We are again at sea on our way along the Peruvian coast to Callao. Peru’s coast range looms in the mist to starboard, and now and then you get a brief glimpse of the Andes beyond. Incidentally, we are far enough offshore that normal mountains and hills would be beyond the horizon. That’s how high these “foothills” are.

So let’s say you’re a little podunk port on the Chile coast. About all you can boast is that you’re a bus ride north of La Serena, which is a town the tourists want to visit more than you. You don’t even have a container ship gantry. So whaddaya do? Fight pirates, of course.

As Ostia is the gate to Rome, Italy, San Antonio is the gate to Santiago, Chile. A devastating earthquake in 1985 leveled eighty percent of the city, and a massive quake struck again in 2010. They are just now getting back on their feet.