MOLLENDO SNAPS

East of Mollendo: Nothing but hills and desert.West of Mollendo: Nothing but Pacific OceanClothes drying in the desert air.A modern oasis: A desert bus station.

BIRD WATCHIN'

I've just had a long weekend. Because of Easter I didn't have to work on Thursday or Friday so I headed to the beach. It was my first Peruvian beach experience and a very enjoyable one. One Wednesday night after work I met up with a friend and we caught a night bus to the coast to a small town called Mollendo.


It was a thirteen hour journey, but definitely worth it to get some heat, sunshine and fresh seafood. We found a nice, cheap hostel near the beach and immediately hit the water. For three days we chilled on the beach, ate delicious ceviche, Latin America's version of sushi, and pranced around in the high waves trying not to get swept out into the cold Pacific Ocean.But the highlight of the short three day trip was visiting the Sanctuario Nacional Lagunas de Mejia, a bird sanctuary on the coast about half an hour south of Mollendo. Although it sounds big and impressive, as it was, we were the only people there. On our first night in Mollendo we met a friendly security guard who was patroling the beach. The guard, Daniel, was a fountain of information and we hired him to take us to the sanctuary the next day (his other job was as a taxi driver).So at seven am we met up with Daniel, bought a packed lunch and headed south. By the time we reached the sanctuary we were both experts in local history and architecture.
Following a briefing from a very bored looking man in the empty visitor centre we set off along the coast. We walked for about five hours. And I had borrowed a pair of binoculars and 'Birds of Peru' book from a friend so we stopped frequently to expertly spy on some nearby peligans or vultures. I had read that during these months there are thousands of migratory birds that have flown as far as 2500 miles from North America. We certainly seen thousands of birds and it was very impressive, but most were of the same species (and that is my expert opinion).The sanctuary is an 8km strip along the coast so we were able to walk along the beach on the return trip, and it was there we seen the most birds, either just chilling there on the sand or dancing with the huge waves.

EARLY MORNING

I got up 05:30 yesterday to see a friend off and this was the view from our house.

DIRTY BUMS

Our Peruvian house mate, Hubert, took us mountain-biking last weekend on some proper trails. Unfortunately it rained for about five minutes creating just enough mud to give us all dirty bums.

三年生おめでとうございます！！

Congratulations to my old third year class who have just graduated from Junior High School.
三年生おめでとうございます！将来頑張って下さい。
あなたたちのこと忘れません。