Sandy Sand Sand
We have been traveling down the desert coast now for a few days. This is part of the Gringo Trail that begins in Lima, travels south to the desert and Arequipa and then ends in Cuzco and Macchu Picchu. The desert is really amazing. It is created by the Humbolt current that travels up from the Antarctic and congeals the waters of the Pacific Coast south of Lima. These cold waters ensure that all the moisture is wrung out of the air before it reaches the coast.
The Ballestas Tour started with us being picked up from our hotel in early in the morning and bussing to Paracas. The tour guide was this middle aged lady who was very nice, but had an extremely strong accent. The road to Paracas National Reserve is peppered with feeesh factories. These factories make feeesh oil, feeesh food, and other feeesh products. It did actually smell pretty bad. It was also kind of ironic that all these factories and industry were situated right next to a national park.
We made it to the dock and were herded onto the boat with a bunch of other tourists. It´s been a while since I´ve done anything touristy and I decidedly don´t like being a tourist. But this was a pleasant trip. We had some great luck right off the dock as dolphins were surfacing to eat a school of feeesh that were right below the surface. There were also these really cool birds called comorants (I think) that were dive bombing the fish. It was really cool to watch. The birds would get about 20 or 30 feet above the water and then fold their wings and lawn dart into the water. They would surface and repeat the whole process.
We started the journey in Lima. We made a quick stop at one of the exclusive southern beaches near Lima, nearly got stuck in the small town trying to find a bus to our next destination, and spent the rest of the day traveling to Pisco. Pisco is the launch off point for the desert preserve of Paracas and the Islas Ballestas or "Poor Man`s Galapagos." These islands are a short boat ride away from the coast and there are many tour operators that go there. We arrived in Pisco, threw down our bags and booked a tour. Many tours combine both the Islas Ballestas and the Paracas National Reserve into a single day. We heard that the reserve tour was not worth the money, so we just booked the Islands and did the reserve by ourselves. One of many good decisions that we have made.
The Ballestas Tour started with us being picked up from our hotel in early in the morning and bussing to Paracas. The tour guide was this middle aged lady who was very nice, but had an extremely strong accent. The road to Paracas National Reserve is peppered with feeesh factories. These factories make feeesh oil, feeesh food, and other feeesh products. It did actually smell pretty bad. It was also kind of ironic that all these factories and industry were situated right next to a national park.
We made it to the dock and were herded onto the boat with a bunch of other tourists. It´s been a while since I´ve done anything touristy and I decidedly don´t like being a tourist. But this was a pleasant trip. We had some great luck right off the dock as dolphins were surfacing to eat a school of feeesh that were right below the surface. There were also these really cool birds called comorants (I think) that were dive bombing the fish. It was really cool to watch. The birds would get about 20 or 30 feet above the water and then fold their wings and lawn dart into the water. They would surface and repeat the whole process.
Our next stop on the Ballestas tour was a mysterious image carved into the sand that some people hypothesize was used by ancient cultures...to contact extraterrestials. Extraterrestrials seems to be pretty popular explanation for pretty much anything here.
Then it was off to the islands themselves. The main attraction. The islands are packed with wildlife. The boat pulled up to the first island and which was completely covered with birds. It also eminated an interesting scent that our guide promptly told us was guano....aka. bird crap. The island was completely covered with the white stuff. Our guide told us that every three years the Peruvian government sends workers to the islands to mine the guano to sell as fertilizer. Apparently the stuff is way better than Miracle Grow. We saw all kinds of cool birds from penguins to the cool diving birds that I mentioned before. After the birds came the real treat. Sea Lions lined the rocks sunning themselves, holding their unusual heads up and barking for us. It was a surreal experience.
The rest of the boat ride consisted of a rather cold return to the port and then a casual lunch as we waited for the taxi to take us to our private beach. We had decided that instead if doing the tour of Paracas we would camp on the beach and take in the scenery and hike around. After the relaxed lunch, we hopped into a cab got double charged to enter the park, arranged with the cab driver to pick us up the next day, and were taken to our own private beach called La Mina. I`ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
The beach was completely deserted. There were a few boats in the bay fishing and they waved at us kindly. We set up camp and hiked around the beach a little. The cliffs and dunes about our beach offered amazing views far out into the ocean and the surrounding bay. We went to bed under a blanket of southern hemispheric stars. The Milky Way was clearly visible as we fell asleep with our heads hanging out the tent. We had a little bit of a scare when a boat came into the bay in the middle of the night and shined a spotlight around, but it turned out they were just fishing. The sunrise on the beach was incredible. We tried to do a little swimming but the water was pretty cold because of the aformentioned current. It seemed like no time had passed when our cab came to pick us up.
As if we hadn`t had enough sand. Our next destination was the desert oasis of Huancachina, next to the little city of Ica. After departing the bus and catching a cab to the oasis, we settled into our hotel and went exploring. I was delighted to learn that we could go sandboarding on the dunes that evening. Katie was less than delighted as she had been sick for the last few days, but she was a trooper and we gave the last of our money to the dune buggy driver and buckled in.
The ride was one of the funnest things I have done since I`ve been in Peru. Katie and I sat in front while three Isrealis sat behind us and the slightly overweight buggy driver smiled knowingly. Once out of the small city and into the dunes, the driver accelerated like a maniac. At more than 50 mph we were flying over the dunes. It was also interesting because Katie and I, having sat in the front, were getting facefulls of water from the leaking radiator cap. Interesting being in a desert and being blinded by water while racing over sand dunes. The ride was like a roller coaster. The driver would drive up a steep dune and then descend an impossibly steep slope for hundreds of feet. We even caught air a couple times as the driver ramped the buggy off a dune. We were screaming like little kids.
After a few heart-stopping miles. We arrived at the top of a dune with a bunch of other buggies and tourists. This was the sandboarding training site. Our driver suggested that we just go down on our bellies, but being experienced Colorado snow riders, we laughed him off. He had the last laugh as we flopped down the first dune. Riding on sand is slightly different than riding on snow in that you can`t turn...at all. The edges are absolutely useless. So you point the slippery board straight down and just go. It did turn out to be way more fun to just ride on your belly as it felt like you were over the sand. The sunset was pretty incredible over the sinuous dunes.
There was one incident near the end of the trip. One of the Isrealis was rocketing down the slope at a breakneck speed and collided head-on with a group of his friends at the bottom of the dune. They tried to get out of the way, but they were upended like bowling pins. It was really pretty tragic as it looked like one hit his head pretty bad and would end up with a concussion and the other probably injured his ankle pretty bad.
The rest of our time was spent in Ica. We had a nice dinner there and returned the next day to check out the wineries around town. We caught a cab with an ebullient cab driver to the large, international winery a little outside of town. The winery was absolutely beautiful, and the guide was very entertaining as she spoke very good English, but had trouble with a few words that I was able to step in and translate. Then we tried the wine and were pleasantly surprised. It wasn`t the sweet stuff that I had been given elsewhere. It was actually very good wine and Katie and I were quickly tipsy as we hadn`t eaten any breakfast that day. If you want to have some good red wine from Peru, try Tacama Gran Tinta. Katie and I bought three bottles in our tipsy state and hauled off the next destination. We had a huge lunch of fried fish and french fries and then went to a slightly different winery. This was a local operation with the wine fermented in ceramic jars in the back, an old, decaying museum, and a druk guy passed out with his dog. Katie and I tried the wine. It was sweet and reminded me of grape Dimatap, you know the stuff we used to drink when we were kids and got sick. Overall, great time in the desert and now it`s off to the tourist capital of Peru...Cuzco.
posted by Flightfire at
8:38 AM
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