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Pisco and Ballestas Islands
Huacachina to Pisco The 5 hour stretch of Pan-American highway between Ica and Lima is served by a very frequent, fast and well used bus service run by Soyuz/Peru bus. The fares are cheap and it makes travel so easy. This is a less used tourist route as most people skip out this stretch. After a short taxi ride from Huacachina we were at the bus station in Ica and within about15 minutes we had a ticket and were on our way to Pisco.
The journey takes about an hour and you then get dropped at the turn off for the town where there are lots of taxis to take you the next 6 kms into the town centre. We headed straight to a hotel with a pool which was 7 pounds a night. The day was hot so we spent the rest of it chilling by the pool. This was after we had arranged a tour for the next day, to the Islas Ballestas (known as the poor man’s Galapagos), and we went into the town centre for some menu el dia ceviche for starter then a choice of cooked fish with rice
and beans, yes!! At 7 pesos it was a little more expensive than the set menu we were used to (3 in Cusco) but still less than 2 pounds and soo good!!. Picso is a bit of a run-down town and other than a few squares and the pedestrianised street that seems to head towards the harbour, although we never actually made it, there is little else to see or do there. The night was spent playing pool and table tennis ready for our early start the next day.
Ballestas Island Tour The mini bus picked us up at 7:15 and we made our way to the road which led along the harbour to the Paracas reserve. It then dropped us off and we headed to the jetty where there were hoards of people waiting to be ushered on to a number of motor boats all belonging to the different tour companies. It was a little chaotic with seemingly little organisation but at least they did have an awning up which shaded most of the people from the rays of the already, before 9am, hot sun.
We boarded our speed boat, ‘pinguino 3’ and sped off into
the sea. After about 5 minutes we slowed down as a few dolphins had been spotted. We got closer to see the three dolphins swimming close to the surface. After a few photographs were taken we sped off again to let another boat come by. Now we made our way out to sea firstly stopping by a desert island with no vegetation, just sand and a marking in the sand of a candelabra. "El Candelabro", a giant lamp dug in the rough sand in the method used by the creators of the Nazca Lines. The origins of "El Candelabro" are not known and theories vary. It is well preserved by the lack of rain, it only rains once a year. After a good look at that we continued for another 30 minutes until we started to hear the sounds of sea lions in the distance.
The Islas Ballestas are a number of islands which are home to huge population of penguins, sea lions, albatross amongst other birds. We spent about 40 minutes getting in close to each of the islands and watching the sea lions on the beaches, the penguins on the rocky outcrops and the pelicans diving in
to the water. I liked the penguins the best, they are so cute! We then made our way back to back to the town.
Paracas National Reserve We then had 40 minutes to have a wander around the town, we made our way to a local bakery and got some cake for a mid morning snack! We then walked along the very touristy streets where people hustled you to come and eat in their restaurant. At around 11am we got on to another mini bus and made our way to the Paracas National Park. We paid a 5 peso entrance fee then the mini bus drove towards the cliffs for views of the expanse of the park. As it is desert the landscape is very baron and you can see for miles up and down the coast. The bus then made its way off the tarmac onto a track and drove at a number of beaches to a small town at a tiny harbour where we stopped for a few hours. There were a few restaurants here and a small beach. We opted for going in the sea.
At 2:30pm we all got back on the bus
and made our way out of the reserve and back towards Pisco and our hotel. It was time for more pool, although it was infested by kids!
Sunday morning was spent by the pool until check out. We then made our way to the Pan American highway again and took a bus a little further up the coast to Canete,
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