Our first stop on Peru's famous "Gringo Trail" is Paracas, point of embarkation to the Paracas Reserve and the Islas Ballestas, nicknamed the "poor man's Galapagos" :) A destination right up our sabbatical sleeve!
Huge is our (well, mine, to be precise) disappointment when opening the curtains in the town "known for its almost constant sunshine year round" only to find even greyer sky than in Lima! Sea view is overrated when one cannot distinguish the sea from the sky... As far as I am concerned, the Peruvian primavera is definitely nothing to write home about.
Wrapped up in our wind- and waterproof parkas (which we had hoped to need in Patagonia only), we leave for our early morning boat expedition, by now convinced that sunshine is for sissies. What awaits us is an impressive show of marine and bird life: dolphins, sea lions, penguins, and pelicans (to name a few), in a setting of pre-Inca natural phenomenons.
And to top it all (could this day get any darker?), we take a hit of Pelicano poo... apparently not uncommon in guano (dung) paradise! (The locals say it brings luck, l believe so too.) Being "full of shit" (one of Jorg's lovely character traits) promptly gets a - funny - double connotation.
