RANSVESTIA

time a wave came in the water rushed in and raised the level of the pool about three or four feet and when it went out you suddenly went down the same distance so it was a rather unusual place to swim, but the seals made it worth it.

I hadn't done any snorkling before except for about 10 minutes about twelve years ago in Hawaii so the experience with the seals whetted my interest. Later in the week we went to a special, sheltered rocky area and went snorkling in the open again. It was so interesting and beautiful to be swimming with the colorful tropical fish and the multicolored coral. I could have kept doing it all afternoon but we had to get back to the ship.

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After a week of visiting various islands and enjoying the unique experience of picking our way through the birds' nests, the sea lions sleeping on the beaches and the iguanas who are black like the lava and sometimes were almost stepped on before you could see them, came back to Baltra and the airport. It was back to Guayaquil overnight and off the next day for Lima, Peru. Lima has a surprisingly large international airport and one of the regular airlines flying there is the Russian Aeroflot. I did the usual tourist thing and took the city tour in the afternoon. I met an English lady on the tour and we decided to have dinner together. We ordered "Sopa Peruviana" or Peruvian soup. When it came, the waiter pointed to what looked like about an eighth of a tomato and said, "Muy caliente," and shook his head for "no" while pointing to his mouth. I got the message that it was very hot and pushed it to one side. But a few minutes later I was talking to the lady and unknowingly got it in the soup spoon. Thank God I didn't bite into it or I would not be here to write this, but I did get some of the liquid from its near vicinity and quickly spit it out. Man was that hot. I quickly called for some butter and just took a mouthful of it and worked it around my lips. Since the hot stuff is an oil it is oil soluble and the butter took it away but for a while it was quite an experience.

Walking around Lima after dinner was quite an experience, too. I don't know how come more tourists don't break their legs or ankles in that town. There are just hundreds of holes in the sidewalks about ten inches square and a foot deep must be some sort of meter or something in them but they are wide open and while local citizens would naturally avoid them I would expect that visitors from the cities without sidewalk hazards would step in them inadvertantly This

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