Matarani, Peru February 2

We arrived at our last Peruvian port of Matarani just after lunch time.  This is a small port that serves the large city of Arequipa which is about 2 hours inland.  The last time we were here we visited Arequipa which is a colonial city of the Spanish from the 1500's but it had previously been home to the Incas and other civilizations dating back to the BC period.

Our tour today included a trip to "Lagunas De Mejia" which is a national bird sanctuary.  Unfortunately El Nino has a drying effect in this part of the world and the lack of rain has caused the marshes to dry up and there were very few birds.  We did see a few different types of ducks, some flocks of seabirds, one osprey, and a lot of turkey vultures.

Wide sandy beach in front of the marshes

Large flocks of sea birds on the beach

We saw a few ducks in marsh area

There is a lot of agriculture in the area















On our way back to the ship we went through the town of Mellendo which our guide referred to as a resort (not much by our standards!).  There were large numbers of people enjoying the beach but the waves were huge and no one was really in the water.

The beach area at Mellendo

There were huge waves pounding in

From the overlook above the beach














Peru has many problems.  Poverty is rampant, oil prices are down and corruption continues.  The thing that everyone noticed was the amount of trash at the sides of the road.  There were tons of it, it was like driving through a landfill.