Guano and Dancing

     My day was, to say the least, eventful. It began with a bus ride to Paracas National Park and sailing around its rocky islands. They first entered the spotlight during the 1870s; at the time, bird guano was the best known agricultural fertilizer, and countries and corporations were scrambling to get it. Peru had the world's richest deposits of guano, particularly in the Paracas area, briefly making it an important global power. However, guano's value plummeted as better fertilizers became available, putting mines of it out of business. Later on, the islands were declared national parks, and are now home to thousands of birds.
     Our visit of the islands started with a sight of one of the Nazca Lines, better known as the Palabra. It is one of the more abstract lines in design - rather than representing an animal or person, it shows an abstract glyph that somewhat resembles a candlestick, giving the line its name. Next, we arrived at the islands themselves - the first thing that struck me was the clear lines on each of the stones. The boundaries between areas hit by high tide versus those that were consistently dry, and the difference between areas inhabited regularly by birds versus those that were not could have been drawn by pen. The variety of birds struck me as well - terns, boobies, pelicans, and more all crowded for space and competed for fish as we photographed them.
     After a brief interlude, we went to San Clemente to see traditional dances of Peru's African community. As with other countries in the Americas, they came as slaves to Peru with the Spanish, but have since developed a distinct, vibrant culture. They showed us how they played their music with basic instruments including drums, a violin, and even a horse jaw, while their dancers instructed us on their techniques; they seemed to alternate between tap dancing and zumba, and was accentuated with colorful clothing.
     Afterwards, we went back to Lima after a rewarding weekend. I truly hope that the rest of the trip is as fulfilling and educational.