Arriving in Paracas I discovered the hostel was on the beach. Literally! I was so happy to be back by the water, though the beach wasn’t that great. The sand was dirty grey black making the water look worse than it actually was.
I fell quite easily into life in Paracas. The town is tiny and surrounded by the desert.
(My hostel)
(Where the rich people live)
I got to visit the national park a few times as it is quite different to parks that I was used to. Zero trees and plants. But the advantage of this is that it is super easy to get around on quad bikes! The national reserve is huge, meaning that even hours spent there is not enough to see it all. The reserve borders the sea so there are beaches, including only one of 3 red sand beaches in the world.
(Driving in on the bus)
(Red sand beach)
(Look at me go!)
(Clearly a natural)
I visited Islas Ballestas, or better known as the poor man’s Galapogos. On the 2 hour trip spent cruising around the islands I got to see sea lions, penguins and thousands of birds.
We also saw the famed ‘Candelabra’ a giant etching on the side of a sand dune which no one knows how it got there or why it exists.
The only other thing I did whilst in the area was visit a Pisco vineyard. Not quite like a vineyard back home, but still…
(Getting squished)
(The wooden screw still used to squish grapes)
