Advertisement
Published: January 16th 2007
First off, we are a few places behind in our blogging as we have been moving around a bit, and we have been a bit lazy. Expect to see a few more appearing this week!
Paracas, is often described as "the poor man's Galapagos". Now we have not plans to go to Galapagos, so I cannot confirm this description, but it slightly plays down what is a pretty nice place which is worth a visit.
We arrived from Lima on an early bus (5am wakeup, who says traveling isn´t hard work?) for our first "real" travel experience of this trip. We turn up with nowhere to stay, and no idea where there was to stay, just our backpacks and the intention to strike a hard bargain in a nice hostel. The bus was greeted by the customary tour reps posing as "information" posts, but really pimping their set hostels. Now Paracas seems to exist purely for the benefit of tourists, and the people who work in the fish oil factory down the road. It is a tiny town in the middle of the desert, surrounded by nothing but sand and the sea. Stepping off the bus we were glad
The seal family
Mum at the top of the rock, dad below, just like in human life ;)we hadn´t decided to stay in Pisco down the road, as that looked a bit messier compared to our simple little choice, we were pretty pleased. We got off the bus ignoring the reps and headed off down the road to what we hoped was the direction of the hostels. Now you never really know in a new place, in a country were you don´t speak much of the language what will you will find but we came across a nice little place and asked to see the rooms. It is always a good idea to ask first, to see the room you will be given before paying, as we have found to our cost on a few occasions. The place was really nice and clean, with a roof terrace but not really cheap enough (at 50 soles or about 8 english pounds) so Josie was bold enough to strike a deal, in Spanish. We were shown a slightly warmer room upstairs for 40 soles, but still not good enough. We made a move to leave and the price dropped to an acceptable 35 soles (5 english pounds) so we took it. 5 quid for a pretty cool room is
Mystic Lines in the Sand
Apparently a nautical navigation aid, lined up with the stars... not bad in any language, I think you will agree! Not the cheapest in town, I am sure, but it was what we wanted so....... yay!. It had cold AND HOT running water (in England this is a given, but in South America this is a selling point as a lot of places only have cold water), a clean bathroom and a bed, with a roof terrace outside. Pure luxury you will agree.
Smug from our bargin, we headed down to find us a tour to the islands, which house said, poor man´s gallapagos wildlife. Again this meant asking everyone prices and dodging the usual hawkers and beggers. We found a deal and headed off on a boat to the islands. The tour was really nice taking in the sand drawings (which Andy personally thinks were not that old but drawn by locals as they were pissed off with nearby Nasca for having lines and attracting tourists, so tried to combat it with their own "mystic" lines), and the islands off-shore, which are home to penguines, sealions (which are noisy bastards), and tons of stinking birds. Now I say stinking because the island is famous for its guano, which
is shit, and well smells like shit. Apparently they used to mine it for fertalizer until recently, and is considered a natural resource like gold, truly the most expenisve shit in the world! These days the bottom has fallen out of the poo market so it is all abandoned, left to the birds and other wildlife to poo in peace. Take a look at the piccies, it was all pretty cool.
That night was a fish dinner on the beach (chicharrones which is basically fish McNuggets and chips, with chilli sauce), which was delicous, and an early night as we were both shattered after a long day and an early start.
In case it didn´t come through in the writting we REALLY love Peru, not only because of its wonderfull tasty food but also because of its kind, warm hearted people.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.058s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0368s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Sheila
non-member comment
Family Heirachy
I must agree the family heirachy of the seals is spot on, the dad is lower to catch the mum should she rollover to far while sleeping hmmm. Have fun looking forward to seeing your trekking photos lots of wild life and such and I dont mean yours.......Luv