Quarantine Day 98: Winter At Last!

   Hello Folks,

we have been under quarantine for 98 days now and there is no end in sight as the infection rates keep soaring. In this past week, we have had as many people infected as we have had in the previous three months and the death toll is getting very grave.  Since the vast majority of people unable to go into the streets and take mass transit or drive in their automobiles the pollution levels are very low for this time of year. Usually, with the cold air inversion created by the Andean Mountains, a thick bowl of dark grey thick pollution is trapped within the city limits and many people, especailly children and elderly suffer from chronic lung problems associated with it. The pollution is so thick that you can see the swirl of filth whenever a bus goes by down the street spewing yet more diesel fumes and if you were to go up into the mountains for some fresh air you will look back down upon the city and only sea a large sea of grey.  As you can see from these images, we have been getting a nice amount of rain in the city these past few night which means lots of snow in the cordillera.  And with limits on people's mobility we have clean air. Probably the cleanest air since the invention of the carbon combustable machine(automobiles).  

.

   Mind you these mountains may look huge, but in reality they are only the lower ranges of some really monstrous mountains that lay just behind them with Aconcagua at a height of 6,962 meters(22,841 feet) the largest mountain in South America just off to the North East of these in the pictures. I use to be able to lay in bed in my old apartment and view a glacier which was at around 20,000 feet sea level back in 2003-4.  

   The Andes name comes from the Quechua word anti, meaning east. The Andes is a 4,300 mile-long mountain range located in South America that straddles seven countries, namely Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela. 

   South American cities of La Paz, Mérida, Sucre, Medellín, Arequipa, Bogotá, and Quito are some of the major cities on its many plateaus.