Lucille's Adventures in Peru Av. Fatima 820, #703, Trujillo, Peru --- www.perumission.org --- "Not all those who wander are lost." J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings

What another beautiful morning! We spent the night in James Bay off the coast of Santiago Island. Today, we went into the island at James Bay and hiked around. It was really a beautiful part of the island. We got to see hundreds and hundreds of marine iguanas! And sea lions and today we got to see the Fur Sea Lions. The area where they were was gorgeous with rock arches and bright blue water underneath. We also saw the morning watch flower that is purple and blooms only in the morning--similar to a day lilly, it blooms and then dies. They are just now starting to bloom. In another week, the area we saw will be covered with purple flowers. We saw a night heron. James Bay has a black beach from all the lava rock. Sombrero Chino had a brown beach. Bachas Beach was white. And this afternoon we head to Rabidia Island with red beaches! After lunch we arrived at Rabidia Island and went in for a hike and then a snorkel off the beach. The beach is red because of the high iron content in the rock that causes the sand to be red. We hiked around and saw the only lagoon on any of the islands. We saw the pear cactus, which is also blooming, and some more gorgeous views of the red beaches, greenery and blue water. really amazing sights. I am not sure the pictures do it justice. We also saw a lot of starfish up on the beach as we got ready to snorkel. we threw the ones we could back into the water. i saw a big red one that i had not seen before. After we finished our hike and visiting with the sea lions, we set out snorkeling along the rocks. it was so clear. and you could see the sun shining through the water, that made for cool views snorkeling. Walter snorkeled with us half the time. He was with us today and we went in and followed the rocks around. We were all following Walter. We saw some great stuff today. More sea lions swimming with us, beautiful fish of all sorts, rainbow, blue, red, black, yellow, orange, a cornucopia of colors! And I just remembered that at James Bay we saw a cornetfish (long and skinny). But anyway, we were all following Walter and it started getting really choppy, and I noticed this because of the waves washing over me and the water going in my snorkel! I thought we must be trying to get around this rock outing to get to calm waters on the other side, but I looked up and didn't see calm anywhere! Just as I was about to give up and call for the boat Walter said, "Shark, over here" I swam over and sure enough there were 2 white tip sharks. Probably 4 and 6 feet! So cool! and my snorkeling is complete! I so wanted to see them while snorkeling and it was so cool! After the sharks, we all got in the dingy and it took us back around to the calmer side where we hopped back out and snorkeled to shore. I think I was the last out of the water the last 2 times. I couldn't get enough!