Humboldt

In my spanish class we're reading a book of short biographies related to people who have influenced Peru over the past few centuries. The first story was about a young German named Alexander von Humboldt. In 1818, Humboldt lived in Peru for 5 months. During that time he managed to completely change the understanding of the currents in and around the Peruvian coast (he even has a current named after him), discovered uses for guano (a specific kind of bird poop) as fertilizer, contributed to research on the flora and fauna of the Andean and Amazonian regions, and documented what the social life was like here at the time. I found this completely shocking since I've now been here for almost 5 months and I still have not found many uses for the guano that I encounter in my day to day life. The message in the story was that he was able to accomplish all of this because he made an effort to document the things that he observed. This got me thinking of all the things I observe that I don´t write about and Humboldt inspired me to write more. Thus I will be making more of an effort to entice my readers with my observations of Lima, Limeño culture and the life of an ex-pat. Don´t worry I have no illusions of grandeur that someone will name a current after me!