Matarani, Peru

Another industrial port. I'm beginning to think that's all we're going to see on this trip.

At least this one is not as drab and ugly as some of them. And it seems our side of the ship is always the side facing these ports.

There's a pile of buses here today. Just about everybody must be going on excursions.

Our excursion today sounded good but turned out to be just another bus ride into town. They charged a pretty penny for it too - it was supposed to be five hours and it was supposed to include a lunch mid way through.  Nope.  We were back on the ship in three hours, and one of those hours was the bus ride to town and then back.  

I and a few others voiced our opinions on the matter and we were all refunded the full amount of the excursion.

One of the sites we were looking forward to seeing was a "castle".

That's it. And this is how close we got to it.

Another item in the excursion was a nice walk on the beach. It wasn't a bad beach but not much going on. We spent about 10 minutes on a sidewalk looking at it.

I'm sure it's a great beach on a nice day - if they ever get one here.

The town was okay but nothing special. The buildings below were around the town square. All painted nicely.

Well some were.

Chifa Qingdao - what the hell is that?   Chifa is how they identify a chinese restaurant here.

We watched this gal pushing her cart up the street. The incline made it a tough job. Once she got set up she sold soft drinks.  In these South American countries we saw many people trying to make a living selling stuff on the street.  It's a tough life here for many people.

As usual on these excursions the most exciting / important thing for most people is having a bathroom break. So while everyone was in the toilet or waiting in line to get in I prowled around and found this map.    It showed all the seismic activity in Peru between 1960 and 2017. The size of the dot indicates the magnitude.  The colours mean something else but I don't recall what. I really should pay better attention.

Peru is on the Ring of Fire. This is an area shown below where there is considerable seismic activity on an ongoing basis. I think it has to do with tectonic plate movement and how one plate is always butting up against or trying to go under another plate.

A quick walk through a market and that was about it.

They do have some interesting corn in Peru.