Advertisement
Published: April 5th 2007
Shores of Paracas
a resort for rich Limenos I was ready by 0230hr and headed out to one of many bus stations in Lima with my male guide, Angel. The bus wasn´t full and made additional stops within Lima. Apparently the fare gets cheaper if you board outside the station but they aren´t particularly safe. We caught the 0310hr bus to Paracas, a cambio to the main square, then walked the rest of the way to a private dock where I would board a boat to see the Ballesta islands. The whole trip took just over 4 hours.
On the way over, we saw Candelabra, a pattern etched into the sand and rock of an island not far from the mainland. Our guide offered a few explanations: pre-Incan, for navagation, or in other words, we have no bloody clue! Isla Ballesta is also known as poor man´s Galapogas. I was quite impressed with the sheer number of birds, and can only imagine what the Galapogas look like. We saw cormorants, pelicans, Peruvian boobies, humbolt penguins, some other birds I don´t know the names too, and many sea lions, including pups. Guano aka bird droppings was a huge business here before artificial fertilizers and apparently Peru and Chile
Massive sand dunes outside Ica
a perfect place to go sandboarding went to war over this stuff. It has a strong and pungent smell, and a bit like the fertilizer we use at home.
We then caught a bus to Ica, then yet another bus to Nasca. Total travelling time: 3+ hours. About one hour outside Ica around Huacachina are massive sand dunes. Too bad I couldn´t stay longer to try sandboarding. I hear it´s less painful than snowboarding if you crash. By the time we got to Nasca, it was already 1500hr. I think most people fly over the lines in the moring and early afternoon so it was hard to find an airline ready to take passengers. We waited around until almost 1600hr and finally we were ready to fly. I´ve heard that the small propeller planes are unstable and the plane banks left and right so that all passengers get to see the lines. As a result, many people throw up. I am not one to get motion sickness, but just as a precaution I didn´t eat lunch.
The plane ride was rather uneventful and no one threw up, but I took the air sickness bag home anyway as a souvenir. The pilot pointed out all
Candelabra
many hypotheses, no absolute answers on its origin and use the lines, incluiding a couple not on the map, but I only realized afterwards that we didn´t see the lizard. This is one whose tail was crossed by the pan-American highway. I didn´t see it on some of the other maps offered by other airlines, perhaps it can no longer be seen clearly? Some of my photos didn´t turn out well because I didn´t really see what I was supposed to see until the airplane banked the other way. The other way to see them is on top of a watch tower, but I think that´s a waste of money. Of course, many hypotheses exist, including maybe more credible ones by MarÃa Reiche? - calendar, irrigation ditches, for astronomy, or even created by aliens.
Afterwards we found a local restaurant to eat lunch. I had a set menu for 3 soles - soup of the day with rice and mussels, some sort of grilled fish, fried onions and rice and a unknown fruit drink. It wasn´t bad for the price, but I didn´t finish the fish because it was too bony.
Angel knows many people in this area and we were lucky enough to run into one who
Rock formations
look at the sheer number of birds agreed to take us back to Ica for a fair price. It was around 2000hr when we got to Ica and about 0030hr when we finally got back to the Lima bus station. I finally got to bed around 0130hr.
If you have time, it´s probably better to spend 2 days in the area, including some time to check out sights around Ica and Nasca and sandboard. If not, you can do what I did or I think AeroCondor offers flights from Lima to Nasca to save you from the gruelling bus ride.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.101s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 56; dbt: 0.0572s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
