We woke to a beautiful sunny day. Yeah, we got to wear shorts! It has been so cool that we have only worn long pants for most of the trip, so this was a big deal! Fortunately, we thought to bring our jackets along for the boat ride, as it was quite cool.
Paracas is a lovely little seaside town, with the standard handicraft stands and restaurants. Our favourite activity while waiting for the boat was watching the birds. The pelicans were enormous, and the seagull type birds were the most interesting divebombers, tucking in their wings and going straight down into the water like bullets.
One the boat, we stopped to look at this design drawn into one of the islands. It has been there for hundreds of years, and according to our guide, so no one is sure where it came from, or what it means. Is it a candelabra, is it a cactus? Our guide offered several theories, including that the Nazcas came from 300 kilometers away and left it as a record of their journey.
If you look real hard, you can see a pair of penguins in the middle of the rock. Amazing! I thought that they only lived where there is ice!
This is guano island where they used to have slaves collect guano and ship it to England to be used for fertilizer. There are a lot of birds and most of the island is white, so it must have been a lucrative trade.
There are lots of natural caves on the islands.
...and sea lions!
We had a special thrill, as a pod of dolphins swam alongside our boat for quite awhile, but it was impossible to get a good picture on the ipad.
It was an excellent end to an awesome holiday! We had a bit of time to relax back at our hotel, but the wind kept blowing tornado strength sandstorms, so we gave up. This is an amazing hotel, though, with a fantastic lap pool!
After a four hour bus ride, we arrived in Lima, where we went to the airport to wait for our flight home. We have a five hour wait, so we are sitting in a coffee shop that has wifi while we wait until we are allowed to check our bags. (Two hours before departure) We are both looking forward to seeing our family and friends, and to sleeping in our own beds. The best part about travelling is ALWAYS coming home!
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment