Paracas - the vacay vibe is strong here

(We are leaving Paracas tomorrow.  I will get this post started but I know I won't finish  it tonight.)

We made it out of Lima without incident.  We were booked first class on Cruz Del Sur bus line.  Three hours in a cushy seat and we were both ready to get off.  We have some even longer ones coming up so those are going to be unpleasant but that's how it is when you want to see lots of places in a big country.

VIP seats

Paracas is right on the ocean so has a total beach town vibe. Lots of bars and souvenir shops and happy beach goers.

 But it is also right beside a National Reserve that protects one of the driest deserts in the world.

On our first day, we arrived around 4pm.  We took a cab to our hotel and the cabbie tried very hard to sell us a 'tour' of the park, with a bird guide.  But we would have to pay him to come along.  We had only just arrived so we said no, for now.

We settled into our room.  Small, no windows, no air.  Just two nights.  And then we walked back into town, we are much closer than I thought when I booked.

There is a beach walkway with lots of bars and restaurants.  But we had a mission, book a boat excursion to Ballenas Island and a bird guide for the Paracas National Reserve.  Two blocks up from the beach is the road with the 'tour companies'.  We were fresh meat so we were picked off pretty quickly.  We saw a place that looked not too awful (Flamencos) so we headed towards it.  As it happened, Alfredo approached us and asked if we wanted a tour.  He worked out of Flamencos.

Alfredo, who is good at his job

(I am SOOO far behind - I am about write about the tour we bought from Alfredo and it is already over)

Of course, for the bird guide, Alfredo knows a guy, Nico.  There was general consensus by the tour people that Nico was the best.  Great, we booked Nico for the next morning at 6am.   And we want to go to the Ballestas Islands.  Are we going to Nasca?  Ica?  Yes, we are.  Well, we are in luck!

He has a group of Belgians who are taking the boat to the islands in the morning (8am) and then at 11am, a van to Huacachina (an oasis) and then a wine tour of Ica.  Followed by a bus to Nasca with a hotel room.  All for only s/190.  Are we interested in this promotion?

The promotion does include everything we wanted to do in the next two days and more.  And we get to not plan for a day.  Yes, we are in.

Since we are going to be in Nasca, would we be interested in a flight over Nasca Lines?  Val said no but I said yes (this is your fault Rachelle).  We paid for all of  it (bird guide, promotion, flight) and that was that, what could go wrong, we were in good hands (foreshadowing!).

Then we spent the rest of the evening wandering around and eating seafood.  There is a strip of restaurants that are very aggressive in trying to convince tourists that they want to eat there.  We had to be bribed with free Pisco Sours and a view of the sunset.

Free Pisco Sour and the mixed fish fry

(now we are leaving Nasca soon... I have to start writing more, but that means doing less so probably not)

Our room in Paracas was very small and hot as can be, no windows.  So it was not a great night.  We got up at 5am for our 6am bird tour of the Paracas National Reserve which is right by Paracas town. Nico told us it is the driest place on earth.  I believe it.  There wasn't a plant or animal to be seen anywhere.  But is was beautiful.  And the desert goes right up to the ocean.

I have to be honest, Nico is not the greatest birder but he did know all of the places to find the birds.  If you want more birds, I created a separate post of just birds.  They were all shore birds.

That's a flamingo from a million miles away

Seriously, the desert was so amazing, here are a few more pictures.

We were back at the hotel by 10am.  We went for breakfast.  It was really good and only s/15 for eggs with ham and cheese, toast, coffee with milk and fresh orange juice.  I ordered a coffee later in the day and it was s/10! so I know our breakfast was a deal.

We had a fairly slow day (for us).  I know we had a nap at one point (we asked for a fan so our room wasn't quite so oven-like).  And we wandered around town and did some shopping, had a snack (yogurt and fruit!)

Paracas Cafe was great. 
Yogurt with fruit and honey hit the spot

This is for my anthropology friends. 
A coffee mug celebrating trepanation

A Peruvian Hairless dog.  The ugliest dogs in the world.

It was election day in Peru so the local restaurants weren't allowed to serve alcohol.  But, of course, they did.  But we had to sit upstairs on the patio so we didn't attract attention (with all of the other beer swilling tourists)

Val with her contraband beer at the speakeasy.

Early to bed that night.  And up early again the next day, although not as early as bird tour day.  We had to be at the Flamencos tour office at 8am for our boat tour to Bellanis Islands.  This was the first part of our 'promotional tour'.  No extra charges said Alfredo.  First stop, the ticket office.  Entrance fee not included.  It was supposed to be s/16 each but we made Alfredo pay half.  

The boat tour is about 90 minutes to the islands to see seabirds, one Nasca line (the candelabra) and sea lions. I was particularly excited to see the Humboldt Penguin,  I have never managed to see a penguin before. Here are a million pictures from the boat ride.  

Lining up to get on the boat

We were at the very back

El Candelabra

Penguins!  

Boobies!  (because I am a 12 year old boy)

An abandoned loading area from the days of harvesting guano

The harem

The mists arrive and the wind is up, time to leave

Val has pointed out that I have spelled the name of these islands three different ways, all wrong.  They are the Islas Ballestas.

I am going to end this post as we leave Paracas.  We liked this little town a lot.  And here is some more desert meets the sea pictures.  Because this may be the most beautiful place on earth.

This is a mummified fish.  You can see how far it is from the water

This is the 'cathedral' covered in Inka terms and Peruvian boobies

This is Playa Roja (the red beach)