Message of Abbot Paul - Friday 10th March 2023

I apologise for there being no message as such today. Yesterday, after Mass at 4am, we set out for Paracas, arriving around 8.30. We said office in the car and had a full Peruvian fisherman’s breakfast on the pavement on arrival. After much negotiating, we hired a small boat and crew to visit the Ballesteros Islands, home to the guano producing birds, of which there are hundreds of thousands, and countless fairly tame sea lions. Afterwards we went back the the port and had the most spectacular lunch at one on the restaurants, the very best, spotlessly clean, perfect food and exceptionally polite staff. Eventually, we took the car to the museum, a few miles away, and spent a couple of hours there, learning all about the local pre-Inca cultures that populated that part of the coast, one of the windiest and most arid parts of the Peruvian coast. After an ice cream, we made our back slowly to the monastery, stopping only for an ice-cold beer on the way. We got back around 10pm, worn out but happy. It was an unexpectedly wonderful day.