Mollendo

Long before the port, this stretch of coast was home to fishing and farming peoples. The Chiribaya culture lived here and along the coast to the south, and later groups known as the Changos occupied the shore between Aranta and Islay. Names ending in -endo and -indo, such as Mollendo, Catarindo and Cachendo, are thought to come from the Puquina and Kauiqui languages.

In the early republic the main port of the area was Islay, a short way up the coast. In 1860 Congress authorised a railway from Islay to Arequipa, but the American contractor Henry Meiggs and his engineers chose Mollendo instead, and the opening of the Southern Railway on 6 January 1871 is taken as the town's founding date. From about 1830 to 1880 the coast was a key port for the guano trade. During the War of the Pacific, in March 1880, a Chilean expedition landed, the customs house was looted and the town was sacked and burned.

Mollendo recovered as the second port of the republic. Merchants of many nationalities settled, and in the late 19th century families built large houses of Oregon pine brought from the United States; the railway station was built in the same style. By the 1930s the town had only about 7,500 inhabitants but a prosperous trade, including tourists from transatlantic liners. The development of the new port of Matarani from the 1940s took away the commercial shipping, and the old port fell into ruin.

Mollendo's identity is that of a port town turned holiday resort. For generations Arequipa families have spent their summers here, and from December to April the beaches fill with tents and umbrellas, weekend concerts are held by the second beach, and visitors arrive from across the south. The rest of the year the town returns to a slower rhythm.

The port years left a cosmopolitan streak: merchants and workers of several nationalities settled here and brought their customs, and the timber houses and railway buildings of the late 19th century are still part of the townscape. The Castillo Forga, built for an Arequipa merchant family whose summer train is said to have stopped right in front of it, is a national historic monument.

Catholic life centres on the cathedral and on local traditions such as the iron cross on the highest point of the town, raised on 1 January 1900 to welcome the new century. The villages of the Tambo valley hold patron saints' festivals, and the Mejía lagoons, with their migratory birds, are a point of local pride.

Mollendo had about 22,400 inhabitants in 2015, making it the third town in population in the Arequipa region. It is the capital of Islay province, with the provincial offices, schools and services, and the town is divided between the old centre above the first and second beaches and residential districts to the north and south.

The economy rests on commerce, agriculture, fishing and tourism. The port of Matarani, a short way north, is the main port of southern Peru, and part of the province's catch goes to the fish-canning industry. Artisanal fishermen land fish and shellfish sold in the town and in Arequipa. The irrigated Tambo valley grows rice, potatoes, garlic, sweet potatoes, onions, maize, olives and sugar cane, with cattle raising in Mejía, Deán Valdivia and Punta de Bombón.

Water and mining are the big local questions. The Tía María copper project in the Tambo valley has faced repeated, sometimes deadly, protests from farmers who fear for their water. In summer the town's life turns towards the beach, and weekends are busy with visitors from Arequipa; in winter, fog rolls in off the cold sea.

Mollendo's cooking is built on the sea, and its seafood dishes are among the favourites of the Arequipa region. Ceviche de muy muy, made with a small sand crustacean of the beaches, is a local speciality, and torrejitas de pejerrey are fritters of silverside, a small coastal fish. The local catch also includes cojinova, bonito, lorna and sole, served as ceviche, fried or in stews in the restaurants near the beaches.

The Tambo valley supplies rice, potatoes, garlic, onions, olives and sweet potatoes, and the coastal rivers supply the freshwater prawns of Arequipa's chupe de camarones, the rich prawn soup of the region's picanterías. Visitors from Arequipa bring their own food culture with them, so rocoto relleno and other Arequipa dishes are easy to find in summer.

The markets in the town centre are the place to see the morning's catch and the valley's produce side by side, and the restaurants by the second beach serve the classic coastal dishes through the summer season.