Islas Bellastas
Trip Start
Nov 25, 2004
1
110
169
Trip End
Jan 26, 2005
Paracas,
Peru
Sunday, July 3, 2005
Coastal view
! Following the coastline to Paracas, we all got very excited to be beside the seaside and rocked up at the hotel which turned out to be very nice, right next to the sea with a huge dorm all to ourselves run by a man we called 'Fisheyes' - you've never seen eyes as big and watery in your life! We decided to head to the harbour for tea which involved a dark walk (glad to have someone else who doesn't like the dark & stray dogs!), a quick jaunt down the slide for Dave (well actually he got stuck half way down much to the amusement of a local family who were sat watching!) and instant popularity as all the 'linda senoritas' tried to get us to eat at their restaurant! Being by the seaside, we all had fish washed down by pisco sours and a few beers and headed back to the hostel for more beer, a film and sleeeeeeepppp!
Lightweight Lil here was still suffering so the boys breakfasted by the sea, had skimming contest part 1 (Paul won! By fluke, according to DW!)) and then headed out on the boat to the Islas Ballestas! The journey out there was a tad choppy and you pass an ancient hieroglyph traced into the hillside in the shape of a candelabra and then its onto the islands themselves! These spectacular islands, eroded into many caves and arches, provide shelter for thousands of seabirds (including boobies
Daves french gay bear, phillipe!!!!!!
! Hee Hee!) and hundreds of sea-lions...don't think they expected to see as many as they did though! They even managed to see penguins! The area made its fortune bizarrely out of the bird poo called 'guamo'. Vast quantities of 'guano' (birds' droppings) produced by the seabirds was exported to Europe for use as fertilizer. For many decades this industry was Peru's most important source of revenue and out of everyone on the boat Dave was the only one who managed to get guamo'd! However, cunningly wearing his cricket hat he did manage to cover several Americans in his vicinity!!!!!The boys came back so excited (made me feel really good!) and 2 magic cups of tea later, we were on our way to the Reserva Nacional de Paracas! We didn't really know what to expect from this part of the tour but ended up having an amazing time! We got to see flamingoes (along way away through binoculars!) down by the waterside, drive on a 15km stretch of road made out of salt (the boys tested it just to make sure!) and see the most unbelievable coastline which reminded Team Smedders abit of the Great Ocean Road but with a difference. Like I was saying on the journey to Lima, the sand cliffs just drop into the sea and the huge waves just role in! Really beautiful! We even got to see the first sighting of a white beached whale i.e. Dave's paunch which in a twist of fate would be reducing massively over the next week or so!!!!! We grabbed lunch by the sea...me being sociable with an American girl we'd met on the trip and the boys - having enough friends already apparently - kept quiet!!! And then came skimming contest part 2 (1-1 Williams winning with one of the best skims ever seen by man! Hmmm..wonder who told me to put that in!) and back to the bus to head onto Huacachina...an oasis in the desert!
