Poor man´s Galapagos
Trip Start
Oct 23, 2008
1
17
36
Trip End
Dec 18, 2008
We got up early this morning to head off to the Ballesta Islands and National park of Paracus. We piled into a motor boat of about 20 people, put on our bright orange life preservers... safety first... and we were off. We drove out of the harbor, and stopped to see a cliff carving called the trident -- I believe they said it was over 100m. tall -- the boat then headed out to sea to a small group of islands named Ballesta. We saw sea lions, penquins, starfish, pelicans, and migratory birds of all shapes and sizes -- the fact that neither of us got crapped on was a miracle. We circled these islands snapping photos and stretching our necks to get beautiful views of the wildlife. Amazing.
We headed back to port -- the seadogs we now were -- and got onto a bus to tour the N.P. Paracas. We drove through the desert onto a small penninsula -- beautiful beaches, flamingos, sand dunes -- our guide led us through the park, both by foot and bus seeing fossils, a small museum, gorgous views for the rock formations. At one point we ran into our friend Ross who we had spent time with in Miracora a week or so ago -- we lost our tour. We had to run to catch up and Iīm sure our tour guide made some comment about being lost, but I didnīt quite make the translation. Our tour ended in a small cove where local fishermen kept their boats and set up a few restaurants to sell their fresh fish -- Kali ate both octopus and squid -- I am so proud of her -- she didnīt even ask for ketchup.
Our tour ended, we headed back to Pisco to get our luggage, luckily still in storage at our hostal -- we got a cab back out to the PanAm and caught a bus to some fabled oasis deep in the desert.
We headed back to port -- the seadogs we now were -- and got onto a bus to tour the N.P. Paracas. We drove through the desert onto a small penninsula -- beautiful beaches, flamingos, sand dunes -- our guide led us through the park, both by foot and bus seeing fossils, a small museum, gorgous views for the rock formations. At one point we ran into our friend Ross who we had spent time with in Miracora a week or so ago -- we lost our tour. We had to run to catch up and Iīm sure our tour guide made some comment about being lost, but I didnīt quite make the translation. Our tour ended in a small cove where local fishermen kept their boats and set up a few restaurants to sell their fresh fish -- Kali ate both octopus and squid -- I am so proud of her -- she didnīt even ask for ketchup.
Our tour ended, we headed back to Pisco to get our luggage, luckily still in storage at our hostal -- we got a cab back out to the PanAm and caught a bus to some fabled oasis deep in the desert.
