Day 16 - 10/22/23 - General San Martin, Peru
Overnight we had a short sailing from Callao to General San Martin. We arrived just after 7am and the Zaandam headed for the dock at about a 45 degree angle. As we reached the dock at a very low speed, thrusters were used to move the stern clockwise to put the ship parallel to the dock where both front and rear thrusters were used to move the port or left side of the ship against the dock bumpers without so much of a feeling the contact.
We finished breakfast and met up with our excursion group in the Ocean Bar. Once everyone (22 people) was there, we headed off the ship and were met by representatives from LAS Adventures including the owner, Joel, and our guide for the day, Olenka. It turned out that there were additional people who were joining our tour or a part of it, so we had a pretty full minibus. We got on the bus and paid our $107US per person and were on our way to Paracas to board our high speed boat for the trip to the Ballestas Islands. At Paracas bio breaks were in order and most took advantage of the opportunity since there were no restrooms on the speedboat.
Paracas is a small town on the water's edge of the desert that runs down to the sea. Today was Sunday and lots of people were here from Lima and the tour boat pier was extremely busy as was the street along the waterfront. Soon we were herded down to our speedboat which would be our home for a couple of hours. We were issued red lifejackets which would keep us afloat so that hypothermia could do its deathly deed in the constantly frigid waters. Speaking of frigid waters, the water here comes from Antarctica and is very cold and full of nutrients. The cold water permits the little Humboldt penguins (named after the current of the same name) to thrive here although they are a threatened species. These penguins are only found here and in Chile which is our next destination.
Just as we were leaving the harbor, we encountered several pods of bottlenose dolphins and we spent about a half of an hour in and amongst them. It was pretty cool.
We then headed out past the Zaandam which was docked across the bay from town. We rounded the corner and were able to see the magnificent Candelabra which is like the Nazca lines. My photograph of it is below.
Soon we were traveling about 44kph (about 26mph) towards the Ballestas. As we approached the Ballestas, sea lions came into view and then a Humbolt penguin. Then there were more Humbolt penguins and many more sea lions, Inca Terns, Peruvian Boobies, Peruvian Pelicans, crabs, sea urchins & Turkey Vultures and probably some I've forgotten. The Ballestas are known for their guano content (bird poop) and it is harvested by hand every 7 years or so. It's highly prized as fertilizer. In addition to the flora and fauna, there are very nice and rugged rock formations that were very photogenic. All too soon we had to head back to Paracas. Just before entering the harbor we spotted some sea lions on a marker buoy which we stopped to photograph and observe.
Back at the dock the tour company treated us to water and sodas and most of us re-boarded the bus for the second half of our tour day. This was a visit to the Paracas National Reserve which is a large protected desert area. The road through it is paved in salt since there is little rain here, and the rumble from vehicles traversing it is quite loud. It's much like knobby tired cars driving on pavement at high speeds. Rather than give a blow by blow description of this tour let me just summarize it in a few sentences. Our first stop was at a location to observe the fossil record of this area being under water before being pushed up by tectonic plate actions. The second stop was at the Cathedral Rock viewpoint but Cathedral Rock stubstantially collapsed in a recent earthquake. The final two stops were to observe the Red Sand Beach from each end. All of these stops were very interesting considering we were on the edge of a desert with nothing but sand and rocks facing east and the Pacific Ocean on the west.
We were driven back to the Zaandam where we were able to do our last shopping in Peru. Angela and I received a very nice gift from Joel for arranging two large groups with LAS Adventures here and in Salavery. It wasn't expected but is fully appreciated. The overnight excursion to Machu Pichu had just arrived and they were enjoying welcome back champaign. We were back on board around 3:30pm and after dropping our backpacks and gifts at the stateroom, I headed up to the LIDO pool for a light snack at the DIVE-IN Taco Bar for some nachos to tide me over to what would be a nice LIDO dinner featuring fresh fish which was yummy.
If you are ever in San Martin or Salaverry, contact Joel at LAS Adventures at excursionesenparacas@gmail.com.
There was a late bus or two which delayed our 5pm departure. The Captain did not receive permission to sail close by the Candelabra, so we headed straight west out to sea to join the traffic separation routes about 6 miles offshore. I was able to get a nice picture of the Candelabra from the aft LIDO pool deck area. It was a bit hard to see, but I knew what to look for. When we were here 5 years ago on the Maasdam, we sailed close right past it and it was very visible..
After dinner we attended the Sunday interdenominational service in the Wajang theater and met another couple we had sailed with previously.
The evening entertainment was the return of the comedian, Simon B. Cotter. He was funny with lots of ship puns. Parts of his routine were too sexually oriented for my taste, but the bulk of the routine was quite good. Afterwards we adjourned to our stateroom for the evening and watched our Kraken hockey team fall to the NY Rangers 4-1.
Tomorrow is the first of 3 sea days and I'll get my blog posts from the last several days published. And tonight we lose an hour as the coast of South America heads east. And the trip continues to be a wonderful one. We're absolutely enjoying it.
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