LIFE ON THE EDGE OF THE DESERT Few areas of Peru can be so exuberant yet barren at the same time. Few areas of the world harbor so much history and nature, and all within reach. All that is necessary is to follow that narrow coastal strip following the course of the birds and the sun which is, naturally, southward bound. A hundred and twenty four miles south of Lima, an extensive and arid desert dominates the landscape. To the west, a cold but extraordinarily rich sea wears away at the rugged coastline. Two extreme, but diametrically opposed environments united to create one of the most singular natural ecosystems in the Americas. Paracas National Reserve. The surface of the sea sparkles in the orangey light of sunset. Above the waves a dark cloud appears, birds plunging into the water and re-emerging like feathered projectiles. The cloud is alive and changes its appearance continually. Going close we can hear the deafening noise as of arrows swishing through the air. It is an immense flock of birds, a pajarada, one of the most fascinating spectacles the Peruvian coast has to show. This cloud, consisting of tens of thousands of Cape Gannets, Pelicans and Guanays attack an enormous shoal of anchovies that, disoriented, has risen to the surface. There are birds that dive like darts into the water; others emerge with one or even two little fish in their beaks, fly off and then plunge again into the sea. Close by, groups of seals and dolphins also take part in the feast. In only a few minutes the cloud has separated into interminable columns of birds. They fly off in different directions. The shoal of fish has disappeared and calm returns to the sea. This event, which occurs frequently but unseen out at sea, reflects the incredible abundance of living creatures at Paracas. A land of great cliffs and blue sea; quiet beaches, empty islands and beaches teeming with life, but adjacent to one of the most lifeless deserts on earth. That is why it is so singular. It is this strange abundance next to extreme scarcity of life that makes Paracas a fascinating and unique place where nature has created every possible form of life next to a salty landscape where nothing moves but the wind. The wind blows cool from the south and reaches the remotest part of the desert, eroding the landscape and carrying with it the sound of thousands of animals living in some far place out of our reach. THE KINGDOM OF BIRDS If anything commands your attention along the Paracas coast it is the astonishing abundance of birds. The immense colonies of sea birds are only part of the natural complexity deriving from the cold Humboldt current. This, magnified by great undersea trenches deeper than the Andes are high, together produce tons of plankton and microorganisms which rise to the surface and are consumed by shoals of fish of many species: flounder, Peruvian grunt, drum, smoothhound, palm ruff, wirrah cod, Peruvian rock sea bass and, of course, Peruvian anchovy. This little fish with its little body no bigger than a pencil is the principal source of food for colonies of animals as varied as you can possibly imagine: penguins and whales; albatrosses and dolphins; seals and cormorants. The birds, however, are the principal protagonists on the Paracas coast. More than two hundred different varieties - around half the number of species recorded in Canada - assemble each year on its beaches, rocks and cliffs converting the skies of this desert region into busy flight paths for colossal flocks of plovers and sandpipers, small migrants from places as far away as Alaska and the Arctic Circle. Other, more conservative species, visit us from their nesting sites in Mexico, the Caribbean or the Galapagos Islands. NOHA'S ARK IN THE DESERT But distance is not the only impressive thing about the feathered inhabitants of Paracas. A mosaic of living curiosities congregates in these cold waters to provide a natural spectacle that has no equal anywhere on the Pacific coast of the Americas: the Humboldt Penguin, a speedy underwater hunter that migrated from its original home in the Antarctic thousands of years ago to 'fly' beneath the sea off the Peruvian coast at incredible speeds in search of its prey; enormous albatrosses with a wingspan of thirteen feet on everlasting patrol over the ocean; the Peruvian diving petrel - a small bird native to this coast - has lost the ability to fly and leads its life between the sea and its nest on the salty coast. Completing this singular Noah's Ark on the desert coast is the graceful flamingo, these birds arrive every winter from their nesting sites in the Andes nearly two and a half miles above sea level and the majestic condor, soaring effortlessly down from the glaciers to feed; the fish eating eagle, Pandeon heliactus, snatches fish from the sea with its sharp claws and colorful oystercatchers that extract and devour in a matter of seconds, shellfish buried on the beach... all this and more, next to a desert that changes color as the day progresses. Heavy ungainly animals take the sun on the inaccessible beaches and rocks. These are South American sea lions who come here every year to breed. The females come from hundreds of miles around and congregate in dense groups on the beaches. The huge males, alone for the whole year also appear to show off their tusks and roar. Seals rest on rocky outcrops far from the beaches and under the cliffside nests of Inca tern and red-legged cormorant. This predilection for different types of resting place makes it possible for two species of sea lion to live peacefully on the coast's few protected areas and beaches. On this quiet coast, where seaweed and kelp cover the sea bottom, other creatures live hidden from the world: legions of crabs and snails feed octopus, several species of fish and a mammal that is as strange as it is likeable: the marine otter or sea cat. Driven almost to extinction as it was hunted for its fine fur, this marine nutria is found on the least accessible rocky beaches and caves and feeds on crabs and fish that live among the kelp on the sea bed. The reserve, with a little more than 500 animals, is the last refuge of this beautiful animal which was once more abundant on the Peruvian coast. Paracas, finally, is life in all its forms. This is frequently overlooked by visitors concentrating on a natural landscape of great contrast: On one side the arid desert and on the other the ocean, forgetting that narrow but fertile strip that unites these two disparate worlds. A place often violent and subject to continual change, where animals live each day as if it were their last and where nature sets the rules.