Punta Arenas, Peru

Punta Arenas is a planned community, originally built by American contractors, located in the northern area of Peru, in the city of Talara, Piura.

Punta Arenas was designed to house the supervisors and administrative staff of the International Petroleum Company (IPC), which was later to become BP Oil. There is a resemblance between Punta Arenas and the area of Coral Gables, Florida, which is coincidentally where the headquarters of the IPC used to be in the 1940s.

The neighborhood was organized around the letters of the alphabet. Each block of ten houses was assigned a letter, and each house was given a number. Therefore, a given house would be B-10, or W-5. As years went by, and as need for more houses grew, letter combinations like CH and Z were added. Once an employee of the company (originally Americans) was appointed supervisor, he and his family were relocated and entitled to one of these houses on a loan basis. Some blocks of houses were specifically designed for unmarried persons, featuring individual rooms with shared bathrooms.

When Punta Arenas came into existence, it featured all the facilities that a resident American family would need: 110-volt A/C, a constant gas supply, an exclusive two–pool club for residents, a beach, one private residence for the company manager and another one for official guests overlooking the beach, and an elementary and middle school which initially followed the American school system. Sidewalks were nonexistent, although unnecessary due to the 25 km/h speed limit that ruled. All houses were equally attractive and comfortable: red bricks, flat roofs, ample space, roomy areas and manicured lawns. As time went by, and as the Peruvian government took over the oil refinery after a coup, electric power gradually moved to Peruvian standards (220 volts), and the school started to follow the Peruvian school system, offering secondary education. Still, the campsite was definitely the most convenient and safest place to grow a family.

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