The "joys" of apartment living!

In Brazil I own my own house - the emphasis is on "house", as it is a detached property on a 690 sq metre plot, so there is a nice garden buffer between me and my closest neighbours. There is also a street between me and the next house on two sides, and the only other adjacent house is below and to the side, so, although they extended close to the property line, not too close to be a nuisance. It means that life there is reasonably quiet, most of the time.
in Peru, however, where I spend the other 6 months each year, I have to rent. I do have certain requirements from the property I rent, apart from price being a major factor, primarily that it has secure off-road parking for my motorbike, a kitchen with a proper cooker (many rentals here are "holiday" lets so may only have a twin-burner hotplate), and include electricity, water and internet in the price. It also, obviously, must be furnished! As I only stay for 6 months I cannot negotiate my own utility bills, as minimum contracts are usually 12 months, and clearly having my own furniture is not really an option - even though renting an unfurnished place would be cheaper. I do have quite a lot of my own things which I store, along with my bike, with a friend here - kitchen utensils, bedding, towels, and so on - as the supplied equipment with apartments is usually either "old" or inadequate.
The first year I was here I was assisted in finding somewhere by the charity I was volunteering for - in the case of most volunteers the charity sets up the accommodation beforehand, but I was left to look at their selection once I arrived. I also had to make a quick decision on the only place they had found, though I had a couple more lined up myself to look at, as the landlady had someone else interested, and for the most part I am quite happy with my choice. It is only half a block from the beach on a fairly quiet street, and is a small building with only 7 apartments, but with two separate entrances, so only 3 accessed from the same side as mine.
The apartment is one bed-roomed, but quite spacious, with a small kitchen, and a large lounge-dining room and a balcony, plus access to the roof terrace, where the washing lines are. The kitchen was not very well equipped, though did have a full cooker, so I bought some of my own things, like a set of crockery and cutlery, and kitchen knives, and a lot of the general furnishings, provided bedding and towels were pretty old - the pillows were a little musty so I bought some of those too!
Most of the other apartments were occupied by short-term tenants, and though at times a little noisy, that first year was not too bad. At the end of my stay I asked if I could book again for the following year, but the landlady was reluctant to commit so far ahead in case she lost a permanent lease by accepting my booking, so asked if I would confirm closer to my arrival date in 6 months time. However by then the apartment was already taken until a month after my arrival so I had to look elsewhere.
Although there were quite a few online adverts for apartments getting a response from the advertisers was more difficult - with many not responding, and some of the email addresses bouncing back as "unknown" - so in the end I arrived the following March, booked into a hostel for a week and started apartment hunting! As it was just before Easter there was not much available, particularly for the 6 month period I required, but eventually I responded to a large advert outside a new building and they had a brand-new 3 bedroomed apartment available. It was much bigger - and more expensive - that I needed, but was beautifully appointed, if a little further from the beach, so I took it for the full 6 months. The English-speaking landlord gave me a special price based on 6 months occupancy, and a single occupancy rebate, but it was still a lot more than I had paid the previous year. One downside to this apartment was that other apartment in my floor, which was going to be the owner/landlord's apartment, was not yet finished, so there was a lot of construction noise for the next two months!
At the end of my second stay in Peru I started looking for somewhere for the following year - the apartment I was in was great, but really too expensive, so I needed something smaller and cheaper. I looked at two other one-bedroomed apartments nearby, one advertised parking available, but when I asked about it they said the parking was already  taken - by their car! The other also advertised parking, but she said is was "on-street" and safe, and also the kitchen was outside the apartment, which was essentially a large bed-sit with a bathroom and balcony, across a hallway and without a door, so easily accessible by the other apartments, though she assured me it was just for "my" apartment! I declined both of these! I contacted the landlady of the apartment I had been in the first year, and she said she could only "guarantee" availability for me if I paid a deposit in advance, which in the end I did.
So year 3 I was back in the same apartment, and found that the crockery I had bought before was almost all broken, the pillows replaced with more musty ones, and I had to replace a few more things. Apart from that I spent another agreeable year in Peru, though the neighbours seemed a little noisier. Year 4 was a similar story - I again had to replace some equipment, as the supplied things were getting more decrepit, and more pillows!! The same goes for year 5 - though two apartments were now taken by long-term foreign tenants, and there was a crazy lady in the apartment below me, who blamed me for any and all noise in the building (I am like a mouse as I am only too conscious that I am sharing a small space with others and try to keep as quiet as possible), and used to harangue me often, despite me trying to convince her that it wasn't me! Eventually the landlady had to evict here as she was fighting and swearing with everyone!
Towards the end of year 5 the landlady informed me that there would not be any parking the following year as she was looking to rent the whole ground floor, including the parking courtyard, to the mini-market next door. Year 5 had been particularly noisy, too, not only the crazy lady below, but also a large group on the ground floor, and the young lady above me made quite a lot of noise (that I was being blamed for by crazy lady!), so I was not too disappointed that I would have to look elsewhere, and, in fact, the landlord from year 2 had a small apartment available, that I booked in advance!
The only "snag" with this apartment is that it was on the 5th floor (we would call it 4th, as the ground floor here is the 1st), and the stairs were a bit of a problem for my advancing years, but it was again very well appointed, though secure parking was a few blocks away, and had great views over the town. Unfortunately it was not going to be available this year, year 7, upon my arrival, and the only thing he had available was a 3 bedroomed apartment in a different building (owned by someone else but managed by him) which I could rent for 6 weeks until he had something smaller available after Easter. It was again going to be on the 5th floor, but was a lot more expensive, too, that I was willing to pay, and I wasn't that keen on moving during my stay, so I started looking elsewhere again.
There was a place I had ridden past often during my stays and I found an online advert for it - it looked nice, even though it was located in a campsite so I thought could be a bit noisy, so I contacted them and booked it for my 7th year stay in Peru. On arrival, however, they showed me to a completely different apartment - the one I had booked was not available, but they had others, which were open-plan bedsits, with a hotplate rather than a cooker, and were totally unacceptable. I had just spent over 30 hours travelling to Peru, including an overnight stay in Lima airport, and found myself without a place to stay! In desperation I called the landlord from the previous year and his wife said they might have something, so I caught a passing taxi and went to his building.
His wife (he was away) showed me another building they were managing, and another 3-bedroomed apartment, again fairly new and very well appointed, but again quite expensive! I could stay there for 2 weeks, but it was booked after that, though they would have an apartment in their building 10 days after that, meaning I needed to find somewhere for the intervening days! This was also a 5th floor apartment, and this year I was struggling even more with the stairs (bad knee, old motorbike injury, and bad ankle), so felt I needed to look for a lower floor solution.
I contacted my landlady from before and she told me "my" old apartment would be available 10 days after I moved out of the one I was in, but that she had something I could stay in until then. So I moved back into the building I had been in 5 times before. The mini-market move hadn't materialised so the parking was also available, and 10 days after moving into a large bedsit I was back in my "old" apartment!
Yet again the equipment was woefully inadequate, and as far as I can tell there is nothing new since my first stay here 7 years ago! So much so that I stored all her kitchen equipment (utensils, crockery, etc.) and am using all of my own, and again had to buy new pillows. She seems to have an endless supply of old, lumpy, musty pillows! The main gate to the parking is damaged too, though I have told her about it, and it is quite difficult to get the up-and-over gate to stay open so I can get the bike in and out! 3 months in and still nothing has been done about that!
This year there are only 2 apartments occupied besides mine, both long-term by young ladies, though both now have boyfriends staying - one above me, and one below me. The young lady below has a dog with her, and until the boyfriend moved in I never heard her - literally I could not tell if she was home or not, and never even heard the door - however now both doors are slammed shut on entry and exit! Similarly the people upstairs - the apartment door is slammed hard, sometimes more than once as they appear to have trouble closing it, on entry/exit, and just this morning (at 07.30) it was slammed 4 times in the space of 5 minutes! It appeared they were taking some things downstairs one flight then going back for more, and each time the door was slammed on entry/exit, which is several times a day! The door to the street is slammed by her too, and occasionally not even shut properly so the lock doesn't catch, leaving the property unsecured! I manage to close both my apartment door and the street door without resorting to slamming them, but then I have always been considerate towards others.
I really like this apartment - it is spacious, in a good location close to the beach where I take my daily walks, and has secure parking for my bike, but I just wish that fellow tenants would show as much consideration to other building users as I do. It is the only downside to living here, especially since I am now using my own belongings in the kitchen!! With only 2 months left this year till I return to Brazil my thoughts are turning to 2020, and whether I try and re-book, or see if I can find something quieter!!