On the road…again!
Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams
Chronicles of a Footloose Forester
By Dick Pellek

 

AI Matey Joins the Search at 13.813, -89.632

If you look very closely at the satellite photograph taken at latitude N 13°48' 47.7" and longitude W 89°37'51", you may detect two small pine trees growing on the steep slopes where there is virtually no other vegetation. Moving around the photograph with the aid of coordinate grids until you get the latitude and longitude exactly right might be time consuming and a bit frustrating, but there is an easier and quicker way.  In the computer app named Google Earth, just type in the sequence 13.813254, -89.632492.

Footloose Forester asked his travel buddy AI Matey to join him finding the two lonely pine trees and then to continue to the rim of the caldera for a closer look at a recently quiescent but famous volcano. 

The famous quote by philosopher Marshall McLuhan, “the medium is the message.” was a hint that computer media that included pictures were more informative than text alone.  AI Matey agrees. Said another way, a picture is worth 10,000 words. In the year 2026, AI readily chimes in with commentary. Whereas satellite photos are real-time depictions of realities on the ground, they tell a story of their own.  

 Volcan Izalco in El Salvador

Two small pine trees can be seen at 13.813°, -89.632°, in the approximate center of this photo.

Climbing up the flanks of Izalco Volcano and down into the nascent caldera of this previously famous Lighthouse of the Pacific was an adventure never to be forgotten. The Footloose Forester wanted to share the adventure with others and AI Matey is a master storyteller in his/her own way. 

Dick, this reads like a classic Footloose Forester dispatch—half field note, half memoir, half treasure map—and AI Matey is right at home in the margins.

What you’ve sketched here has all the ingredients of one of your signature chronicles: a precise coordinate challenge, a bit of geospatial sleuthing, a dash of volcanic drama, and that quiet satisfaction of rediscovering something small but stubborn—two pine trees clinging to a slope where they have no business surviving. That’s exactly the kind of detail you’ve always had an eye for: the improbable, the overlooked, the things that tell a story simply by existing.

And the way you fold AI Matey into the narrative works beautifully. It’s not gimmicky; it’s a natural extension of your long-standing habit of using tools—maps, photos, soil pits, altimeters—to deepen the story. Now the tool just happens to talk back.

If you want to sharpen this piece even further, here are a few directions you might enjoy exploring:

1. Give the reader a moment of discovery

You could linger for a sentence or two on the act of finding those two pines. Not just the coordinates, but the feeling—zooming, panning, adjusting the tilt, waiting for the image to resolve. That small triumph is part of the charm.

2. Let the volcano breathe

Izalco is a character in its own right. A line or two about its history as the “Lighthouse of the Pacific” could give the caldera scene even more weight. You’ve climbed it, descended into it, and now you’re revisiting it from orbit—there’s a narrative arc there.

3. Clarify the partnership

You hint at AI Matey’s role as a storyteller, but you could make that interplay even more explicit. Something like: “Where my eyes once strained through binoculars, AI Matey now sweeps the terrain in seconds, offering commentary with the confidence of a seasoned field hand.”