Pulling in to Peru

Red Sky At Night... This was an evening on the crossing from
Easter Island to Callao and although we got one good day,
the following day, most of this stretch of the cruise was overcast and bumpy  

Callao

The intrepid travellers have survived another epic sea voyage. Their trusty vessel, the M/S Marina, is now docked in Callao, Peru. Callao is the port that services Lima and it is a sprawling industrial facility that lies to the north of the capital city. The most amazing part of being docked here this morning, is that our ship has not been docked for some 5466 nautical miles, since we embarked on this sea voyage, in Papeete. That is quite a feat when you think about it because we have had no fuel, no supplies and no real land-lubber-like stability in all that time. I am curious to know how they kept the vegetables so fresh since Papeete.

This is a refuelling barge in Callao harbor being pushed up
next to the Marina. This is the first fuel for 5466 nautical miles.

Callao and some new cars being imported into Peru, lined up
adjacent to the Marina

The last leg of the journey was a non-stop ramble, across some 2030 nautical miles of open Pacific Ocean, from Easter Island. That final segment was a bit of a slog into the teeth of the Humboldt Current. The Humboldt gave us a bit of a bumpy ride and offered us overcast skies, almost all the way. However, my dear wife actually faired pretty well through most of the trip, that is until last night, when they handed out some free drinks, and her Pina Colada didn’t sit too well. We have had a great cruise though and now we have a day to pack and to say our goodbyes to the exceptional staff onboard, before we get kicked off the boat bright and early tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow, we will not be in Lima long, because the Andes beckon. In the morning, we will be leaving the ship and transferring to the airport, where we will be doing our own version of Planes, Trains and Automobiles, to begin a two-day excursion up to Cusco. Cusco is 587 kilometers from Lima and is situated high up in the Andes. It was the ancient capital of the Incan Empire and we will be spending two nights there. Cusco will also be our base camp for the assault on Machu Picchu on Tuesday morning. We will then come back to Lima on Wednesday and will spend 3 full days exploring this great coastal city, to conclude our trip.

I hope to send out my next blog posting from Cusco tomorrow night and should have some great pictures and some good commentary from a full day of touring that city.

Cheers for now!