So after
our 16hour bus journey to Paracas overnight on Saturday night (17th
September) we were reunited successfully with Sarah’s parents Rowena and
Michael. Our journey had taken a grand total of 26hours rather than the
scheduled 6hrs.
We checked
into a place called Paracas Bay Hostal which was run by a lovely little lady
who looked after us like her children. Paracas is a small fishing town 3 hours
south of Lima and is used by the rich people of Lima Atacama desert and is a
national park because of it’s ecological bio-diversity in the sea and land.
In the
afternoon after sitting on our balcony admiring the sea view we headed into the
national park for a tour.
We even tried
the local seafood delicacy ‘ceviche’ for dinner which is raw fish cured with
chilli and lemon juice. I can recommend the normal fish but raw octopus isn’t
so great!
The next
day we got up and took a tour to the local Islands ‘Islas Ballestas’ which are
better known as the poor man’s galapagos. On our way to the Islands
we passed a pre inkan ‘Wari’ sand sculpture called the Candelabro, this is a
500ft Geogliph stamped into the desert hillside. They think it’s possibly
related to the Nasca lines… who knows??
When we got
to the islands we were ore struck by the number of birds flying overhead and
nestin on the islands. The smell was overwhelming!!
We also saw
Sea lions, Boobies, Dolphins, Pelicons, Seals, Red headed Vultures, Humbolt
Penguins, Cormorants, so many crabs and a multitude of sea crustations! It was
truly spectacular and well worth the visit!
Rowena and
Michaels thoughts and over-riding memories: The thing that struck them was that
although the islands were so close to the shore, the variety of species and
millions of birds plus smell of guana (bird poop) made it feel like they were
in the middle of the Pacific Ocean . Also the
weather was great – blue sea and blue sky after having zero expectations on the
way down to Paracas from Lima Lima
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