Blogs from Paracas, Ica, Peru, South America - page 6

It was an early start for us this morning as we had booked ourselves on the Ballestas Islands tour, one of the main attractions here in Paracas. After a small breakfast, we made our way to the jetty conveniently situated at the back of our hostel (the hostel owners also run the tour) for the 8.15am start. We boarded the 25-seater speedboat, donned our tasteful dark blue lifejackets and braced ourselves for an exciting journey into the area dubbed the poor man's Galapagos. The first port of call was to the famous Candelabra, a massive drawing etched into the side of one of the hillsides leading down to the water. It's an impressive sight although I'm not 100% convinced it's as ancient as the locals make out. Something about it didn't look quite ancient enough to ... read more

Today we were hitting the road again and moving deeper into the Peruvian countryside. We took a Cruz del Sur bus to Paracas and were very impressed with the service. We were most concerned about Lima's bus stations having heard so many bad travellers' stories but we needn't have worried at all. The Cruz del Sur bus depot was nice and enclosed with guards at every entrance. The security to board the bus was as strict as at any international airport and the staff were as professional and friendly as you would expect from any major airline. Not only was the second class seat very roomy and comfortable but we got stewardess service on board too. Lunch was included in the ticket price (45 Soles each, about £8) although I ended up only eating the dessert ... read more

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 ... read more

New Words: la arena: sand quemada: burned bloqueador del sol:sunblock humectante: moisturizing From Leonardo´s house in Guadalupe I hopped on a bus to Pisco, back towards Lima. Near here is the Paracas Reserve, and the Islas Ballestas, which are touted in guidebooks as the ¨poor man´s Galapagos¨. I got there very early to take a boat. The boat was filled with schoolkids. The ones near me really liked my camera. The trip was amazing, these two large hunks of rocks way out in the ocean absolutely covered in birds (penguins, pelicans, others) and sea lions. The sea lions make a very scary roaring racket. I was unaware of this; it must be where the name comes from. I was admiring the color variations in the rock, thinking it´s so interesting how it goes from white to ... read more

Après donc quelques jours à Lima nous avons pris notre 1er bus péruvien direction le sud, destination Pisco! Le bus était plutot confortable (enfin j'avais peut être une appréhension négative des transports en commun au Pérou) on était aux premieres loges avec 1 poster géant de Jesus veillant sur nous!! Un peu surrealiste mais en tous cas les 3 ou 4 heures de voyage sont passées très rapidement. Impressionants les paysages, la route panaméricaine longeant le pacifique la cote absolument désertique... Arrivée à Pisco de nuit donc on a pas vu grand chose du village et direct à L'hotel recommandé par Sylvie. Bien recommandé d'ailleurs, avec sa piscine et ses chambres autour du patio on se serait cru à Melrose Place (dixit Albert, moi je disais Beverly Hills... j'suis plus très au fait des séries américaines...) ... read more