Quite a few emotional ups and downs this week due to my recent theft, but happy to report my passport is in the works and I should have it in two-three weeks.  A little longer than I planned to stay in Lima, but guess it’s a chance to improve my Spanish, and it does need improving, as I learn every time I open my mouth.  Today’s blooper was trying to ask for the check after lunch politely.  So I open my mouth to say por favor, senor, and the only thing that comes out is “Porf…………” dead silence.     It’s like an extreme brain fart or something.

It is VERY hot in Lima, and the air is as humid as any I ever want to experience, so thought I’d cool off with memories of a great day.  Actually this might be two days mixed up as one, because I can’t keep straight in my mind what happened one day as opposed to the next.

Up at  4:45 on last Saturday to be at the bus pickup point by 5:50 a.m., where a pretty subdued and sleepy group of people were loaded onto a tour bus for a four-hour ride to Paracas, which was the jumping off point for a trip to Islas de Ballestas, sometimes known as “the poor man’s Galapagos”.   Don’t let anyone talk you out of taking this excursion, though, it is well worth it.  The boat takes you from Paracas, a tourist stop, to the islands, a roughly 45-minute ride.  The surroundings were like much of what I’ve seen of Peru – and oddly similar to those surrounding Lake Townsend in my home state of Montana – brown hills, but golden in the mid-day sun.  Stunningly beautiful, and wish I could share my pictures, but alas, they are somewhere in my phone camera, probably deep in a garbage landfill by now.  Here is a picture my friend, although I didn’t know her yet, took.

Paracas Candelabra is a prehistoric geoglyph found in the Paracas Peninsula at Pisco Bay, Peru. It is estimated to date back to 200 BC, although many believe it is much older. With a large, branchlike appearance, the purpose and meaning of the Candelabra remain unknown. There has been much speculation as to the reason it may have been constructed. Was it a godly symbol, a gigantic seismograph, or simply a navigational tool for sailors?

Read more: http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-americas/mysterious-prehistoric-geoglyph-paracas-candelabra-002203#ixzz3xjRNbC17
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I lifted that paragraph from the Ancient Origins website, and it’s a really interesting article, if you want to know more.

Back to my own words, the trip from Paracas to the Islas de Ballestas was a trip in a really fast boat – the driver resembled the taxi drivers here in Lima, but oddly enough it was exhilarating instead of scary.  We got quite a few good bumps; I suspect the Captain was trying to give us a thrill, or maybe he was just bored and trying to amuse himself.

Anyway, when the islands came into view it was quite a stunnng sight.  They’re rather small, as islands go, but inhabited by hundreds of sea lions and thousands of sea gulls, and quite a few Humboldt penguins, which is what I was really excited about seeing.  Hard to get a good shot of the penguins, but they were easily visible from the boat.

If you want to see larger images, they are on my FB page; you will just have to scroll down a bit to find them.  It was quite amazing, but after awhile a little uncomfortable, as the smell was rather overwhelming.  Lots of guana, I think is the word.  Oh, I really should have included a picture of the life vests.  I got quite a kick out of the fact that they were manufactured by a company called Shark.  I really thought it was a marketing mistake that they didn’t add “Bait” to the logo.

So after the islands, it was back on the bus to a vineyard to see how pisco is distilled and a little tasting of the end product.  Pisco is a colorless or yellowish-to-amber colored brandy produced in winemaking regions of Peru and Chile.^[1][2] Made by distilling grape wine into a high-proof spirit, it was developed by 16th century Spanish settlers as an alternative to orujo, a pomace brandy that was being imported from Spain.^[3] It had the advantages of being produced from abundant domestically grown fruit and reducing the volume of alcoholic beverages transported to remote locations.^[4]

This quote was lifted from Wikipedia!  I’m getting good at this.  I think it’s okay as long as you let people know you’re using a source and not your own words.  Anyway, pisco sours are pretty much the number one alcoholic beverage here in Peru, and it’s quite delicious and VERY strong.  Two is my absolute limit, but one is quite enough, to be truthful.   As you can see, we had quite a good time on this tour, and this is also where I met three wonderful people – Karina, Olenka and Glenda.  All three are English teachers here in Peru.  They are from different parts of Peru – northern, southern and Lima.

Oh, I should mention that I was one of only two native English speakers on the tour.  The tour guide gave all the information in Spanish, so I missed most of the explanations for the sights we were seeing, but I got the general flavor of it.  Anyway, that may or may not be what prompted them to begin a conversation with me.  You can see we hit it off.

And darn, I don’t have a picture of all three of us.  Maybe Olenka and Glenda will send them to me later.

I do believe there was another stop on this tour, but I’ll be darned if I can remember what it was.  Maybe I had one too many samples…….  Oh, our very peppy and informative tour guide kept us amused for the first hour of our trip back by awarding specialty chocolates she bought at the pisco winery stop.   The lucky winners included me – a prize for being the first person to have my seat belted fastened at every stop.   Hilarious, because at the moment of being awarded the “prize”, my seat belt was not fastened.

We didn’t get back to Lima til around 11:00 p.m., so it was a quite exhausting day.  Oh, wait, I remember the third stop!  Sandboarding, but I’ll have to tell you about that later. It is time for dinner, and maybe even a pisco sour tonight.