Apr 21, 2013 - Miraflores to Paracas, Pisco

Slept great. Woke to a breakfast off fresh fruit, toast with eggs and beef casserole! (With mushrooms and what are like pea aubergines), and a slice of pizza! Freshly juiced by the hotel a mix of papaya, pineapple and melon, yummy! Quick stroll around the town before getting the bus to Paracas in Pisco. Roughly 4 hours, looking out the window to see shanti towns and deserts. We arrived in Paracas to a really cool hostel, our room is next to the balcony over looking the sea. We then took a stroll down to the beach with a few beers to relax...

Nov 11, 2011 - Passing through Pisco to Paracas

Lima to Paracas We left Lima and travelled along the ocean. The land is arid and there are lots of sand dunes. The further we got away from Lima, the more agriculture that was visible. Sections of land were irrigated since this part of Peru gets very little rain. They grow bananas, all kinds of fruit trees, onions and potatoes: in fact 3000 different varieties. A Peruvian dinner must have some kind of potato dish or it is considered not a complete meal! There were numerous farms raising chickens, cattle and goats. There is no shortage of...

Nov 4, 2011 - Paracas / Ica / Nasca

nov 4 Paracas/Ica In the morning we went on a boat tour of Ballista Islands aka bird shit islands. Lots of wild life sea lions, seals, crabs, PENGUINS!!!, dolphins, and a shit load of birds. Turns out these islands harvest bird shit for fertilizer. In a very small area of the island there were approx. 200 000 birds and in this area they can harest over 1 1/2 meters of bird poop in 8 years. They collect it then send the packages onto boats via a zipline from the top of a cliff down to the waiting boats. The islands were very pretty with lots...

Nov 3, 2011 - Paracas

Nov. 2 Lima Peru Wondered around town, shopped and booked a tour for next 6 days ending in Cusco on Nov 9. Nov. 3 Paracas Peru Arrived in Paracas around 10:30am by bus. The buses are double decker and extremely fancy (think first class seats on air plane. Checked into our hotel and then spent the rest of the day touring Reservation National Paracas for the rest of the afternoon. Turns out Paracas is a desert with one of the most ecologically diverse ecosystems on the planet. The reserve covers 350 000 hectares but most of it is in the...

Jul 20, 2011 - Paracas and its abundance of life in the desert

We have just spent the last morning in Paracas, which is the town near the Isla Bollestas (or poor mans Galapagus). You can tell from the photos they have similar animals. Although, being a desert most of the similarities lie under the sea, where we couldnt see. Still, a fun morning, hearing the sounds all the coastal animals made. Its set to get very windy and sandy later so enjoying the cool sun before we head off back to Lima and then onto Iquitos. Neither of us have ever been big fish fans but thats all they serve here. However it seems...

May 28, 2011 - Paracas, Ballestas Islands and Hauchauchina

Arrived in Paracas last night, which is a small town on the coast of Peru, and went to visit Ballestasas Islands this morning....aka ´the poor mans Galapagos´according to the Lonely Plant guide!! It was actually ok, with some great sea cliffs, and arches, a few sealions (althought nothing on the scale of Galapagos), penguins and thousands of birds. Then travelled to Hauchauchina, Ica in the middle of the desert, which is like a tiny town buit around an oasis and surrounded on all sides by enormous sand-dunes. We then went sandboarding and...

Jan 9, 2011 - Ballestas Islands

WOW!!! We visited the Ballestas Islands this morning by speed boat which are Peru´s version of the Galapagos Islands. Although you aren´t allowed to land on the island due to conservation and protecting the wildlife. We saw loads of boobies!!!! (they´re birds!!!), loads of pelicans, penguins and sea lions! It was really good. We then went to a winery and were shown how they make the wine and ´piscos´which is a local spirit, we tasted about 8 different wines/piscos! Pisco Sours is the best which is when it´s mixed with lime and sugar. We...

Feb 20, 2010 - Paracas

Paracas is a very small beach resort which I used as my base to go on a boat tour of the Islas Ballestas. These islands, which are just off the shore in the Pacific Ocean, have been nicknamed the poor mans Galapagos Islands due to the abundance of wildlife on them. The name is very apt given that I was priced out of visiting the Galapagos Islands. But the poor mans Galapagos Islands really are well worth a visit. I saw a whole array of marine life such as sea lions, penguins, dolphins and tens of thousands of various species of birds who...

Feb 13, 2010 - Paracas - Islas Ballestas

After spending some days in Lima I decided to head down to the south. First I went to Paracas, some four hours bus drive. Here in Peru they have really comfortable long haul buses, they normally have two levels, have aircondition, tv, food and really nice seats. Of course it costs a little more than the normal buses. What I saw from Peru is quiet different than Ecuador, on the coast there is mainly desert. Paracas itself is really small town, mainly consisting of restaurants and tour agencies for the closeby Paracas National Parque. Next...

Oct 19, 2008 - Paracas, Peru

Tim -- Paracas is a very small coastal town that would be easy to miss if we were driving ourselves. We decided to visit Paracas to see the Isla Ballesta and the National Reserve. The Isla Ballesta is famous for its excrement. In fact, countries have fought wars over bird droppings left on the island. Apparently, every five years or so, someone comes and harvests the poop which gets turned into nitrate fertilizer for export. A few kilometers or so from the coast, the small island is home to millions of birds. Bird lovers can watch...

Oct 5, 2008 - A pleasant surprise!

Woke up earlier than we needed to this morning so we sat and read/watched TV before we headed down to reception to start loading up our stuff and to meet the new guys joining us in Lima. They are all lovely and will fit into the group well i think. We drove for about 5 hours today to Paracas and were pleasantly surprised to find the hotel where we were camping has a pool so we all quickly put up our tents and then got in the pool as it was surprisingly warm there! The water wasn´t quite as warm as we expected but it was nice to cool off for...

Oct 20, 2007 - The earthquake zone

Today we head down the coast to Paracas. We pass through Pisco, where the earthquake was in September. There are mounds of rubble everywhere and many people are living in tents. A few of us in the group had bought some food to donate to them. Its only about 5 bags of food and there are scores of people who line up for them, so I feel awful that we hadn't brought more. We hope that the families will share it out. It makes you realise how lucky we all are to live in a Western world. Lots of the indigenous people still live in shacks too,...