Pelican alert!
Take today. The day started at 6am (gasps of incredulity from those of you who know me best) with a ride to the Ballestas Islands marine reserve. This natural protected area is also a major producer of guano. I had many close misses myself today as the sky turned black with Guarnay Cormorants, Inca Tern, Turkey vultures and Boobies (they words, not mine!). Or to give things their precise scientific name, big birds, little birds, sea birds, oh and penguins - those I recognized all on my own as they were the only ones not flinging guano at us from the air.
Yes, today is the day when I've been stared down and roared at by sea lions (it actually sounds more like protracted burping). The Ballestas Islands have the biggest colony of South American Sea lions in the Pacific. We certainly saw an impressive amount of them as we cruised around the islands for an hour or so. They were usually draped lazily on rocks and gave us very insolent and uninterested glances as we drifted by cameras clicking. Occasionally a male would feel the need to assert his genetic supremacy and gave us a burp. More usually these fellows just half lifted their eyelids then turned a new segment of lard towards the sun. Apparently the adult males of the species eat 17kg of fish daily - it kind of shows.
Lesser encounters on the boat ride included a family of dolphins, but they were only quick glimpses of sleek backs and fins in the water. I have a blurry shot of waves with a black squiggle in one corner, if anyone is interested.
Once we landed the second part of the tour commensed - a ride in Paracas national park. Mostly desert, but what desert! Sand here was red, black, white and well, sandy coloured. But the effect was lovely. Driving around on dirt tracks in this desert was pure joy. We visited the black beach, red beach and white beach (having just gone on about the sand, I hardly have to explain these names). Then were touted off for nearly tourist trap / fishing harbour for lunch. What initially seemed like a dull lunch break turned into a lovely one with the introduction of my new favourite bird.
Pelicans are now officially my favourite bird ever! They may be close to the only birds I'm absolutely bonkers about (well, owls, crows and trumpet music loving doves aside).
I persistently stalked the first one I met up and down the fishing pier. My feathered friend clumsily and somewhat apologetically sidestepped if I got too close with my camera, but mostly he was very polite and gentle. He walked somewhat awkwardly with his huge webbed feet, but when a fishing boat returned with its catch he showed an impressive turn of speed, flap-flappity-flapping along the concrete pier.
Another fine fellow spent about an hour during my lunch taking a nap at my feet, then getting up and yawning in a most disconcerting way - the skin pouch under the beak seemed to engulf the whole neck - before starting to groom its feathers. I can confirm that the distance at which pelicans start hissing at you is about 40 centimetres. This I found out after a French tourist crept too close to a pelican to take a selfie. Huh, I would never stoop to anything like that.
Anyway, after a long 9 hours of sea, desert and animals, it was time for a bus ride to .... wait for it!
Tomorrow all will be revealed. If all goes as planned tomorrow will also be the first time I fly in an itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka-dot aeroplane.
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