Source:XXX. The Freedom Monument in the «Plaza de Armas».
1.– In early December 2023 I traveled to Trujillo – Peru’s second-largest city – and to Valdivia – a city in southern Chile. The contrast was enormous. On the one hand, the Peruvian dryness is embodied in its light brown sand and sparse vegetation. On the other hand, the joy of water in Valdivia, with a Pacific Ocean that plays hide-and-seek with the mountains and melts into lakes when it wants.
2.-Trujillo is the third most populous city and center of the third most populous metropolitan area of Peru. In sum, a million people are living in this place. The region shows some economic dynamism. Agriculture has been boosted by the Chavimochic Special Project. This is an irrigation system that extends throughout much of the coast of the La Libertad Region, on the north coast of Peru. Mining from far mountains is also relevant. But I saw an evident obstacle to their success. Holes and poor pavement abound on roads that are unavoidably slow for long-suffering cars and brave trucks. In addition, sand always threatens the grey and tortured carpet of asphalt.
3.-The center of Trujillo has a very deep memory of Spain, from the layout of the streets to its main church -the Trujillo Cathedral-. You can walk along streets that inherit the time of our ancestors. For instance, I visited the “Casa Urquiaga”. It is currently the headquarters of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru and a museum. It was built in the 16th century and rebuilt in the 19th century. The first owners were the Urquiaga, a Basque family with good relations with the Spanish monarchy. But times changed and Simón Bolivar lived here some months in the process of the independence of Peru.
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Ciudades, leyes y letras 
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