In Paracus - May 22

Woke up early to the sounds of ¨country¨ Peru - car horns & dogs barking.
Boarded a large motorboat to visit the Peruvian Galapogas ¨Las Ballestas¨. Saw the famous Candelebrar, a huge candle geoglyph carved in the rock. This impressive navigational aid is a wonder to be seen. Motored onto the bird sanctuaries, seeing and smelling the guano (bird poop), which in earlier years was massively dug up by hand, then exported to Europe and NA as fertilizer. Saw so many birds - small Humbolt penguin, boobies, pelicans, cormorants, terns, & seal lions, in & out of their caves. An estimated 1 million birds swarm here; it´s an amazing site, & one must put up with the guano perfume. I think our grandson Cameron, would be totally grossed out!
Had a quick bite to eat, then onto another nature tour, National Parque Reserva de Paracus, a completely barren, sandy, mountainous landscape - a moonscape. This desert meets the sea, with towering sandy, salt-laden & iron oxide cliff formations, which are magnificent. Saw a few flamingoes & red-headed turkey vultures. This is not the season for flamingoes to be mating, so we considered ourselves lucky to have seen a few. Other sights were massive rock formations in the ocean such as the Cathedral with more vistas of cliffs and red (iron oxide) sandy beaches. The road we drove on is made of salt, and is blackened by the tires of the vehicles traveling over it. We could actually pick up parts of the road, and break the salt in our fingers. We had the time to take all of this in. Had a delicious Peruvian lunch - seafood again, at a quaint restaurant stop-over in the Parque.
Returned to Paracus, ate a lovely fish dinner, met some fellow travelers, and saw the Southern Cross in the sky. (Have not seen this since Austalia!)
But, I think I´m overdoing it on the food, for I had a pretty upset tummy for the following two days. I promised myself to take it easy when indulging on the native foods, even though I love it all!
I appreciate all of you who are trying to keep up with our travels. The computers are slow, and sometimes, I have difficulty getting to one. Let´s face it, we´re sightseeing as much as possible, taking in everything. Take care everyone :)