We started out the morning in Paracas where we boarded an early morning boat to the Ballestas Islands - which some call the "Poor Man's Galapagos."
Snap on that life vest and let's head out into the Pacific Ocean!
Boats were still in the harbor when we left Paracas.
The islands are about 15 miles off of the coast and it maybe takes about 30 minutes to get there.
As soon as we arrived, we saw these beautiful Humboldt penguins! These penguins are really only found in the wild on the west coast of South America, namely in Chile and Peru, near the Humboldt current, for which they are named.
Time, wind and water have worn away these rocks and left beautiful arches.
Who's posing for us over there? Oh! It's a sea lion!
Our guide said sometimes you can see the penguins jump into the water, but they backed up a bit when they saw us.
Ok so the penguins and sea lions were obviously cute. But these RED CRABS!? I want one!
How cute are they? They are Sally Lightfoot crabs, and I think I love that even more! A cute crab with a cute name!
The gang of penguins continued to stalk us from high above. These penguins generally live for about 12-15 years but there are only about 23,800 left in the wild (as of 2020, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List.)
Some Peruvian Pelicans flew over us, too!
We also spotted another sea lion sunning themselves on a rock.
I'm obsessed with these rock formations.
The Ballestas Islands are mostly known as a mining farm for guano, aka: bird poop. For hundreds of years (at least since the time of the Incas), this guano has been used as a nitrate-rich fertilizer. Nowadays, they only have a limited time to gather the guano during their gathering season (once about every 7 years) so they don't interfere with breeding season. They pay attention to the currents - for example, if El Nino is occurring, then the waters are too warm for the small fish that the birds like to eat, and therefore, they go elsewhere looking for food. As a result, the humans can come and harvest the guano. So while it averages about every 7 years, that can definitely vary depending on the circumstances.
We spotted a baby sea lion here with it's mama but we didn't get a picture. But aren't the rocks so beautiful? The birds actually nest in the guano - it sounds gross, but it's what they do!
There are still signs of structures that remind us of the former days where guano was harvested at a more devastating rate. Of course, now, as I mentioned, it only actually happens about every 7 years. The value of guano over the years has been so high, that wars have actually been started over it. One of the most important wars in South American history was the War of the Pacific, which included Peru, Chile and Bolivia. At the time, Bolivia actually had some coastline before the war started in 1879, and Peru's coastline extended farther south than it does today. But the Chilean military prevailed and took the Bolivian and Peruvian coastlines for themselves because the area (particularly the Atacama Desert) was rich with guano, nitrate and other resources.
Adios, Ballestas Islands!
On our way back, we swung by the Candelabra of Paracas - which was only discovered in the 1950s despite the fact that it's possibly been here since around 200 BC.
No one really knows what this trident shaped geoglyph is - it might be related to astronomy, or perhaps acted like a navigational guide for ships, or maybe is a religious symbol. Many people do NOT believe this is related to the Nazca lines, despite sort of looking like one.
We thought the Candelabra was going to be our last stop before heading back to the port, but our guide had other ideas. There was no guarantee these sea lions would be here but there they were!
Sea lions need to sun themselves like this because it helps regulate their body temperature after being in the cold Pacific Ocean.
They were also napping - and this guy was clearly very tired. It looks like he wants to eat me, but he was just yawning!
Goodbye, napping sea lions! Enjoy warming yourselves back up!
Back on land, we spotted the human version of the sleeping sea lion. Hopefully this guy's not dead!
Hey cool! Tsunami evacuation route!
We walked back to the hotel after getting off of the boat, threw our bags onto the bus and headed out of town. Thanks Paracas!
We did make one last stop back in the Paracas National Reserve to see the Playa Roja which was beautiful!
Me and Todd with the Playa Roja behind us, and Playa Lagunilla de las Algas in the distance.
Playa Roja is red because the rock that ground down over the millions of years was originally an iron rich, volcanic rock from the Nazca plate undercutting the South American plate. Here, we took the bus up to the Mirador Istmo for some really amazing views.
Honestly, it just looks like Mars! I can't get over it!
Well, that pretty much covers it! Eat, sleep, hop, repeat! That's exactly what we did!
We took a bus rider group photo before we made our way south.
On our way to Huacachina, we made a stop at a little place in a suburb of Ica called Culturpisco for some lunch (very good!) and a pisco tasting.
First, they tell you about this history of pisco and how it's made. Pisco is a grape brandy that's only made in Peru and Chile - and both countries claim it's their official drink.
Then you get to try a variety of types of pisco. Our favorite was definitely the mango! We thought the original version tasted a bit like rakija (or maybe plain soju?) but the flavored versions were quite good.
We wound up buying two small bottles - one mango and one coffee flavored! Cheers!
It wasn't very far from Culturpisco to Huacachina, but our guides decided to do a little trivia giveaway and Todd answered the question "How many years was the Incan empire around" correctly so he won a Peru Hop bag! (Which he declared was going to be his new lunch bag ha ha). The answer, according to our crew was about 200 years, but in reality it was about 140 years (of which the last 40 years they had to deal with Pizarro's Spanish conquest!)
I spy a LOT of sand over there! That's Dune Saraja in the middle of Ica!
This guy drove by us with a "University of Michigan" sticker on the back of his car! What???
Our first views of Huacachina were like WOW! It really IS a desert oasis!
Now listen. I have done dune buggying in the desert before when I was in UAE, and I did not love it. So when Todd told me he booked a desert dune bashing experience, I was like... nope! I'm good! But I really wanted him to do it and he REALLY loved it, so I'm glad he did.
Meanwhile, I took a nap, got a drink at the bar, and enjoyed watching people try to climb the dunes!
Todd left to meet up with the dune buggy crew.
I really enjoyed pisco sours. The first time I tasted it, I didn't really love it because it tastes pretty heavily of lime. But the aftertaste is more lemony and the drink definitely grew on me!
They do a really good job of taking some cool pictures on this dune buggy adventure! Todd bought a gaiter to wear because as he put it there was "SAND. EVERYWHERE."
I mean, these views are something else! That's Ica, the town that isn't far from Huacachina.
Meanwhile, back in our room, I took a picture of these two guys hiking up this massive dune. Humans for scale has been the only way to show the scale of anything in Peru!
I probably spent 30 minutes watching people try to walk up this path. This lady would walk 10 steps and then stop. Walk 10 steps and then stop. We aren't even at any crazy elevation yet, either!
Todd with his fellow dune buggy pals before they went sandboarding down the dunes.
He's ready to head down the dune!
Literally weeks later, even after he washed these shoes, he still had sand in them. Sand. Everywhere. He attempted to go down on his stomach and take a video while he was doing it but he fell off the board! I actually wanted to do this, but you couldn't sandboard without going on the dune buggies.
The Ica desert is beautiful and sits only about 40 miles from the Pacific Ocean.
Look, we are from Massachusetts and we don't get to see deserts everyday, so let us just enjoy this!
Part of the dune buggy and sandboarding tour was getting to see the sun set over the desert, and enjoying a drink in the process.
Todd said this was one of the top 3 things that he did on this trip. That's a beautiful sunset!
Goodbye, sun!
They took the dune buggies back and Todd and I had time for a drink before we met up with other people from Peru Hop for some dinner. Look! I found Jameson and Coke Zero!
We walked down to the Wild Rover where they were grilling us up some dinner that we enjoyed upstairs with others from our bus. Todd said, "Why do I look like a giant here?" Because you are a giant in Peru, honey.
Somehow Nilo and Monica wound up at our table with a bottle of Pisco, eeek! We also had free sangria that we were enjoying!
After we ate and drank a bit upstairs, we went downstairs to join the younger crowd at the Wild Rover in Huaca-fucking-china (which we were told by Nilo that's what we had to call it!)
We made friends with this super sweet couple from Michigan - Becky and David, and we knew the next day, we were going our separate ways - because that's what you do on Peru Hop. It's a choose-you-own-adventure tour. They went off to Nazca to do a flight over the Nazca lines, and we went south to Arequipa.
We had a lot of fun watching a MUCH younger crowd attempt to play beer pong. One kid kind of rolled up to us and said, "Hey where are you guys from?" Turns out he went to UNH!
Yes Huacachina, you were certainly good to us!
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