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Published: July 19th 2007
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Paracas might just be one of my favorite towns in Peru so far. It is extreamly small, the entire town in settled along the water front along a board walk. Unfortunatly it is also very touristy so gringos appear in every direction and the resaurants tend to cater to more american appetites. After a wonderful dinner sunday night on the boardwalk we settled into our hostal for bed. Yes, the pillow was lumpy but the bed was fine and I got a good nights sleep for the first time on the trip. We awoke early in the morning and headed next door for yet another breakfast of rolls and instant coffee.
From breakfast we loaded in to the van for the short drive to the docks where we boarded our little boat to tour the Baltista island, otherwise known as the poor mans gallapagos. Each boat held about 30 people sitting in 4 person rows. They strapped on our obnoxiously large and uncomfortable orange lifejackets and we were off. The first five minutes took us to a small island in the bay that displayed the candleabra. It is believed to have been created around the same time as the
nazca lines in a similar manner. We continue to skepulate how these structures are still around and havent been distroyed by the winds. Pooja and I came up with the theory of its creation as a guide for fishermen to find their way home. Another woman is convinced it was aliens.
15 more minutes on the bumpy sea and we began to see birds flying over head. Hundreds and hundreds of birds just appeared out of no where. It was the the best indication that we were approaching the islands. If these islands are really only the poor mans gallapagos I cant even imagine how amazing the real gallapagos islands are. The baltista islands are basically large rock formation in the ocean covered with birds and sea lions. There are birds in every directions, in the air, in the sea and on the islands. Thousands and thousands of birds. I probably have about 50 pictures of birds on my camera, it was almost as if we had never seen sea gulls before. There were a lot of different types of birds but I dont remember any of their names. We did get to see peguins which is always fun.
Seeing the sea lions was also really exciting. The first two we saw where on a small rock sun bathing and our boat basically went nuts. After that things calmed down a little bit. At one point near the end of the tour we reached a beach that probably had a hundred sea lions on it and in the water. It was incredible. I kept waiting to see a polar bear or a killer wale, some sort of preditor with so many sea lions around. Considering it is actually winter here, and freezing in the water there were no prediotrs to be found. Apparently they come with the warmer waters. After the beach we rode back to the harbor and ended our tour. All in all I think it took about 2 hours to tour the islands and now I have began making plans to go to the galapagos or chile sometime in my life.
After our boating adventure we drove to the nature preserve so see the cathedral. At this point we were all tired and hungry and ready to go home. The very last thing any of us wanted to see was a church, I mean
they are everywhere here. Well it wasn´t a church that we went to see. The cathedral turned out to be this massive beautiful rock structure. It was a sheer cliff dropping off into the ocean and we were on top. It was by far one of the most beautiful panoramic views I have ever seen. It was named the cathedral by fishermen who thought the rock stuctures looked like arches of a church. I think its a good name based on the awe it inspires in everyone. It´s huge! That was our last stop of the trip. After lunch in Paracas we started our drive back to Ayacucho. The stones were cleared out of the road and the trip only took 6 hours which was nice. As much as I loved the coast and had a lot of fun I really missed Ayacucho. Its kind of a hidden city that people forget about. Its large but the people are so nice. Its not touristy and it feels good to be one of a few gringos again. Plus nothing seems to beat Gisela´s cooking in the house. She is amazing and we are very lucky to have her as our cook.
We are spoiled here and we know it.
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