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Published: December 22nd 2006
No Shortage of Sea Lions
This was the area where they had their pups. They were surrounding the boat and very curious about us.A park by the sea!!! I said to Stevie- this is the one place in Peru I absolutely have visit. And both of us are glad we did. At the advice of our taxi driver (who was driving us in circles around town until we agreed) we decided to stay in the little town right by the Parque Nacional Paracas. He made an extra 10 soles getting us there (about 3$). It was a lovely little town, quiet, clean, right by the beach, and Stevie worked it so we got half price on our hotel room (which made the place even nicer).
The next day we took a speed boat out with about 25 other people and a jolly bilingual guide to a series of islands. They were full of caves and crevices, and covered with birds. I mean thousands of birds. It is said in some places the "guano," which is quechua for "doo doo", is 50 meters thick. Naturally, we stayed in the boat and didn´t venture into that mess, even with hiking boots. The guano, however, is occasionally harvested and used for fertilizer the world around. It´s a big part of the local economy, aside from tourism. This
Birds and Guano
They were every where! What a happy place to be a bird! was my first time seeing penguins in the wild- Humboldt Penguins none the less- named after the cool ocean current off the coast. Also the islands were covered with hundreds of sea lions, all being very cute in their sea lion way. There were also some very rare birds- so rare I´ve forgotten the names of them, but I do know they have red feet. Needless to say, our time there went by very fast, luckily it was only half of the day's adventure.
Going back to the mainland we passed a giant sand carving- about 160 feet long called "candlabra." It's very old, thought to have been created by the Incans ot Nazca people at least a thousand years ago. It is thought to be a San Pedro Cactus, which was and is used to this day by Shamans in holy ceremonies for its halucinogenic properties.
The second half of the day we visited the coastal peninsula- which is nothing but desert. They say it is one of the driest places on earth- it never rains, and nothing grows there, not even little shrubs or a tiny cactus. Ít looks just like a sandy desert- dunes and all. But
Boat Trip
I was on top of the world. Around every corner a new marine surprise! to our surprise, our taxi driver drove right through, over the dunes, like nobody´s business. They seem to have solidified (thankfully) over time. We read in the museum it once was a very lush, tropical place according to fossils found there. And, its right next to the ocean, with all its splendid cliffs, which the driver drove with a few feet of. I think Stevie may still have fingernail marks in his leg from me.
This was where we saw our first red sand beach. Then he took us to a nice white sand beach where we played in the water and looked at the tide pools. I taught Stevie how to do the warrior yoga pose and a little dance to go along with it. He was quite pleased, I think. Now he does it everyday.
Paracas was awesome.
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STEVIE
non-member comment
babee, they are great, so cute you are, XXXXXXXXXX