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Month: December 2019

Arequipa to Tacna part deux

11/22/19 – 11/28/19 Altitude can have strange effects on the human body.  Thickened blood and pressure on the brain can cause a number of unexpected issues.  In many cases, a person’s fitness is irrelevant.  It was cold and dark by six and we went to bed early.  I awoke around nine thirty and noticed that Read More

Arequipa to Tacna Part I

11/19/19 – 11/22/19 Arequipa outskirts.  Bus exhaust breakfast.  Hectic hustling through traffic, but soon discover ourselves removed from urban confines and in mountain bordering pueblos.  In the air a mixture of mesquite, parched desert, and grilled chicken.  Lunch in Pocsi.  Asked if the water was potable and a woman confirmed in a curious manner as Read More

Arequipa and Volcan Chachani

11/12/19 – 11/18/19 At sea level, atmospheric pressure is around 14.7 pounds per square inch.  At sixty thousand feet above sea level (~18,000 meters) it drops to one pound per square inch.  This elevation is known as the Armstrong limit in Honor of General Harry George Armstrong, who was the first to recognize the significance Read More

Cajamarca

11/3/19 – 11/11/19 “I have never used them, but to me they seem like they would be very nice.” Wim, our host, had a soft and polite voice.  He’d directed us to a dentist around the corner.  All we needed was a cleaning. We walked in together and promptly directed to a pair of 1950’s Read More

The Pope’s toilet

10/26/19 – 11/2/19 In my attempts to learn Spanish, I came across a film called “The Pope’s toilet.” It is about a town in Uruguay that will be visited by the Pope.  The newspapers predict over a million people will come to see him speak and so everyone in town is scheming how to profit Read More