Guano yum
This morning I miraculously awoke when my alarm went off at 4:45 am, and was ready for a trip to the ¨Poor Man´s Galapagos¨by 5:30 am. I love getting up early. (grrrr...) We took a bus to the town of Pisco (home of Peru´s national drink, the Pisco Sour - pisco is kind of a rum or brandy made from grapes. Pisco, the town, is what makes everyone say - you can`t go there, it`s very dangerous! Hold onto your bag! Needless to say it wasn`t the prettiest place in Perú.). Here we got on a open-topped motor boat and took a trip out to the Islas Ballestas, where we saw sea lion colonies, Peruvian boobies, pelicans, Inca Terns, and penguins. Very cool!!! The islands are 50 feet thick with bird droppings, which for awhile was one of Perú´s national exports (makes good fertilizer duh). It was very cool - tons of wildlife, and up close. We went up close to cliffs, and the noise of the sea lions barking in the caves was nearly deafening. Got some great pictures. Saw some huge old male sealions with big mustaches, guarding over their harems of girl sea lions. We also saw the sea lion kindergarten, where all the mom sea lions take the babies to teach them how to swim. Very cool. Literally thousands and thousands of birds, and hundreds of sealions. Really enjoyed it.
I then took the oven-bus to Lima, four hours of sweltering stickiness with no lunch. Two English girls across the aisle from me asked the lady in front of them if she would mind opening her window a bit, and when their question was met with a torrent of angry, indistinguishable Spanish, I was too shy to ask the lady in front of me, so we all suffered. To improve the situation the bus driver turned on the movie ¨Radio¨dubbed in Spanish, and then turned on the radio over top of it at full blast for all our listening pleasure. I have learned that it turns out I cannot chew and understand Spanish at the same time. Good to know.
I am now in Lima for my last night in Perú.... :-( So far haven´t seen much of Lima, other than the bus station. I´m staying in MiraFlores, which is the wealthy section of Lima. It seems nice-ish... Haven´t heard the greatest of things about Lima, but there are some really nice sections. Tomorrow I will do a quick tour of the city, a bit of shopping, and then I fly out at one in the morning. I fly the red-eye to Miami, and then to Toronto to arrive around 11 am on Christmas Eve.
Anyways, I hate to leave South America, but it will be nice to have some Christmas - snow, shortbread, and carols... here they sing dashing through the snow in Spanish, while it`s 800 degrees outside. :-) Santa was selling bus tickets the other day - you´d think he´d be too busy for that this time of year, though apparently he actually gets to Holland on December 5th, fills up their shoes with presents, and then lounges around the Netherlands for a couple of weeks until the real work on Xmas Eve. Who`d have thought? Lucky Dutch. I left Canada before Halloween, so it will be like a turbo Xmas for me - can`t believe it`s almost here. Sorry about your presents... :-)
xoxoxo
I then took the oven-bus to Lima, four hours of sweltering stickiness with no lunch. Two English girls across the aisle from me asked the lady in front of them if she would mind opening her window a bit, and when their question was met with a torrent of angry, indistinguishable Spanish, I was too shy to ask the lady in front of me, so we all suffered. To improve the situation the bus driver turned on the movie ¨Radio¨dubbed in Spanish, and then turned on the radio over top of it at full blast for all our listening pleasure. I have learned that it turns out I cannot chew and understand Spanish at the same time. Good to know.
I am now in Lima for my last night in Perú.... :-( So far haven´t seen much of Lima, other than the bus station. I´m staying in MiraFlores, which is the wealthy section of Lima. It seems nice-ish... Haven´t heard the greatest of things about Lima, but there are some really nice sections. Tomorrow I will do a quick tour of the city, a bit of shopping, and then I fly out at one in the morning. I fly the red-eye to Miami, and then to Toronto to arrive around 11 am on Christmas Eve.
Anyways, I hate to leave South America, but it will be nice to have some Christmas - snow, shortbread, and carols... here they sing dashing through the snow in Spanish, while it`s 800 degrees outside. :-) Santa was selling bus tickets the other day - you´d think he´d be too busy for that this time of year, though apparently he actually gets to Holland on December 5th, fills up their shoes with presents, and then lounges around the Netherlands for a couple of weeks until the real work on Xmas Eve. Who`d have thought? Lucky Dutch. I left Canada before Halloween, so it will be like a turbo Xmas for me - can`t believe it`s almost here. Sorry about your presents... :-)
xoxoxo
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