Lima, pisco, ica

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left lima yesterday (alright, now it has been a few weeks since i left and i have returned) so no more mcDonalds¡¡. I arrived in pisco and booked a tour for today to go to the islands around paracas and to a "national" park. I ran into roger a canadian guy i met in sucre, bolivia. it is a small world, when i was in cusco i ran into a girl who lived in the same house i did in guatemala. of course i ran into paddy and suzie in cusco for the 5th and not last time on this trip!!!

today (a few weeks ago), I took a bus from the hotel to paracus and then like many other tourists took a boat (there must have been 8 boats) to the islands. The islands are a mini Galapagos or a poor mans Glapagos, there were a few penguins, two types of sea lions and even dolphins. oh, and birds, there were a lot of birds, a lot - with birds you get guano or bird shit. these islands were famous for guano - which is used as fertilizers. i think there was even a war over the bird shit in the 1800s which was won by Spain. they still harvest the guano but it is not as popular as it once was due to synthetic-chemical fertilizers. i was thinking that all of us tourists in the boats must have looked like targets from up above.

i left pisco and headed to an oasis called - shit i forgot (hmm, maybe huacachina), next to the town of ica. anyway went there with andres an austrailian i met in pisco. the oasis was surrounded by sand dunes and the little lake was surrounded by tourist traps. we had lunch at a place - rice with seafood for about $5, the same meal cost me $1.40 in ica and there was a lot more food and it included soup, ah to pay tourist prices!!! One of the good things about bolivia is that the tourist prices are not too much more than the regular prices. how can i complain, i work at the ulitimate tourest place with the most expensive rooms being $5000 a nigh plus tax!!!

Andres and some others took a dune buggy - sand boarding tour. i passed, i have to start watching my pennies.

I took an overnight bus from ica on the 25th of August and went to arequipa. alright today is the 11th of september and i am way behind, i thought i posted this already so i will quit writing!!!

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Photos

lima2
this was a suicide bridge. so many people jumped from here that they put a fence around it and have security guards here at night

Comments

[maryanne booth]

hey dave
howdy dave, i hope this gets through to you. i have been neglect in responding to you, but my bouy has been good in keeping in touch. we enjoy your bloggs and the photos are very good. you are the most intrepid traveller we have met now, thought we were good at it but you have way surpassed us. i like to play my one and only james mcmurtry cd which i like very much and i am always reminded of you. thank you for the turn on to my own 'kin'. hope you are happy and well. xoxo maryanne