1/17/2008 Pisco, Peru

From: Sherman Rootberg
Date: Jan 17, 2008 9:51 PM
Subject: 1/17/2008

1/17/2008

Pisco, Peru

This place is weird. It is all desert with dunes like we saw in Walvis Bay, Namibia last year. Almost all of the coast of Peru is desert, some has not had any rain in 700 years. Much of this desert is mud but this place looks like it has a lot more sand. The dunes here go up to 400 ft high. Namibia in Africa has the tallest at over 1,000 feet, but these do still look huge. The ocean juts in and out making a very uneven shore line.

We are docked at the Port of Pisco. The town is Pueblo Pisco or rather was Pueblo Pisco. Last August the town ceased to exist. An earthquake came and wiped out virtually everything. It was 8.1 on the Richter scale. 5,800 homes and every single other building was totally destroyed. There was a large cathedral holding evening mass when the quake hit. The entire building came down and killed 158 people. 800 others were killed and there were 1,700 people with major injuries they will carry the effects of for life. So all tours and the shuttle to the town were canceled.

The tour we wanted all along was not canceled. It was a small boat tour around Ballestas Islands. There was a fly tour to see the Nazca Markings also. Maybe another time. Those are the markings that can only be seen from a very high altitude. Many say they were made by extra terrestrials? They tell us there are dozens of similar markings around the world. We have seen many pictures of them, but not of these Islands. Some call them the poor mans Galapagos.

We boarded a bus at the dock and went eleven miles down the coast. There we entered a marina and walked down a dock to an open boat. It was built like an open runabout, but one on steroids. It had about 40 seats. There was a center isle with pairs of roughly upholstered seats on either side. There were two outboard engines. They looked very old but they ran well except for a lot of smoke.

The Islands were also eleven miles out to sea. We boarded and as Bobbi says, packed in like sardines. She also said she now knows how the Cubans feel when escaping to go to Florida. If you were in a center seat, you never got to see much unless you stood up and pushed others out of your way, which I am very good at. I was very nice about it though. As I mashed people and stepped on them I would say excuse me or sorry almost every time. It was ridiculous to have paid the enormous amount charged for this tour and then treated like a pile of fish. There should have been only half the number of people placed in the boat. We paid for a luxury cruise and are charged prices for luxury tours. We should not have steerage class tours.

The water was mostly smooth with just a light chop. Once out of the harbor the boat did get up pretty good speed. On land it was about 80 degrees or more. The waters are very cold here and once out to sea and moving it got pretty chilly.

At about a fourth the way to the islands there are some of those Nazca type markings on the side of a huge cliff. This is called the Candelabro. It means candelabra and that is what it looks like. A huge candelabra, 570 feet tall, with one candle at each side. No one knows how long it has been there but it never changes. Now they say they have dated it to about 200BC. Kind of spooky for huge a drawing on the side of a sand dune. There are many theories about what it is. Some thought it to be a sign left of where pirate treasure was buried. It has been searched for hundreds of years and none ever found. Though they get little or no rain, it does get humid and foggy. It is right at the sea. These markings should have vanished long ago.

Once at the Islands it was really something to see. These Islands were very jagged rocks of various sizes. There were caves, holes, and arches everywhere you could see. Some huge. Most of these rocks looked like they had every inch occupied by some kind of animal. We saw three kinds of Cormorants, Peru Boobies, Terns, and huge Pelicans by the hundreds if not thousands. Sea Lions were everywhere in and out of the water, yelling and making so much noise it hurt your ears when we got close. We even saw a couple way up in the air on the side of a spire of rock that looked un climbable.

One thing you do get with all these birds is bird droppings. Bird guano 90 feet deep has been found in many places. There are very large buildings on some of these islands where a couple hundred workers live for four or five months at a time. They dig this guano to ship to the mainland. I understand it is a very valuable commodity. They leave an area to accumulate the bird crap for five years and then dig it up again. Oh fun, but the place sure does stink.

We were told we were very lucky today. There is usually not all this wild live. Today it looked like a circus. Huge flocks of many different kinds of birds flying in various formations from down at the water line to way up in the air and all heights between. In the ocean were Sea Lions breaking the water or just poking their noses up wherever you looked.

We also got a special treat we were told. Humboldt Penguins had almost become extinct here. They were down to the last 20 eight years ago. Now they are back up to 120 and we did see several flocks.

Another unusual sighting was Bottle Nose Dolphin. There was a group of them around us. They are rarely seen in this area. They are shaped similar to the ones we see in Miami and the Caribbean but much larger. These were very stand offish though, staying a good distance from us. In Florida they have usually come close the boats I had been on and would make some noise. Sometimes even coming right up to me. I suppose these keep their distance because I know they catch and eat them here even though it is supposed to be illegal. Fisherman sell them for a fourth the price of the next cheapest meat which is pork.

These Islands were one of the most outstanding nature sights we have ever seen. We really enjoyed seeing them. It was almost worth the terrible conditions we were subjected to.

I don’t why they do not allow tourists on the Islands as they do have so many guano diggers. Maybe they do not want anyone to see that these workers are also eating these birds while there. All the turtles are long gone. Who knows what else.

All though Peru the people have been very friendly. They often wave as we go by in buses and are friendly and mild when we meet on the streets. Like all poor areas, there are often street venders and sometimes many. None had every gotten nasty here as I have seen elsewhere.