From Nasca to Paracas and the Ballestas Islands, and back to Lima

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Our night bus from Cusco to Nasca was one of the worst bus journeys I’ve had so far in South America. Even though we went with the best bus line in Peru, Cruz del Sur, and paid a lot for the privilege, the journey was just horrible. For most of the 13 hour journey I was feeling dizzy and sick, possibly simply because the road was so sinuous, and being in the front row upstairs meant that we could see how bendy the route was. Hannah wasn’t feeling her best either, so it wasn’t just me. Arriving in Nasca in the morning, we had hoped to be able to book a morning flight over the Nasca lines, a set of ancient lines carved in the desert over 2000 years ago. Flights used to be very regular, but about a month ago, one of the small planes crashed, killing the 6 tourists on board, so now the whole fleet is in the process of being checked to make sure they’re airworthy, so there were no flights on the day we arrived. They weren’t sure when flights would resume either, so as an alternative (and probably better bearing in mind we were both still feeling a bit sick after the bus), we did a tour of the lines by road. And it was a very enjoyable tour, starting in the museum about the lines’ creation (which is a mystery), and then to the lines themselves. We started with a set of lines called the Palpa lines, which were easier to see as they were carved into hillsides rather than the desert floor, before moving on to a tower next to the Pan-American highway which gives the best road-side view of the Nasca lines themselves. Of the dozen or so lines, we could see clearly “The Hands” and “The Tree”, as well as most of “The Lizard”, though the Pan-American highway cuts through this as they built this before they realised what the lines were. Shame we couldn’t see the rest, but I’ve seen pictures of the other lines, including The Spider and The Humming Bird, so I at least have a general idea of what the lines are about. It’s strange to think that lines carved into the desert over 2000 years ago are still visible, though given that you can’t really see them that well when you’re right on top of them, it’s a wonder how they created them in the first place. And no-one can say for sure what purpose they served in any case. After seeing the lines, we headed back to the town of Nasca, which really wasn’t that nice. Especially given that it was our first stop after Cusco. We wanted to get the next bus to our next stop, Paracas, but all the buses were unusually filled up until the early evening, apparently due to the cancellation of the Nasca Lines flights. We managed to fill the afternoon with a late lunch, followed by exploring the various tourist shops. The bus from Nasca to Paracas, being as it followed the incredibly flat and straight Pan-American highway through the desert, made a nice change to the bus through the Andes the night before. As the earlier buses had been filled up, we booked a hotel and the tours for the following day in advance, as we were on a tight schedule and couldn’t afford to wait around. Unfortunately, the hotel we ended up in was absolutely horrible. I’d rather not dwell on it to much, but the key the owner gave us didn’t open the door so he spent 20 minutes going through every key he had trying to find one that opened the door, and it was virtually the last key he had that turned the lock. Then we discovered that the toilet didn’t work, so we changed room to find that leaking taps had flooded the bathroom floor. The owner came to fix these problems, so we decided to stay the night as I really didn’t want to drag our stuff around town late in the evening looking for a new place when we were both tired. In the morning, there was no water in the bathroom at all, so we checked out first thing and checked into one of the more expensive (3 times the price) hotels, though still relatively cheap per person. It was definitely worth it though in order to have a working bathroom! We didn’t enjoy the restaurants in Paracas that much either, simply because every single one was strongly sea-food based (Paracas is really only a small fishing village filled with hotels), which didn’t suit either of us. We ended up in a bar where I ordered the only vegetarian thing on the menu - a side plate of chips, only to find them covered with sausage for some reason, and Hannah’s burger likewise didn’t seem to cut the mustard. Plus I managed to spill a jug of lemonade over everything, which didn’t help things (the lemonade was frozen and wouldn’t pour too easily, so I tipped the jug up in an attempt to fill my glass, but unfortunately most of the contents ended up over me). Despite these few negative experiences in Paracas, we both really enjoyed the 2 tours we had booked for the next day. The first was a tour of the Ballestas Islands, known as the Poor Man’s Galapagos, as you get to see wildlife but at a fraction of the cost. The 2 hour boat ride took in Paracas harbour, an ancient line drawing of a candlestick similar to the Nasca lines, and finally all the wildlife on the islands themselves, including penguins, pelicans and a whole variety of other birds, as well as hundreds of sea-lions. The whole area was incredibly loud (it was approaching sea-lion mating season) and rather smelly due to the sheer number of birds. The tour in the afternoon was perhaps even more enjoyable - it went to the Paracas National Reserve, a coastal desert just outside of the village. The travel agent who sold us the tour said there would be plenty of flamingos to see, but one of the first things the guide told us was that at this time of year, the flamingos are nesting in the Andes, only coming down to the coast for the dry season. Nevertheless there was certainly a lot to see, including fossils in the middle of the desert, some stunning coastline, a red beach and finally a small fishing village with sandy beaches. Due to the tides in the area, debris from the Pacific is washed up onto one of the beaches just outside the village, and on this beach, in varying states of decay, were dozens of sea lion carcasses, which had deceased naturally at sea and been swept by the tides to this beach. That didn’t make for a pleasant sight. Luckily, there were other, more pleasant beaches in the village, though the water was quite cold as it comes up from the Antarctic. We had more hassle later that day back in Paracas when we tried to buy bus tickets for Lima for the next day. It seemed the bus company’s systems were down, so we were told to wait whilst they phoned Lima to confirm availability. There is only one company in the village with direct buses to Lima, so we couldn’t have gone easily elsewhere. In the end, we visited the office 3 times and spent around 3 hours in total waiting, before going back to our hotel not knowing whether we had tickets for the first bus of the day. As we had to be back in Lima as early as possible, it was quite worrying, but luckily next morning we found out that there were seats available for us, and after 4 hours we were back in Lima. The whole day I had been feeling sick, probably from drinking the tap water there, but luckily I got over this soon enough. After checking into our hotel in the city centre, we headed back to the restaurant we liked in Miraflores for a farewell dinner, with me not feeling 100% but determined to enjoy the lovely food. As we wanted to be back early, as Hannah’s flight was very early the next morning and packing was going to be a complicated mission, we arrived at the restaurant at 6:30, only to find it didn’t open until 8. It was once again a lovely dinner, but we didn’t get back to our hotel and finish packing until after midnight, leaving precious little time for sleep as the taxi had been ordered for 5:30 the next morning. Saying goodbye at the airport was obviously a sad time, and the 2 weeks together seemed to have just flown by.
Getting back from the airport to the hostel alone was a fun experience, as I didn’t want to pay for a taxi for just myself, so I ended up on one of the colectivos, or minibuses that form most of Lima’s transport system. The colectivos that Hannah and I had taken from the centre of Lima to Miraflores were more like buses, but the ones on this route were 8-seater minibuses, with about 16 people crammed into them. It was absolutely horrible, but it got me to near to the centre, eventually, and for about 1/30 of the cost of a taxi.
I then had 4 days to spend doing things in and around Lima that I hadn’t done with Hannah, as well as taking it easy after 2 weeks of travelling non-stop. I had time to visit Miraflores properly, as well as the bohemian quarter of Barranco, which was a real contrast to central Lima with its European-style architecture and palm tree-lined boulevards. Plus it has a Museum of Electricity which was well worth visiting. I also visited the area of Callao, officially an independent city from Lima and the main port in the country. Callao claims to be the second largest urban area located in a desert in the world (after Cairo), though I’m not sure how Callao can be in the desert whilst Lima isn’t.
To get to Callao, I had to get a minibus from Lima city centre. I found a minibus at the start of the route, got on and waited for it to fill up before we started off. Just as we were pulling off, a policeman arrived and gestured to the driver to stop, at which point the driver threw the minibus into reverse and tried to get away from the police, only to be stopped by the amount of traffic behind. All the passengers rushed off, as did I (we hadn’t yet paid) whilst the police came over to talk to the driver. No idea what all that was about. The police and authorities do seem to keep a close eye on all the minibus colectivos, but I didn’t hang around to see what happened. Luckily there are plenty of these minibuses, so I didn’t have any problem on the next one I got on.
In Callao itself, there is a large peninsula stretching out into the Pacific, on top of which is located a large, hexagonal-shaped castle. Just next to this is the Abtao Museum, where you get to board a former Peruvian Navy submarine (called Abtao), which was very interesting, though a bit strange in that I was the only visitor. I don’t really associate Peru with a large navy, but apparently their submarine fleet is one of the biggest in the Americas. The main Naval Museum was also an interesting visit, though not as good as the submarine museum. Along one street in Callao I was heckled for the whole length by people trying to sell passport-sized photos. I thought it strange that so many people would be trying to sell the use of a photo booth in the same area, but then I passed a National ID card centre, which explained it. The last site I visited whilst in Lima was the National Museum, which my guide book says is the best museum in the country. I beg to differ. Of the 3 floors with exhibits, the first 2 were incredibly dull and very small, but the top floor, which was all about the civil war and fight against terrorism in the 1980s and 1990s, was much more captivating. Having done pretty much everything I wanted to in the Lima area, I bought a ticket on a night bus for the northern city of Trujillo, from where my blog will continue in the next entry.

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