Paracas - Starting the peru hop adventure!

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So to make my way through southern Peru I booked an all in 1 hop on, hop off bus ticket from a company called Peru Hop. The company is run by 2 Irish guys and overs a variety of routes starting in Lima (office in Miraflores) or Cusco (office on same street as Pariwana hostel nr San Fransisco Sq).



I got a ticket from Lima to Cusco (without the lake) for $169 with my 1st stop being Paracas.



Paracas is a small seaside village (town?) located 4hrs south of Peru. The main attraction of is to take a tour to the Ballestas Islands & the national reserve.



How I got there:

Peru Hop - 7hrs. it takes a little longer as you make stops along the way.



What I did:

So after our 1st stop at the Christo Statue (explained in my Lima blog) we headed out to see the Pachacamac temple - for this you literally stop on the side of the road to look at not a lot as the main of the attraction is further back from the road - a pointless detour in my opinion.



Next we continued about 3.5hrs to the Chincha slave tunnels to have a tour - this was actually really interesting and a nice break in the journey. We got a look around the old hacienda (now a very nice hotel) & then went down a short trip around the tunnels which were built under the hacienda to the coast & to other haciendas in the region. If you are claustrophobic beware the tunnels are quite tight although a 5'4" I didn't have to duck much! For the squeamish there are actual bones from the slaves/prisoners in the cells at one point! You also go into the chapel to see the secret tunnel the family would use if anyone was coming after them.



After an hour it was back on the bus to continue the last hour to Paracas. Arriving at approx. 2pm we checked into our hotels/hostels and had the rest of the afternoon free to ourselves. So after a quick rest up & re-org the Canadians and I headed along the seafront to find some food, we ended up with pancakes filled with fruit (banana, apple, pineapple + peach) covered in chocolate sauce & Pisco sours - Childhood meets Adulthood! It was an epic meal for S/.30.

The rest of the afternoon was spent mooching around the shops on the seafront & sitting on the beach before getting ready to go out for Pizza at 8pm. The pizza place was good & cost around S/.25.



Day 2: Ok so in the morning we were meant to be going on an 8am boat tour to the Ballestas Islands but unfortunately rough seas cancelled the tour & even cancelled the later 10am tour 😞

So another morning of looking at market stalls - I bought a small bag for S/.8 & a walk around the "slum" looking area of paracas. There really isn't much to do in Paracas & we did start to get quite bored before our bus tour to the nature reserve at 11.15am. This 1 hour tour took us to a lookout over a cove (I think it was called Devils something) & red beach.

We left Paracas at 1pm.



Where I stayed:

Los Frayles 3* hotel - 4 bed dorm with bathroom S/.30 - shower was hot, wifi didn't work so well in our dorm but ok in lobby, comfy beds. I shared with 3 Canadians from BC - Eric, Ashley & Kayla.

Breakfast was S/.10 for coffee, bread, jam, butter & egg & juice (freshly squeezed orange!).



Where Next: Continuing on to Huacachina.So to make my way through southern Peru I booked an all in 1 hop on, hop off bus ticket from a company called Peru Hop. The company is run by 2 Irish guys and overs a variety of routes starting in Lima (office in Miraflores) or Cusco (office on same street as Pariwana hostel nr San Fransisco Sq).



I got a ticket from Lima to Cusco (without the lake) for $169 with my 1st stop being Paracas.



Paracas is a small seaside village (town?) located 4hrs south of Peru. The main attraction of is to take a tour to the Ballestas Islands & the national reserve.



How I got there:

Peru Hop - 7hrs. it takes a little longer as you make stops along the way.



What I did:

So after our 1st stop at the Christo Statue (explained in my Lima blog) we headed out to see the Pachacamac temple - for this you literally stop on the side of the road to look at not a lot as the main of the attraction is further back from the road - a pointless detour in my opinion.



We stopped for food at a restaurant that did amazing Chicharonne sandwiches for S/.18 - it's seasoned pork with onions & sweet potato.



Next we continued about 3.5hrs to the Chincha slave tunnels to have a tour - this was actually really interesting and a nice break in the journey. We got a look around the old hacienda (now a very nice hotel) & then went down a short trip around the tunnels which were built under the hacienda to the coast & to other haciendas in the region. If you are claustrophobic beware the tunnels are quite tight although a 5'4" I didn't have to duck much! For the squeamish there are actual bones from the slaves/prisoners in the cells at one point! You also go into the chapel to see the secret tunnel the family would use if anyone was coming after them.



After an hour it was back on the bus to continue the last hour to Paracas. Arriving at approx. 2pm we checked into our hotels/hostels and had the rest of the afternoon free to ourselves. So after a quick rest up & re-org the Canadians and I headed along the seafront to find some food, we ended up with pancakes filled with fruit (banana, apple, pineapple + peach) covered in chocolate sauce & Pisco sours - Childhood meets Adulthood! It was an epic meal for S/.30.

The rest of the afternoon was spent mooching around the shops on the seafront & sitting on the beach before getting ready to go out for Pizza at 8pm. The pizza place was good & cost around S/.25.



Day 2: Ok so in the morning we were meant to be going on an 8am boat tour to the Ballestas Islands but unfortunately rough seas cancelled the tour & even cancelled the later 10am tour 😞

So another morning of looking at market stalls - I bought a small bag for S/.8 & a walk around the "slum" looking area of paracas. There really isn't much to do in Paracas & we did start to get quite bored before our bus tour to the nature reserve at 11.15am. This 1 hour tour took us to a lookout over a cove (I think it was called Devils something) & red beach.

We left Paracas at 1pm.



Where I stayed:

Los Frayles 3* hotel - 4 bed dorm with bathroom S/.30 - shower was hot, wifi didn't work so well in our dorm but ok in lobby, comfy beds. I shared with 3 Canadians from BC - Eric, Ashley & Kayla.

Breakfast was S/.10 for coffee, bread, jam, butter & egg & juice (freshly squeezed orange!).



Where Next: Continuing on to Huacachina.

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Photos

2015-10-08 18.02.35
Red beach, National park

IMG_6271
Paracas beach