Well, our last day in Peru has come, and I think as much as you enjoy your time away, you do start thinking about home around the “one week” left mark. Not that you’re ready or wanting to go home, it just happens. I think about the things I need to do when I get back. This time, its set up the Christmas tree, do some shopping, and my favorite part, picking up the doggy from wherever he may be.

For our last day in Peru, instead of sitting around the capital as we havebeen known to do in the past, we took our overnight trip south of Lima to Paracas. Yesterday we spent our time relaxing, although it wasn’t quite warm enough to sit around the pool for very long. But today, we got up early (my un-favorite thing) and took a taxi down to the pier where a “speed boat” picked a bunch of us up and “sailed”, as they say, to the Galapagos Islands of Peru (The Ballestas).

I was actually pleasantly surprised with what we saw; a small variety of birds, but thousands of them; some penguins (our first time seeing those in the wild); a shwack of sealions (so cute); turkey vultures; boobies; and other various native South American birds.

The tour took about 2 hours, and we walked back to the hotel from the pier this time amongst the casualties of puffer fish and small stingrays scattered all over the beach. The water here isn’t a nice blue color, but at least the wind was calm and the water was smooth today. I’m glad we walked back because we spent the better part of the day on our butts. We were able to have another luke warm shower and a nap before taking a later check-out. Then we headed to the bus stop to wait, and wait, and wait for the bus, which was nearly an hour LATE.

My experience on the bus this time was less pleasant, and although the seats were the same, the air was blowing constantly and loud and cold, the people in our section were using their cell phones continuously, there was an annoying mystery beep, dirty windows, and I was absolutely starving to make matters worse.

We got into Lima quite late, about 7:10, and rush hour was in full force. Now I needed to pee, but would not be going in the bus. We arrived at the station, got our bags in the shmozzle of organized chaos, ran to the washroom, and hopped in a taxi for an hour long ride to the airport. We make it just in time. I am getting rather ornery (as hungry females often do) now and our first stop after check-in is FOOD. We wolfed down some pizza and ice cream after a long day of not eating much worth mentioning.

And that was the start to another long journey. Our first flight left at midnight (an hour late due to some computer downtime), and after an all-nighter, we landed in Toronto at 0800. Another wait, before spending a LONG four hour ride into Calgary, my chest was starting to feel tight, the nose was a little runny, and I had now developed the start of a cough. Oh dear.

But, we’re home now, to our snow covered yard, our icy steps, and our lonely house. It’s time to decorate for Christmas, and what a strange feeling to be wearing shorts on the beach yesterday, and wearing our winter parka’s walking by festive lights the next day.

It’s kinda cold here, where should we go nex?!