Peru. Paracas January 13,2915

Peru, January 12,13, 2015 This is our 4th time to Peru in the past 9 years and I must confess it is one of my favorite countries. The people are industrious, friendly , colorful and so creative. After a day spent in Lima at a new mall, we spent our second day in Paracas. We were here for a few hours about 4 years ago. This is a small fishing village surrounded by the northern edge of the Atacama desert.The main language is Quechua , the language of the Inca, with Spanish second. It's claim to fame is the reserve located south of the village as well as the Ballestas islands which are offshore and known as the Galapagos of Peru. We opted for a private tour of the reserves as we have seen many penguins, pelicans and blue footed boobies and sea lions in the recent past. For $40 we hired Abraham , a local from Pisco, to drive us through the desert. His English was fairly good and,coupled with my high school Spanish,we got a pretty good understanding of what we were seeing. As in the Atacama , the landscape is moonlike. there were large bones all over, didn't look like animals either. In fact I have read that there are so many mummies and bodies from ancient times that they you can see scattered skulls just lying up disturbed throughout the outer reaches of the reserve. it never rains here. Abraham confirmed that,though he was 40,he had never experienced rain. Amazing. In 2007 there was a devastating earthquake here and he showed us a large fissure in the earth caused by this. the nearby city of Pisco was 90% destroyed by it and only recovering. We learned that most of the 300 people who were killed were actually in the church attending a funeral when the church collapsed on them. wow. So we saw fossils of scallops and fishes , fantastic rock formations, desolate beaches with sands of black, yellow, orange and red, all colored by the various minerals in the surrounding cliffs. Upon returning to the village of Paracas, population 2500,I visited the shopping stalls and took some pictures of some local toddlers who were playing along the sea wall. they loved interacting and looking at themselves on the iPad. The other thing that intrigued me were the hairless dogs. I mean they didn't have a hair on them. they weighed about 50 pounds, mostly black, just a few whiskers sprouting from the tops of their head. there dozens of them and I got a few pictures of a litter of 4 playing with their parents. Not appealing to me at all but ... To each his own. we are now at sea for 4 days on our way towards Easter Island. There is only a 25% probability that we will be able to land. There are frequent wind storms which make tendering unsafe especially as these cruises sail with mostly elderly and some with mobility problems. This happened to us a few years ago on the old Royal Princess and I was bitterly disappointed to be so close. I am determined to just be complacent with whatever happens this time. If it is meant to be it will happen. right? However If I do get ashore you will hear me cheer all the way to the USA east coast! the food has been great on this ship and I have been walking 4-5 miles every night in the dark on the upper deck under the stars. I am alone except for my iPod and an occasional crew member . It seems an almost spiritual experience and nice to have the place to myself as the rest of the day there is always something to do or someone to talk to nearby. This has probably been my favorite ship of all the cruises we have taken. We have great tablemates at dinner . We order spinach every night and have started to share it with the others as the portion seems to increase nightly! Sent from my iPa🐪