Activity Summary
Friday 22nd September - Day 353 (continued)
Travel to Paracas
First Peru Hop bus
Random horse & Guinea pig show
Pisco sour cocktail class
Dinner Ceviche at Cevichería Jhosselyne
Saturday 23rd September - Day 354
Paracas lines
Islas Ballestas
Isla Blanca
Quad biking Reserva Nacional de Paracas
Playa Yumaque
Mirador Istmo II
Playa Roja
Dinner at Waiki Pizza Bar
Sunday 24th September - Day 355
Peru Hop free tour of Reserva Nacional de Paracas
La Cátedral
Travel to Huacachina
Summary
Paracas
Paracas was a very small town with some fun activities to do by boat and in the desert National park.
2 days here was plenty and gave us time to do everything and at a reasonable pace - doing over 1 night seemed too intense.
Transport
Peru HOP
For the whole of Peru from Lima down to La Paz in Bolivia we would be paying for the ease of hostel pickups and supposed seamless transitions from place to place.
It cost about £200 so was a bit on the pricey side but we were happy for the ease, not needing to get taxis to bus terminals and then suffering through overnight buses without the safety of gringo transport. We also hoped that it would be quite a bit more sociable and so far it had been successful.
All in all, it didn’t really work out that much more expensive than peasant wagonning it and the ease of sorting reasonably priced activities on the bus meant no faffing with tour agencies in town.
Paracas
Walk to Los Frayles hostel (bus pickup point)
Bus to Huacachina
Walk to hostel
Accommodation
Paracas - Hospedaje Backpacker STARFISH
Number of nights - 2
Price per night per person - £6
Positives:
Cheap as chips
Comfortable
Negatives:
A little bit of a walk from town but not too far
Shared kitchen not really available for use
Shared bathroom but never a problem
Recommend?
Yes
Diary
Friday 22nd September - Day 353 (continued)
The Peru Hop bus was pretty comfortable, aided by a reasonable outside temperature and nowhere near being full. At the time of writing this we are on a bus to Arequipa which is the opposite, full and wam. But they have decent recline, leg space and charging ports so quite a bit more comfortable than what we’ve been used to.
As part of the leg to Paracas, the bus stopped for breakfast and we were subjected to a couple of rather strange activities. The pork breakfast pitta was pretty good, a bit dry for Nicola however.
Post eating, a local guy on a horse treated us to a ‘show’. We both expected some form of half decent equestrian dancing but all we got was a dude on his horse going round and round in a circle to music, occasionally lifting his hat off his head and that was it. The grand finale was the horse standing on its back legs which was more impressive but ultimately it was a bit shit.
The Guinea pig gambling was a lot weirder however. The poor little guy was thrown in an arena with holes around the sides and after being spun around in its box, released to a load of gringos shouting ‘cuey’ repeatedly at it. There were prizes for ‘winning’ but it was all a bit weird and cruel for the Guinea pig so we didn’t partake. Besides, winning a ride on the horse or going on the cruddy zip line didn’t appeal at all.
Once in Paracas we checked into our hostel, Luke returning to join the group for a free pisco sour cocktail making lesson which was useful for the knowledge but the social aspect wasn’t all that fun.
Pisco sour recipe:
Pisco - 50ml
Lemon juice (diluted?) - 25ml
Sugar syrup - 25ml
Egg white - whole
Bitter - 3 drops (optional)
Put everything into a mixer bar the bitters
Shake up
Strain into a glass
3 drops of bitters on top (optional)
We relaxed at the hostel in the afternoon before heading out for dinner. There really wasn’t a whole lot of affordable options nor a lot of variety outside of ceviche but Cevichería Jhosselyne was recommended by our bus guide and managed to get a lot of food for S/.25 each. Nicola was not at all keen on the fish and seafood raw fish ceviche and while Luke did eat all his, it was certainly a one and done jobby.
Saturday 23rd September - Day 354
Our morning activity was a boat trip to the Islas Ballestas, appropriately known as the poor man’s Galápagos Islands.
The tour was arranged through Peru Hop (the prices of these arranged tours seemed pretty reasonable throughout and was super easy to do) and our meet time was 8am. It was with all the others from the day before so there was absolutely zero sociability throughout the morning.
It was chaos at the port with a ton of people trying to get onto a boat for a tour and our leads stressing massively about where we needed to go. The perks of being near the front of the group was we got to pick seats at the back to ensure a calmer ride for Nicola.
First viewpoint was the Paracas lines, an old desert drawing in the ground that has remained largely in part due to lack of rain in the desert.
The boat went around the Paracas desert peninsular and it was actually a pretty calm ride.
At the Islas Ballestas we were driven close to some of the weather work arches and got a nice showing of some Humboldt penguins jumping into the water.
There were plenty of sea lions and seabirds with the distinct smell of bird poop throughout. Apparently Lima exports this as fertiliser.
The last stop was Isla Blanca and this is where we got the close ups of the penguins.
It was also the home of a monster male sea lion who had clearly been in a few scraps in his time.
It was a fun boat trip, lasting a few hours and all was pretty calm.
At the hostel we made lunch before heading out to town to partake in the quintessential knobhead tourist activity, Quad biking the Reserva Nacional de Paracas. Again it was pretty cheap to do through Peru Hop.
The quad bikes were pretty uncomfortable and after a couple of hours being shaken senseless we were definitely finished.
The elbow and knee pads definitely made for a glamourous look.
Stop 1 was Playa Yumaque. Apparently there’s no swimming allowed in the National park and the risk from being eaten by sharks is apparently quite high. We couldn’t get to the bottom of which type of shark from our guide's Spanglish.
Next was Mirador Istmo II, overlooking the Playa Roja which, from a distance, looked black.
Nicola took this time to be a gremlin and tasted some of the salt that formed a large part of the terrain in the National park.
Last was down to Playa Roja where the sand was indeed red as a result of some rare geological explanation Luke has since forgotten. But they have banned people from going on to the beach because of theft of this rare sand.
The ride back to town got a little spicy for Luke who, on finishing with the dirt tracks and hitting the main road into town, was able to open up the gas fully which sent some serious vibrations up and through his asshole. There was some serious confusion about whether he was about to or had already shat himself during the ride home but was none the wiser until we stopped.
After all this running around, following our guide on a motorbike with a Peruvian family in buggies, we were back in town. Pretty fun way to see the desert NP.
After spending some time in the hostel we went to town to try and catch the sunset but ended up missing it by a minute. Instead we just sat on the beach for a bit before heading to Waiki Pizza Bar for dinner. Alright food but we couldn’t stomach ceviche.
Sunday 24th September - Day 355
Despite seeing the Reserva Nacional de Paracas the day before, Peru Hop offered a free coach ride tour the morning of our departure to Huacachina so figured why not. We didn’t appreciate the savagely loud sound system that was sharing information about the park but our Bose headphones helped reduce this volume to below headache inducing levels.
The first stop at La Cátedral was one we hadn’t done the day before so ended up being worthwhile just for that.
The mirador and playa roja were obviously less interesting the second time around.
Once back in town we grabbed our bags from the hotel meet point lock up and were on a bus to Huacachina.
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