Sunday, June 26th: Paracas and Pisco

We woke up early, took a bus from Ica to Pisco, and then another bus from Pisco to Paracas. This awesome guy was at the bus stop with his harp-guitar.

On the way to Paracas, I saw a lot of power plants and ugly-looking oil refineries out in the desert. :/ Sad.

When we got to Paracas, we started looking for a cheap boat ticket to see the Islas Ballestas, a protected area of small islands covered with diverse wildlife. We were offered tickets for 50, 40, and 30 soles, but eventually found 25 soles and bought them. While we were waiting for the boat to come back from another tour, I saw this cool guy with his trained pelican!

He tossed fish to it and it caught all of them. I got a picture taken with the bird and gave the men some money. :)

We got on our boat....

and headed out into the beautiful harbor with all the other boats...

passing by the absolutely gorgeous peninsulas and islands. Take a look at those colors!

We stopped at The Candelabra, a huge carving several hundreds of years old of indeterminate origin, possibly from island natives or from Europeans. It was magnificent!

After speeding through the water for another 15 minutes, we arrived at the Islas Ballestas and instantly appreciated the awesome rock formations and tons of birds. The water was beautiful and clear!

This rock formation looks like a downward-facing profile of a face, with the nose most noticeable.

Birds everywhere!

These walls are there to collect guano, aka bird poop, because it is considered the best fertilizer in the world and this island is full of it.

This is wooden structure to assist boats that come to harvest guano, which they do once every 8 years.



Look at all the birds! Click for a bigger picture. The guide said there were 2 million birds.

The weather was so beautiful and sunny, especially after having been in chilly, cloudy Lima for an entire month! I didn't get wet at all on the boat, but some of the people sitting closer to the edge received a spray of water every so often.

We saw sea lions lounging on the rocks. They have no natural enemies on these islands, so they are very happy and lazy.

Penguins!! They survive in this area of Peru because the Humboldt current brings very cold water to these islands.

Here's the building where the person who watches over the island stays, and where the guano-collectors stay every 8 years. After circling around and through the islands, the boat headed back to Paracas. It was such a great 2 hours for just 25 soles!

Renzo and I headed straight to the cheapest lunch menu around. I picked crab soup and seafood with rice, which although it was tasty, was way too salty and spicy. I should have just gone with fried chicken (not breaded) like Renzo picked, with salad. Oh well... my food sure looks nice!

My rice was so colorful. I put lime allll over it. :D

The dog to which Renzo gave his chicken bone.

This is a Peruvian hairless dog! Unfortunately she was probably sick or sunburnt because their skin shouldn't be red.

The beautiful street parallel to the ocean...

...and boys from Chile (as Renzo could tell from their accents) playing soccer on the beach.

After a few hours of lying around and sunbathing, Renzo and I reluctantly took our bus back to Pisco. I was really enjoying the tranquility, fresh air, and relaxation-promoting atmosphere of Paracas and didn't want to leave!!! A few last pictures of Paracas.

Although I was sad to leave Paracas, I found a similarly relaxed atmosphere in the small town of Pisco. Renzo and I wandered around and checked out some stores, a marketplace, and a restaurant where I bought a ton of French fries because I had the munchies.

The city center. Unfortunately the main buildings are still broken from the earthquake in 2007. None of these churches have roofs anymore. :(

Renzo said he remembered seeing this part of the plaza filled with dead bodies after the earthquake. There are still a lot of people living in tents or makeshift houses in Pisco, although generally away from the city square. There were a number of empty lots filled with rubble piles at random locations throughout the city. It was an 8 on the Richter scale, way too much for a small town to handle.

In the main plaza, I wanted so badly to touch this tiny puppy who was covered with fleas!!! But I didn't. :( Poor thing, all he needs is a flea shampoo... I think he was too young to be without his mom. :(

The architecture of Pisco was really pretty.

Love in the plaza. :)

We took a bus to the crossroads and then another bus for 15 soles back to Lima. At the crossroads I saw a girl who couldn't have been more than 17 years old trying to breastfeed her screaming baby. She was sitting on a bench surrounded by mud puddles and probably waiting for a bus. We made eye contact for a second and I really wished I could have known more about her life. But it was time to get on the bus to Lima because it was already about 6:30pm and dark outside. The drive was a relatively uneventful 4-5 hours on a charter bus and, to my surprise, extremely violent movies were once again shown on the bus TVs.