Technology

Santiago is hardly the ideal place in Latin America to buy yourself a new camera. But for the past 40 hours or so — since my camera got nicked in Quito — I've had no camera. And if you just continue straight on in your travels, without getting yourself a new camera: well, then the robbers have really won, haven't they? Because there's nothing more precious than the memories of a great trip. And so, despite the unfavourable buyer's market in this part of South America, I went out and got myself a new toy this afternoon.

Since my camera got stolen yesterday, it was top-priority that I got myself a new one today. Luckily, Arequipa is one of those cities that has a great black market (although it's not as good as some), where you can get yourself a brand-new digicam for quite a bit less than ye 'ol RRP. The Canon PowerShot SD630 (called the "IXUS 65" in Europe, Australia / NZ, and elsewhere) is a great 6MP, 3x optical zoom camera, with a beautiful big bright screen, and great photo-taking abilities: so far, seems to be working great, and seems to be a big step up from my stolen baby.

Since I last reported on the status of the new Hampy web site, there has been a lot of progress. I've been working on the site pretty much every day over the past week (apart from my three days of rafting), and the site is basically functioning, set up, and ready to go. However, more work is needed (particularly in the area of custom templating) before it's 100% good to launch. So it looks like I'll be hanging around for at least a few days after my jungle trip next week, to finish off the loose ends for the site.

Over the past three days, I've spent a lot of time working on the new English content for the Amigos web site. I've gotten a lot written, but there's still a fair bit more to do. However, I'm afraid that I won't be doing the rest. Due to an unexpected clash of personalities in the office, my time spent volunteering for Amigos has come to an end. I'm happy with what I've accomplished here, but I can do no more.

It seems that working on one web site (during my "vacation" — which seems to be on hold for now in Cusco) simply isn't enough: as well as Hampy, I'm now also helping with the Amigos web site! That's right: Jesus has persuaded me to lend a hand with the effort to deliver Amigos a shiny new site. However, in the case of Amigos, Luis is taking care of all the design and development side of things (using Rails); so I'm just assisting with writing, improving and correcting the English-language content for the various pages.

On Monday night, I started working on a completely new, completely better web web site for Hampy, a volunteer organisation that I kind of ran into here in Cusco. Between Monday and today, I've spent about 5 hours each night working on the site, over at Jorge's house (AKA "Hampy HQ), where I have access to his computer and Internet. And already, the new site is looking pretty good. Design basically done, rough navigation structure done, and a bit of the interactivity done.

It was delayed for the past week, due to Jorge and various other people going on a hike to Choquequirao, but now the work on the new Hampy web site has finally begun. Tonight, I completed the first humble steps, on the way to getting Hampy a new, stylish, Drupal-powered (naturally) web site. Hopefully the new site will be ready to go in the next week or two.

In Western countries, we're accustomed to Internet cafés being overpriced, limited to the city centre (and other commercial hubs), and really only used by tourists. This is because the majority of people that need it in these countries, have it installed in their homes, so there's simply no demand from the locals. But here in Peru, very few people can afford a PC or an Internet connection at home; and so cabinas (Internet cafés) have become a way of life here. They aren't around because of the tourists: they're around for everyone.

Today, I got taken on a big excursion, by Antonio and his friend Clevér (yep, that's his name!). The three of us went to Chaclacayo, which is virtually a town by itself, right on the Eastern edge of Lima, almost in the mountains. There, we visited Alexis Bellido — another of Antonio's Linux friends — who has a house out there, and who is also the only (known) Drupal developer in Peru!

Got myself a local Peruvian SIM card, to use for SMSing the folks back home, and for any local calls I might need to make. The brand is Claro (means "sure" or "OK" in Spanish), which seems to be the biggest one in Peru. Unlike with my Telcel card in Mexico, this one sends and receives international SMSes, no problem.