Today (25th August) we were booked on the 10am trip around Islas Bastellas. This meant we could get up at a sensible time and have a leisurely breakfast.
Although they recommend only having a light breakfast the buffet was so good we wanted to try everything! Feeling completely stuffed we went to the pier to catch our boat.
On the way we saw lots of pelicans diving into the ocean and other sea birds standing on the rocks or floating on the ocean, their feathers being ruffled by the wind.
When we got to the pier we saw lots of people getting off the boat not looking as happy as they should given the trip is meant to be fantastic. A few minutes later we found out why, the wind was too high to get close to the island and they had to turn back before getting there. This meant our trip was cancelled :-(
I had been really looking forward to seeing the sea lions, penguins and other wildlife and felt really disappointed. Fortunately we are here long enough tomorrow that they booked us on the 8am boat. Fingers crossed the wind has died down by then!
We walked along the hotel's beach until we reached another pier where we found a load of pelicans and egrets sitting sunning themselves and drying their wings.
If we weren't going to get to the island today I was determined to see as much wildlife as I could around the coast! We crept as close as we could without disturbing them and just stood and watched them for a while (obviously taking lots of photos!).
After Stu scared off the last remaining pelicans (he'd had enough of watching birds on a pier) we went back to our room to change so we could go on a walk around the nature reserve a few kilometres away.
Once changed we went to see the Concierge to book a taxi. The price though seemed extortionate, £50 for two 25 minute trips! We've been getting a taxi for a whole day for that sort of price!
After some more discussion we changed our plans to walk in the north of the reserve instead because the wind was coming from the south. With the taxi still too expensive we decided we would walk to the nature reserve with the north coast path starting just 4km away.
Route decided we went to the hotel shop to stock up on water. They only sell Evian in the hotel and a 750ml bottle cost 22 soles (£7)! Given that the town was just a few minutes walk away we opted to go and buy our water there first even though it was in the opposite direction to the nature reserve.
When we got to the promenade we saw a load of pelicans on the beach following a man around. It turned out he had a bucket of fish off-cuts which he fed to the pelicans to enable us tourists to get some interesting photos.
Having spent around 30 minutes watching the pelicans on the beach and diving into the ocean we noticed that the peninsula where the nature reserve is was no longer visible, nor were the Islas Bastellas. There also seemed to be a lot of dust on the air.
As we went to find some water we found that all of the local shops were starting to close. A little later we found out why, a huge dust storm was coming our way! We sped to get a cup of tea and coffee, hoping the dust storm would ease up but it just got stronger so we bit the bullet and started back for our hotel.
By the time were got back we were both covered in dust and even though we had kept our mouths closed salty dust had got in there too. Lucky we hadn't gone for a walk in the national reserve (which is full of sand!).
We spent the rest of the afternoon in our room reading and ordering room service for lunch.
By around 4pm the storm had finally subsided and we could see hotel staff busily sweeping and cleaning to get rid of the dust which was now everywhere.
As there was still a lot of dust in the air and we had a relatively late lunch we decided to eat at the hotel for dinner (it's not recommended to walk to/from town after 8pm).
After dinner we went to the bar and tried a shot of neat pisco. It was surprisingly nice and very strong!
So although all plans for today were foiled by the dust storm (we couldn't even go for a swim!) we still had a good, relaxing day, seeing lots of birds on the beach before the dust storm was in full swing. Fingers crossed tomorrow the weather will be better!
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