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Published: January 16th 2009
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The alarm woke us up for only the second time in a week and we were met outside the hostel - ON TIME! - by someone who pointed us to our bus to Paracas.
Once at the wharf we waited 15 minutes before boarding our boat - a 40 odd seater with a 250 outboard - probably the most modern piece of machinery we had seen since landing in Lima.
Not far out to sea, and following the coastline of Peninsula de Paracas, is the Candelabra - the 170 metre high geoglyph etched 40 cm deep into the sand. There are many theories as to how the design got there - pirates, early inhabitants and discoverers amongst them - my personal opinion is that it dates back to the 1980´s and was put there by the Peruvian tourist authority.
Isla Ballestas is known as the “Poor Man’s Galapagos” and is a series of rocky islands that are home to thousands of sea lions, pelicans, penguins and my personal favourite - the Peruvian Booby (ha, ha - he said booby). Most of the rocks are entirely white as a result of years of guano - bird shit - landing
on them. Only photos could do this place justice in terms of the amount of wildlife everywhere and the “whiteness” of the rocks - fortunately, photos do not portray smell accurately.
Once back in Pisco we had enough time for a Pisco Sour and a sandwich before checking out of the hostel and getting to our 1300 bus for Nazca (4 hours). Our 1300 bus turned out to be a 1340 mini cab that took us six kilometres to the Pan Americana Highway to San Clemente where we waited 40 minutes before being ushered to stand on the highway itself (there are no footpaths) to wait 20 minutes for the bus. Almost all of the luggage compartments were full so I followed the driver around the bus looking for some space for our bags and to ensure he actually loaded them. When he opened the rear compartment I got a hell of a fright to see someone sleeping there. A small argument ensued in which said sleeping man refused to allow luggage into his bed despite the pleas of the driver. Sleeping man won and our backpacks ended up in the battery and electrical compartment. We boarded at 1440
and quickly discovered why this leg was half the price S20 each (NZ$10) of the previous bus from Lima to Pisco. Our Royal Class seats were no more and we found two seats on a smelly, non-air-conditioned bus. Additionally, Peruvians seem to dislike being stuck in traffic or held up by unnecessary stops at gas stations and thump the floors and windows yelling what I assume to be “hurry up”.
We finally got to Nazca at 1830 and were spotted by a girl in the street who showed us to Friend’s House Hostel where we took a bed for S30 (NZ$15) and booked in for a flight over the Nazca lines the next day US$75 each.
We walked a few blocks to Plaza de Armas and had chicken soup and fish on rice for dinner S10 (NZ$5) all up! Not the best meal we’ve had here but filling enough. We got back to Friend’s House at 2015 where we typed up the last few days on the blog and got to bed at 1030.
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