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Published: March 25th 2010
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We had heard that Paracus is a must see when you are in this area so since its only an hour away from Ica we decided to take a taxi there, what the hell, The somewhat barren desert landscape continues but there is respite from the heat as the breeze picks up nearer the coast, What's fascinating about the area we were driving through has flat plains on which there are perfectly square plots of various crops, green and lush surrounded by unforgiving desert, Dill, Asparagus,Paprica and of course potatoes, When it does rain which is seldom the farmers collect it in man made reservoirs and use it to irrigate their crops, there is also access to underground water.
We arrived in Paracus village to yet another festival ( I swear we are not seeking them out) This time it was a community based festival, a large stage was erected on the malecon ready for the evenings festivities, We booked into the Hotel Posada mostly because it was one of the few a wee bit away from the town centre and we know how latinos party and knew if we were to get any sleep we needed to be away
from the stage. The checking in process was a pain as the staff here weren't the most helpful bordering on rude, at $70 a night it was overpriced, nice pool and gardens but the rooms were a wee bit scruffy though the hot powerful shower made up for it a little.
We headed to town for dinner, by now a salsa band was in full swing the volume deafening, we headed for a local seafood cafe as I had been chomping at the bit for cerviche and being in a fishing port I had high expectations only for them to be dashed by the mediocre dish which appeared before me, not a good start to our Paracus adventure.
The waterfront had been rebuilt 2 years ago and its clean and a job well done, there are sculptures of local wildlife, lovely little benches, it is also nicely paved, it would appear that this little place has began to take its tourism potential seriously, its nice to see they seem to be doing it in a way thats healthy for the environment and they have gone to some lengths to protect what brings the tourists here in the first
place, the reserve and the Island, more about their efforts later.
We bought a bottle of Peruvian wine and headed back to the hotel, Peruvian wine has a bad wrap and in my opinion it fully deserves it, I hope this fledgling industry succeeds but their wines are very sweet and have a home market as Latinos like sweet wine, generally though Europeans and N. Americans have tastes for dryer varieties and I would fear for their export aspirations.
We left bright and early the following morning for the National reserve, this is a magical place, Red desert runs done to green coastal waters with many cliffs and viewing points along the way, One particular point had an arch that had been eroded by constant thrashing by the waves, It is known as el cathedral, The explanation board on the cliff shows a photo of said arch but in reality it now is only a "stack" a large rock that used to balance one side of the former arch, A massive earthquake hit a nearby town of Pisco (23 ams away) in 2007 causing extensive damage all around the area including this area, The cliffs protrude along the
coast and while standing on one you can view many others further along, You can see the damage by way of huge cracks in the cliffs, massive craters deep in the cliffs, So the cathedral collapsed leaving a single column a little way out to sea. Having thankfully never having lived through a major earthquake this place clearly put into perspective the power of mother nature.
A dainty wee village called Lagunillas was our next stop, Dozens of boats sat bobbing in the lagoon while others worked the ocean within our view, In 1948 a forward thinking person opened a wee cafe here, my previous nights disappointment at the cerviche vanished when we ate calamare and cerviche while watching the fishermen bring in the produce fresh from 200feet away, mmmmmmmm so good, The dock is overcome with birds of various varieties who are not a bit shy of humans, we climbed up over the surrounding cliffs and watched the boats coming in with loads of crab an corvina, We headed back to the village tired and happy, A lovely day in a beautiful place. It costs 5 soles to enter the park and the really look after it, its
huge but its clean and although its desert roads are clearly marked and its strangely untouched.
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