If you like the smell of fish, you would like Chimbote. This is the second place I lived at, and some of my most challenging experiences happened here. Thanks to some of the close friends I had here, Chimbote was more bearable. Chimbote is a huge fishing city with lots of fish factories (which explains the smell). The fish is basically what runs the town. If there is no fish in the sea, the town loses its income and goes into a depression. That happenes on a regular basis. These factories are huge multi-million dollar businesses, and are in it for their money. These factories employ a great population of desperate unemployed job-seekers. Many of my close friends happen to work there, and I would here horror stories from all of them of how these factories really are. Unemplyment is such a huge problem in Peru, that these factories have no problem looking for people to work in their human torture chambers. One of the exciting things about these factories is how they cram hundreds of people in an un-airconditioned room and force them to skin fish, or rip out fish guts, without any break. Not only do these factories treat their employees like dirt, they will often refuse to even pay them for their work. If the cheated factory worker tries to put up a fight, they just fire him and hire the next desperate job-seeker.
             While living in Chimbote, I quickly became accustomed to the smell of rotting fish. Chimbote is built on a desert coast, therefore, you probably wont find very much grass or trees. Physically, it was the most unpleasant place I have ever seen. However, Chimbote has some real kind and sincere people, some of which are my closest friends.