Blogs from Paracas, Ica, Peru, South America - page 3

Ons was baie impressed met die bus diens van Crus del Sur. 1st klas bus - seats slaan terug en beter been spasie as 'n vliegtuig. Lekker bo en voor gesit/le. Net voor ons by Paracas aangekom het, het ons ontbyt gekry! By Paracas het ons ! 'N taxi gevat tot by die Explorers Office en vandaar op 'n 2uur boot trip na Balestas Islands. Hier is oor die 18000 voels en 'n klomp robbe en pikkewyne. Hulle myn die eilande elke 8-10 jaar vir guano. As die wind verkeerd waai kan jy skaars asem haal van die stank. Terug in Paracas en ons wag nou vir die us na Ica... read more

We started off the day with a little more sight seeing. We were able to squeeze in St. Dominican church and San Fransisco Church. San Francisco is a beautiful church, but the main attraction is the catecombs. They are like everything you could imagine them to be - close enough to touch bones. Over 11000 bodies, but all arranged with similar bones together. Then we walked to Iglesia y Convento Santo Domingo (church and monestary). We were able to clime up the bell tower to get a great view of Lima's center. Grace and I went out to get something to eat before leaving for the bus. When we were waiting for our food we got to experience an earthquake!!! But just a little one. It was still exciting for me. Other than a family in ... read more

Dear Family and Friends, As some of you may know, we are on another Downes family adventure over the holidays to visit Peru. South America was omitted on our 2008 around-the-world trip and we have long desired to visit the Andes and the ancient indiginous lands of this continent. We departed Friday, spent one restful night in Miami and continued on to Lima, arriving without delay on Saturday evening, where we rented a car and drove to our apartment in the section of Lima called San Isidro. Lima is an enormous city of 8 million people (1/3 of the population of Peru) and it was wide awake and hopping even at 10pm at night. Even with GPS, our drive took all our concentration and nerve as the other drivers seem to use their horn in place ... read more

The day after we arrived in Paracas we jumped on a boat to go out and see the Islas des Ballestas. On the way out we drove past the peninsula called the Paracas National Reserve, I will mention this later since we actually went out there. But on the coast as we drove by it in our boat we got a chance to see a glyph, kind of like the Nazca lines. The local Peruvians think of it as being a cactus since that is a big part of their culture and native religion, the Europeans sailors who came through thought of it as being a candelabra that guided their way to land. Either way it was pretty spectacular, also since it was carved into rock whereas the Nazca lines are just rocks arranged on the ... read more

Druhou atrakciou vdaka ktorej je Pisco zname je blizka narodna rezervacia Paracas a to sme si samozrejme nemohli nechat ujst. Vacsinu rezervacie tvori pust a krasne opustene plaze kde zije vela vtakov, medzi najvzacnejsie patri chilsky plameniak. Rozhodli sme sa navstivit Lagunillas, ktore nasa kniha opisala ako krasne malebne miesto kam sa urcite oplati zajst. V skutocnosti to bolo zoskupenie restauracii cakajucich na turistov a par rybarov, okolie bolo nadherne ale nam sa to akosi znepacilo a rozhodli sme sa zmenit nas povodnie plan, tj prenocovat tu v stane a vratit sa domov. Nasli sme si volne miesta v odchadzajucom autobuse, ktory vsak nastastie este pred odchodom z reservy urobil malu zastavku pri ceste odkial sa dali pozorovat plameniaky. Tu nam padlo do oka dalsie miesto na stanovanie a nase plany sa opet zmenili - rozhodli ... read more