We were now returning to Lima from San Pedro in the Atacama dessert.
A good stop, in terms of not spending too much continuous time on a
bus, turned out to be Tacna, Peru on the border with Chile. I really
didn't know how much of the west side of Peru is a desert. Tacna's
counterpart city on the Chilean border is known (Wikipedia says) as
the driest (in terms of rainfail) inhabited city in the world. We
asked around and learned the best bird watching locations were a lake
a few hours away, or some wetlands near the town of Ite, an hour or so
away.

The Humedales de Ite are easy to reach; just take a bus to Hilo, a
fishing village north of Tacna, and exit at the lowest intersection at
the town of Ite. Then you have to walk down a small cliff to reach
the wetlands. The wetlands are very impressive; apparently they were
partly created for or as a result of mining operations, and now cover
close to seven square miles. Raised roads (levees) crisscross at
least the area we visited, making for easy walking and birdwatching.
We encountered no people and one car in the afternoon we spent there.
Even the beach was deserted.

Birdlife was amazing. Perhaps April was part of migration. Chilean
Flamingos, coots, Cinnamon Teal, Neotropic Cormorants, and countless
shorebirds filled the lakes. On the beach thousands of Franklin gulls
rested on the sand. A Peregrine Falcon also rested on a pole stuck in
the sand, not far from the gulls.

We found a lot of dead cormorants on the beach, and we saw more
further north in Mejia. On the levees we also saw signs of dead
birds, such as dried coot legs. The sand at the intersection of the
wetlands and beach was green, and appeared to be from copper. I am guessing
it is a result of copper mining in the hills and not a natural
occurence. Some residents told us the wetlands were contaminated. I
would like to know more about this. I know heavy metals like mercury are often
used in mining, so I wonder if duck hunters in the Northern hemisphere know
what they might be consuming.