Pisco, shithole

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we took a 17 hour busride (its actually not as bad as it sounds) from cuzco to pisco, where we were to visit the ¨poor man´s galapagos islands¨ aka the islas ballestas.

so, cramped and tired, we emerged from our night bus to swarms of taxi drivers offering us rides into the town of pisco. a 4 sol cab ride and we were there. pisco is a shithole, as the title indicates. we fell into a terrible hostel for 15 sols a night per person (i personally felt this was pricey for how bad it was) and explored the town. it reminded me of nagua only shittier and more dangerous. we bitched about the town the entire time we were there.

the next day we visited the islas ballestas and the península paracas, which, despite its totally barren feel is apparently one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. the islas ballestas were loaded with birds of all types, including penguins. there were also swarms of lobos marinos (sea lions), crabs, and dolphins. the shores of the islands were as full as they could be of sea lions.

the paracas peninsula was nice too. it is a very dry desert with pretty views of the pacific ocean. there we ate some good seafood and skipped stones on the shore. we came back for a 12 hour overnight busride to arequipa.

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