point on and for the next 2 hours they would not stop dancing, laughing and clapping at the rhythm of his Weddings and Funerals Orchestra. Awesome showman and main ambassador of the Gipsies of the world.

Peruvian band Novalima had cancelled their September 2012 show but paid the debt and put to dance The Fabulous Spiegeltent with the Afro-Peruvian electronic grooves and showed Melbourne how to have a good time Peruvian style. They came to Melbourne to tour their 4th album Karimba.

The XX was on the antipodes of any of these previous gigs, and with a packed Festival Hall, they mellowed the air with their voices and lyrics. The beats were good, but not enough to raise a foot off the ground. Next time I will get seats to enjoy them properly.

The Comedy Festival was on too and we saw Danny Bhoy do what I have dreamed about several times: write letters to the big companies of the world that, with their faulty services mess up our lives in ways that can make a whole auditorium burst into laughter. Guess I need to make my anger more creative.

Another festival that loves summer is Tropfest, where short films are shown on a big screen while thousands picnic at Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Short films, I found, are a great way to get to discover a country and its people. And they should be more popular. I think it was in Mexico where short films were made mandatory to be shown at theatres before a long film as a means to make them popular. Australia has a very healthy short film scene from what I appreciated, but doing what they did in Mexico would be a good idea for Australia too.

Here is a link to my favourite short from that night.

Speaking of films, another place to watch them in style is the Botanic Gardens during a session of Moonlight Cinema. Imagine watching a film on a proper massive screen laying in your sleeping bag on the grass while sipping wine and watching real bats fly by. Last year we saw Hugo under a full moon and the fireworks of Moomba festival sparkling over the city skyline. It was so good they should have made an ad from it that night. This year we saw The Hobbit. For the second time. Turns out I got Mel tickets for it as a Christmas present to watch it and she did the same, but for a 3D screening. Good thing we are fans and both liked the film.

Another event that took place in Melbourne for the first time this year was White Night. The city building and public areas were artistically altered in the form of installations, laser shows, or used for tours of spots usually shut to public, concerts, movies. The city was flooded by some 200, 000 people rediscovering the beauty of the CBD and having fun. It was pretty cool in fact. Check out some photos.

Finally, this summer was also the time to prepare our trip to Peru, for which we leave in 2 weeks, running from the cold to catch some Equatorial sun rays. And preparing for it has involved not just designing the itinerary, getting gear and making reservations, but also getting fit for it as we will be doing Inca Trail with both our parents (Mel’s mom and my dad). I have taken running as my new favourite thing (after Football of course, also known to other people  who-have-sports-that-claim-that-name-though-they-use-other-parts-of-the-body-and an-ovoid, as Soccer). So far I have been running up to 12 Km and have reached my personal record of 9.4Km in 44 minutes. I always loved running since I was younger. I used to run at school on the “olympics” we had there and usually ended in to the Top 5 with the older boys. 

But there has been some bush walking and hiking too in the National Parks around Melbourne. Nothing like the feeling of a forest, the quietness, the birds, a kangaroo or two, and the freedom of being in the wild.

Toolangi Forest

Toolangi Forest

Brisbane Ranges NP

So there, in a nutshell, that was summer. Next time you hear from me I will be in South America, or happily back from it. Having seen my family for the first time in year and a half, having traveled to my beloved Amazon rainforest and showed Mel the start of the Amazon River, having hiked Inca Trail one more time (this one with my dad for the first time since my first Inca Trail ever, when I was 8 and he was the tour guide); having witnessed the beauty of Machu Picchu; having eaten ceviche and lomo saltado and drank Cusqueña like a glutton; having showed to Mel´s mom why I am so proud of where I come from.

So stick around, it could be fun.