Philpott-SouthAmerica

Our last day in Lima revolved around getting packed and prepared for our trip to Patagonia. We did fit in one last Museum on the way to the airport however. It was the Museo Larco. A private museum of Pre Colombian Pottery, textiles and metal work dating way back before Christ through to Inca times. It was set up by Rafael Larco Hoyle who at the age of 25 began a life long passion for archaeology in Peru. The pieces in display were like new. He must have had an amazing time finding these in the excavations. The best ones and there were lots of them were beautifully displayed but you could also checkout the store room where all the other item he found were displayed. There were thousands of them.  Quite extraordinary. See photos. Our flight to Puerto Montt at the northern end of our Patagonia trip went via Santiago where we had a stopover between midnight and 6am. The international terminal we flew into was very flash but the domestic where had to catch the flight to Puerto Montt ( PM )

 We arrived in Lima at about 10.30 pm, got a taxi to our apartment and what a place. 16th story with a view out over the city to the north. A great spot to explore the city from and all for $NZ64 per night. They have a great bus transport system here. With a central bus system that runs along its own roadway down the middle of the main central road system. We are only a 5 minute walk to the nearest bus stop. The main road, just below our apartment has 6 lanes with two additional lanes on each side separated from the main road that allows local traffic to go about its business without affecting the main flow of traffic. The sky never seems to clear here with a low cover of white cloud that hides all the buildings in the early morning but not until the afternoon does it lift away enough to think there may be some blue sky there somewhere. It almost never rains here. The last rain of any significance was in 1971. The roads don’t have gutters like at home and the houses don’t have spouting

 Our last day on Isla Isobela took us to another spot to snorkel and watch wildlife. There was no beach there but a wooden deck area with steps down to the water. I was sitting on the steps and a big sea lion just came up, climbed the steps right beside me and up onto the deck to hog the best shady area. He was later joined by a mother and her quite large pup who proceeded to drink from his mum. All around were a number of Iquanas just lying around totally ignoring us even though we were less than half a meter from them. There were turtles and rays out in the water along with an array of small and some not so small colourful fish and the occasional turtle. Then a family of about 10 sea lions turned up and played in the water whilst swimmers were amongst them. Gaye even got into join them. The young ones especially are just playful like small children. Next day we were up at 4.30 am to get to the ferry on time to get back to Santa Cruz. This ferry had four 250 hp outboards on the back a

 We are on day 6 in the Galápagos Islands. How time flies. Sorry about the delay in getting this blog up but the internet on Isobela was so slow I couldn’t get the photos attached. We landing in Isla Baltra, a small island off the north coast of Isla Santa Cruz to be greated by big Iguanas wandering around outside the Terminal building.  A sort bus trip, an even shorter ferry ride and then a 45 minute bus ride across Isla Santa Cruz to the Town of Puerto Ayora. Checked into our small apartment which was quiet close to the centre of town. The town is quiet touristy with endless very local restaurant and many tour operators all wanting your business. There  is also a quiet a lot of local business going on. Food here is relatively expensive so we bought food at the local shops and cooked in out apartment. There seems to be a small local food stall selling groceries on every street corner as well as one in between. We wandered back down to the water front. Within 30 minutes we had seen bro