Peruvian Thick-Knee and Tern amongst today’s highlights.  We left Pucusana and made an early roadside stop, picking up Amazilia Hummingbird and Croaking Ground-Dove.  Hard to watch for birds when you had to check every footstep – the dry earth had cracked into dry mud pillars with deep fissures inbetween, perfect for twisting an ankle if you didn’t pay attention.  Continuing south on the Pan-American Highway, the scenery was stark: sea on the one side and desert on the other.  At San Antonio the desert was punctuated by a much-reduced river which allowed some cultivation and gave us the opportunity to bird along the riverbanks.  A pair of Peruvian Thick-knees stood motionless on the dry gravel of the riverbed – great to see these Stone Curlew-like waders.  The same area also gave us Short-tailed Field-Tyrant and Puna Ibis.  Continuing south, we made a brief stop at a gently shelving beach near the road where we saw some 300 Gray Gulls roosting on the beach, and another Humboldt Penguin offshore.  Also both Blackish and American Oystercatchers fed at the surf edge.  On again until we reached a large pool alongside the road.  With water being so scarce in the area, we couldn’t pass this by and had to stop to check it out.  It proved to be a good move as we added White-cheeked Pintail and also enjoyed more views of Great Grebe and Slate-coloured Coot.  A very late breakfast stop, eating a cheese and ham roll bought at yet another petrol station we’d checked, provided us with another new species for the list with a pair of Coastal Miners.  This is a pale pipit-like bird which fed in the arid desert scrub.  We eventually reached Paracas mid-afternoon and were impressed with the number of seabirds feeding in the shallow waters: hundreds of Peruvian Boobies hurled themselves into the water like darts and we encountered our first Peruvian Terns, a tiny creature very similar to our familiar Little Tern in the UK. 
Of course given our luck at the moment, it’ll be no surprise to read that the hotel we were aiming for is in fact closed all this year, and is undergoing a major rebuild ready for 2009.  So instead we spent more time looking for an alternative, and are listening to the sounds of heavy trucks passing outside our bedroom window as we write this!  But at least the food is good, so we’ve something right.  The rest of the day was spent birding in the Paracas National Park, a vast area of spectacular desert where the dunes meet the dramatic cliffs over a turbulent sea.  Impressive scenery but sadly no new birds for our list. 
Somewhere in the middle of all this, we also made time to visit an internet café where we again continued our efforts to fix up the rest of the Peru leg of our trip.  At present it seems that whatever we try to arrange, we come unstuck at every turn.  Just when we think we’ve got something sorted, circumstances beyond our control unravel our plans and it’s back to square one again.  Very frustrating, and worrying too as we need a really big score here. 
Bird species total: 2757
Posted 16th July, Paracas, Peru