We awoke this morning in this very small Peruvian port located in a very arid location. In fact, later the Captain commented that he felt he had docked on the moon!
We took a private shuttle to the nearby fishing port of Paracas (about 25 minutes away) and boarded high speed boat ride out to the Ballestas Islands and got to see the ancient Candelabra lines as displayed in a the picture above. Each line is about 9 feet deep and 30 feet wide. From there we went out to the island where we observed literally hundreds of thousands of birds, dozens of humbolt penguins, and many sea lions. All of this was in a scene of crashing waves, scenic caverns, and local fishermen/divers plying their trade. Additionally, the Island is used as a source of guano (bird poop) which is shipped all over the world.
Back at the port we found a restaurant which served ceviche #7 in my search for the ultimate ceviche. This one is at the top of the list and was a bit spicy and included a good cross section of seafood but not much cilantro. We then walked around and did some shopping, had a pelican encounter, and visited the little museum before taking the port shuttle back to the ship.
Back on board we were introduced to a whole new panel of presenters plus two carry overs.
The Captain received permission to sail the ship on a course that allowed all to see the candelabra formation. That was a nice gesture! Al Trujillo gave a short presentation on his top 10 geological events that can kill you and should be avoided. He was followed by James Grant-Peterkin who gave the first of his many presentations on Easter Island. David Happe shared his story of just visiting Machu Pichu.
Tomorrow we start a series of 5 full days of lectures on a ship running at 18.5 knots (close to full speed) 24/7! Stay tuned. I lurched the ship's high speed Internet package so I can keep up this blog while at sea over the next month. Stay tuned.
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