Pisco and Paracus

A year ago and we would have been staying in the city of Pisco as this USED to be the second most visited city in Peru after Cusco. However, we were advised by a local taxi driver to stay in Paracus, a small fishing village half an hour away from the city because on August the 17th in the previous year a devastating earthquake had hit Pisco. The earthquake was 8.1 on the richter scale and still 6 months after the tragedy the city is still a picture of rubble and torn down buildings. We took a ride into Pisco and literally couldn't believe our eyes, it was harrowing to see the damage and the lack of help that the city seemed to have been given from their governement. The city of Lima seems wealthy and prosporous and this scene was far removed from that. We were later told that the governemnet and police were very corrupt and even all the money made from Cusco and the Inca trail was taken and used once again on Lima, no other cities seemed to get a look in.

We stopped at some local cafes that had managed to set themselves back up and bought some local food which was nice and at one point, breath taken from all the devastation I stepped straight into a huge hole in the pavement and my leg went went straight down it. No sooner had i realised what had happened, a local women had run out of her house and came to my aid with TCP for my cuts, she was lovely and I was completely fine, it would have been nasty should I have fallen forwards though. The city needs so much help and unfortunately their main source of income has always been tourism and now tourists are advised not to go. GO!! Stay in Paracus and go and visit the people in Pisco and spend some money in their little stores.

Paracus was a very small and poor fishing village, here we took a boat trip to an island ofetn referred to as The Poor Mans Galapagos'. The island is uninhabitable to us but is absolutely covered from head to toe in birds and other marine wildlife such as sea lions, seals and penguins. It was beautiful and i'd advise everyone to do it. Along the way we also saw a a drawing in the desert sand, an offspring from the Nasca lines, that are close by to this area. They were created by the Nasca culture as far back as 200 BC and most of them can only be seen from space. This one however, can be seen from the sea and it is said to have been drawn to guide sailors.

The next day we took a trip to the national park which covers a large section of the desert and follows the sand to the sea cliffs providing some spectacular views. It was short stay here and an unexpected suprise. Beautiful and devastating.

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