Day 14 - Ballestras Islands and Sand Boarding and Last Performance

As with many other mornings, this one came early. We had to be checked out of our hotel and on the bus by 6:00 am in order to fit in all that we had planned for today. Even though Canete is in the middle of a desert, it is near the coast, so morning dew covered everything. This made the tile covered florrs and stairs very slick. McKinley went down hard as she was bringing her luggage down the stairs. She was lucky she didn't break an arm. Due to our early and quick departure, the hotel had prepared a box breakfast which consisted of grilled ham and cheese sandwich - not a popular offering for most. Oh well.

We were on our way to Ballestas Islands part of the Paracas National Reserve which is a group of islands off the central coast of Peru. The islands are home to thousands of birds, many sea lions and penguins. There are so many birds in fact that every eight years the government collects the guano (bird poop) from the rock islands (2-3 feet on some places), places it in sacks and processes it as fertilizer. The boats we were in were open hull with rows of seat making it very easy to see the sights and easy targets for the many, many birds flying over head. McKinley was the only casualty. Her day was not going well so far. The coolest ritual we saw play out in front of us was watching a rock covered with thousands of peruvian seagulls take flight in one continuous wave off the rock, enter the water for a morning bath by agitating the water with their wings for about 60 seconds, take flight again and create a straight line following the birds in front of them forming a line over 10 miles long. The birds were flying just above the water as they fished by diving into the water and then taking flight again. I have never seen anything like it before.

After spending 30-40 minutes boating around the preserve, we headed back towards shore, stopping to view a huge candelabra geoglyph carved into gradual sandstone slope approx. 500-700 feet tall. The geoglyph was massive and even more impressive when we learned its lines were carved 15 feet into the rock, helping it last well over a 1000 years and be viewable from any point, line of sight to the mountain.

Once back on shore, we loaded the bus and headed for the Huacachina oasis. Think geographic size of Pismo beach, but dune heights of Sand Mountain near Fallon, Nevada. The oasis was literally in a bowl at the base of huge steep mountains of sand. There was a hotel, swimming pool, restaurant and support buildings all camouflaged by lush green foliage. The contrast of the green against the sand dunes was like something out of a movie.

We transitioned from the large bus we were traveling in to large dune buggies that could hold about 8 people. We motored up the hills to the edge of a medium sized dune and our dune guides pulled out snowboards customized for use in the sand. Everyone grabbed a board and headed down the hill in a different way. Some laid down on their stomachs face first, others sat on the boards feet first and a few braved the hill standing up. Even the experienced snow boarders had a tough time adjusting to the new surface, but everyone had a blast. After about 30-40 minutes at this location, we were taken to a larger, steeper hill and were only allowed to go on their stomachs, head first, legs trailing to balance the board. Once people got started, they flew like bullets down the sand until they reach the bottom. After we all took a turn, we loaded back on the buggies and the guides took us on a short but hair-raising ride over the dune peaks and valleys. We returned back to the Oasis where we were served a great lunch including a fresh combination salad of avocado, asparagus, tomatoes and cucumbers. The main course was fish and chips. THe group wasn't wild about eating anything breaded, but it was still better than other lunches we have had.

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We were on a tight schedule, so we quickly loaded the bus after lunch and headed straight for Lima - a 4 and 1/2 hour drive north to make our last show of the tour. This gave all of us a chance to rest, catch up with tour journals and for Kieri to deliver an excellent devotional on "Courage to Make Hard Decisions".

Once in Lima, we headed for the Estaca Olivos LDS Stake Center. Even though we had made masterful transitions, our safe bus driver drove way to slow for us to arrive with time to set up and rehearse on a small stage. So we did the best we could to be ready by showtime. The show went great. The stake center was packed and full of energy. The crowd rewarded the group with laughter, applause and encouragement which was incredible for the performers for their last show. The solos were excellent. Jamie made her lift with Reed, Reed Swing went well, Brandon hit his high notes, etc.

After the show the crowd hung around and wanted to get to know everyone. The stake provided Papa Murphys pizza for everyone. Needless to say the kids were all very happy and made the pizzas disappear quickly. We were very grateful to our new friends.

We headed back to HQ Villa for our last night and even though it was midnight, we decided to hold our end of tour devotional, a PGY testimonial meeting of sorts, tonight rather than tomorrow morning to make sure we could fit it in. The group expressed their appreciation for PGY, the tour, Kieri, each other, the chaperones and Peru - essentially a big group hug. Everyone had a good feeling at the end of the meeting feeling gratitude for the experience we have all shared. Thank you all for entrusting us with your kids. They made us proud, they worked hard. We loved everything each person added to this last two weeks.

See you all tomorrow.