Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Justin got up early to go with Yuri, Ryan, and Omar to see the parrots and parakeets. Crystal tried to sleep in, but there was too much noise from other guests, so she just packed. All of the rooms have only 3 walls - one side is open to the jungle - and the 3 walls aren't especially thick, so its very easy to hear everything that goes on in neighboring rooms, and also the pathways that go by the rooms. At the hide, Justin heard lots of noise, but saw no birds (at least up close). There were parrots far away, and they could be heard up close, and the macaws could also be heard.

There was a falcon nearby, and perhaps that kept the birds from coming down to the clay lick. It was also still overcast and cool. While waiting for the birds, Justin talked with Yuri about the Pantanal, and spoke with Omar about Indonesia. On the walk back, Justin did see a couple of Red & Green Macaws, and also some "Jaguaritos."

At breakfast, we spoke more with Omar about Indonesia, specifically good places to go diving, and what visiting Komodo island was like. The boat ride back downriver was much faster than going upriver two days earlier. In addition to being with the people in our group (Ryan, Omar, and the people with Miguel), we were also with the Aussie group again. Justin gave some of our bonine to Chris, who apparently was very prone to motion sickness. We chatted with two of the people with Miguel - two Germans named Michael and Sabina - about travel, and some of the places they have been, including on this trip. They told us that in Germany, it is fairly standard to get 30 days of vacation, and the minimum allowed is 24. We have to move to Germany.

There was a slight scare at airport - they could not find our reservation, but it was just because the internet was slow. The airport didn't have a whole lot going for it. We couldn't get money from the ATM, and there was no food or anything else on the other side of security. We flew into Cusco again, and we don't especially like flying in, even if it looks cool. There's quite a bit of wind and pressure variations due to all the mountains, and the plane bounces around a lot. On the ground, we had a long wait while waiting for other planes to land.

Because of this, we got back to Lima a little late. We were met by Guillermo, who drove us through and out of Lima, and then down south to Paracas. In South Lima, we saw a small statue resembling Christ the Redeemer, the first of many statues we'd see throughout the trip. As soon as we were out of Lima, the whole area was a barren desert, with literally nothing (not even cactus). Occasionally there would be some greenery near a dry riverbed, but that's about it. The freeway was a nice divided freeway until we got to Canate, at which point it was a two lane highway. Besides Canate, we also passed through the towns of Chincha and San Clemente. Once in Pisco, we turned west, onto the Paracas peninsula, where our hotel (the Hotel Paracas) was located. It really stuck out. Apparently it was badly damaged by an earthquake a couple of years ago, so it was rebuilt, and rebuilt very well in our opinion. It was extremely nice, but was "free" to us since we cashed in some our Starwood points. It was nice to get cleaned up, and after getting cleaned up, we had dinner in the ocean bar. Crystal got a spicy hot Ceviche, and Justin got some steak kabobs with chimichurri sauce. We each got Pisco sours. Not surprisingly, since we were in the Pisco area, there was a wide selection of available Piscos to drink. After dinner, and our long day (jungle, desert, and oceanfront hotel all in one day) it was easy to go to sleep.