Callao (Lima)

We arrived in Callao around 2:00 PM - so essentially another sea day.

Overcast and grim looking - that's how I describe Callou.

Callao (pronounced ki-yow or maybe ka-yow) is Lima's port. We were here for two nights. The first day, (getting in at 2:00 PM) was a write-off and all we did was take the shuttle into the town centre to visit a shopping mall. We wanted to get SIM cards for our phones so we would have internet service for two weeks following the cruise where we'd be in Peru. We were successful in finding a cellular store at the mall where the guy spoke a bit of English and we did get the SIM cards for about $25.00 each.  So $50.00 gave us unlimited data, SMS - not MMS, calls to Canada and USA included.  Much cheaper than using Bell's roaming service which is $24.00 per day for both phones. Crooks!!!

The second day in Callou we did have a pretty interesting excursion to take a fast ship to view a bunch of wildlife. This is something we always enjoy - seeing wildlife in their natural environment.

The old submarine is docked where we catch our wildlife boat - which looks very much like the one in the lower centre of this pic. I just did a search and found out it's actually a museum. I would have loved to visit it had we only known.

A different angle.

Here we go. You will notice we both have on warm clothing. We are in the southern hemisphere and it is almost summer here but it's constantly overcast and mostly cool. We're not here for a beach vacation but the cool cloudy weather has been a real surprise.

We subsequently found out that the Humboldt Current is responsible for the clouds and coolness. The Humboldt Current is a stream of cold water originating in the far south that runs up the side of Peru and affects the climates of Chile, Peru and Ecuador. More about it here.

The birds below are Humboldt Penguins. They are named that as they typically live on islands in the section of the ocean in the Humboldt Current.  i.e.: of the coast of Peru.

Thousands of pelicans.

And other birds that I can't recall what they were.  Boobies maybe.

The island used to be mined for guano (bird poop) apparently it makes great fertilizer. That's the loading dock below.

The terraces in the shot below were built by the chinese labourers that were brought to mine the guano. I guess it was a horrrrriibbblllle job.

One end of the island is covered with sea lions. (And bird poop.)

A turkey buzzard waiting for something to die.

This is one of the guides from our boat. Unbeknownst to us we were supposed to bring our swimming suits along so we could swim with the sea lions.  It was not noted on the excursion description though...just "bring a towel". The day was cool enough and the crowd was ancient enough that I'm sure that none of us would have gone in even if we had known.

Below is a short video of the guide swimming with the sea lions - just listen to the racket they make.

Here's another short one.

Some of the small boats in the harbour on our way back from Palomino Island.  The birds have used these boats for their latrines.  Imagine being an owner of one and coming to your boat and looking forward to weekend of cruising and fishing and swimming and then finding your boat in this condition.