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A Collection of Short Stories
Two hearts, two countries, one love
Oct. 2, 2024
I've started updating my photo album photo names, starting in the Perú album. And for whatever reason, I started at the end of the alphetically-ordered list of subalbums. Oh well. What this entails is this: opening the directory of photos, one at a time of course, in a program called GeoSetter. Then in combination with that I use Strava for my saved walking routes and Google Maps. The GeoSetter program uses OpenStreetMaps and I'm finding that sometimes the two map apps differ in street names for the same streets. So, why am I doing this? After all, it is taking a huge amount of time to locate the pictures on the maps and rename the files to the street location names.
May 5, 2024
I am now settled into a 2-bedroom apartment in Arequipa, Perú. From both of the bedrooms is a view of Volcán Misti, or Misti Mountain, a dormant volcano. Very close by is the dormant volcano group called Volcán Chachani. Arequipa sits in a valley at an average of 2328 meters (7638 feet) above sea level. The lowest part of the city is 2,041 meters (6,696 ft) above sea level at the western side of the valley in the area called Huayco Uchumayo while the highest is located at 2,810 meters (9,220 ft) above sea level where the urban sprawl extends up the side of Misti. The Chili River splits the city center in half. The Chili River is fed from the nearby volcanos.
2024/04/29
On October 30, 2022, I started a backpacking journey from Colombia south to Uruguay and then back north to Colombia. I wrote about it in several parts: part one was on March 25, 2023, part two was on April 24, 2023, part three was on July 26, and finally, on September 29 I summarized the journey. I then spent six months in Colombia before starting another backpacking journey south. But this second time I skipped over Ecuador. The problem was this: the government of Ecuador and the governments of several other countries including the US, Canada, England, and others, all discouraged foreigners from visiting Ecuador due to kidnappings, general crime, and so on. Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa announced a nationwide state of emergency and curfews due to the escaped Jose Adolfo Macias, alias Fito. He is the head of the powerful gang Los Choneros, and was in prison for organized crime, drug trafficking, and murder since 2011. He had been serving a 34-year sentence. So, things are not good in Ecuador these days. When I arrived at Tumbes, at the northern Ecuador/Colombia border, I got on a bus and headed directly to the southern border town of Huaquillas, and went directly into Perú. That was on March 9, 2024. I've been on the road for about two months now and have decided I will stop and look for a place to live here in Arequipa, Perú.
2024/04/23
Majes/El Pedregal, Perú, has a population of around 52,000. The city was established in 1999 as a district with the town of El Pedregal as its capital. The metropolitan area is young but there is evidence of the area having been inhabited long before, as in thousands of years ago. There is nothing left of any archeological significance in the area, though.
2024/04/21
Chala, Perú, has a population of around 10,000. The city was established in 1857 but its founding hasn't been well-documented. and this area has been inhabited much further back, by the Incas. Chala is a busy fishing port, as you can see in the photos in the photo album.