There are 467 blog posts for you to enjoy.
Tarapoto, Perú
February 4, 2023
Tarapoto, Perú: Tarapoto was founded in 1782 with the full name of Santa Cruz de los Motilones de Tarapoto. Tarapoto is the main tourist town for people going into the Amazon. The town itself is nothing special, no interesting architecture, the parks are small and few and in need of a lot of attention. The traffic noise is terrible, as is the case pretty much everywhere in South America. People come here to use it as a jump-off point to the Amazon, not to visit the city itself. Besides bringing in tourist heading into the Amazon, Tarapoto's other main source of income is retail services and agriculture (coffee, corn, rice, cocoa, tobacco, and more). Outside the city, in the mountains nearby, you can find many waterfalls, lakes, rivers, climbing and hiking areas, and mountain biking trails.
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Moyobamba, Perú
February 1, 2023
Moyobamba, Perú: Moyobamba was founded in July of 1540 with the name Santiago de los Ocho Valles de Moyobamba. The town sits at the base of the eastern slopes of the Andes Mtns, in the Alto Mayo Valley. The population is around 55,000. Moyobamba has been used as a base for missionaries, soldiers, and merchants heading into the Amazon region. The Mayo River passes alongside the town and it has eight tributaries, hence the "ocho valles" part of its name - 8 valleys. The nickname of the city is "city of orchids" because, around the city, that is outside the city, one can find as many as 3500 species of orchids. At the end of October each year, the city celebrates an Orchid Festival. The name "Moyobamba" comes from the word "Muyu" of the Quechua language and means "circular", and "Pampa" which means "plain".
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Piura, Perú
January 26, 2023
Piura, Perú: (San Miguel de Piura) Population: I've seen numbers range from 155,000 (the city itself in 2017) to around 450,000 (the entire province). Piura is a small city on the northern Pacific coast of Perú, in the Sechura Desert. Therefore, it sits at only 15 meters elevation on average. The Spanish name of the city, Piura, comes from the indigenous Quechuan word pirhua, which means "abundance". But, now the city is known as "Ciudad del eterno calor" or "The city of eternal heat" because it's hot all year round. I think it should be called "The city of endless sand" because you can't get away from the sand, anywhere.
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Talara, Perú
January 21, 2023
Talara, Perú: Population: around 125,000. Talara is a small city on the nothern Pacific coast of Perú. Therefore, it sits at only 15 meters elevation on average. The town sits mostly at or near beach level and is surrounded by brown desert cliffs, on top of which is a military base and the main road out to the PanAmericana Highway. Talara is an oil town. They have a refinery and the landscape outside the city is dotted with oil well pumps and many pipes snake their way across the dusty desert. And, when I say dusty desert, it's not an understatement. Here it does rain, but very rarely. Out in the desert there is no vegetation of any kind, the only trees, bushes and other plants start to appear near the beach and in towns where people have planted them. In 1916, the oil field workers went on strike, and it ended up being a violent strike with four people dead. Finally, the strike ended and the workers got everything they demanded.
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Caleta Cruz, Perú
January 20, 2023
Caleta Cruz, Perú: Population: less than 10,000 for the entire metropolitan area.
Caleta Cruz was designated a district in 1962. In 1532 the conquistador Francisco Pizarro placed a cross, the symbol of the Catholic church, on the hill over the region. Then in 1842 the cross was removed to the Church of La Merced in the town Piura (a little ways south of Caleta Cruz). Then sometime later it was again moved, this time to the National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History of Perú in Lima. There is talk about building a museum at the original site and moving the cross back to its rightful place. In 1926 an oil exploration company came into the area and with their work they also constructed the first actual roads in Caleta Cruz. Prior to these roads the people used only trails to get around the area. Commercial fishing took off after 1946 bringing in more companies.
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