We got up early the next morning and boarded the Peru Hop bus bound for Paracas!
The bus picked us up right at our hotel, and was very spacious and comfortable! Our guides for the next couple of days were Monica, Nilo and Ze Carlo (our official photographer!)
Because they picked us up so early, we made a quick pit stop on the way to Paracas at a roadside coffee and bread stand. Yum!
A couple of hours later, we stopped at Casa Hacienda San José, which was a fascinating look into the history of slavery in colonial Peru.
Nilo told us all about how the plantation that was founded in 1688 was used to produce sugar cane and cotton, and they used slaves from Africa to keep the labor cheap. At one point, they had probably close to 1,000 slaves, some of which escaped and joined the liberation movement when José de San Martín's troops landed in nearby Pisco.
The most shocking part of the entire story of this plantation were the very dark slave tunnels that were beneath the plantation. The tunnels initially served as a place to hide when pirates invaded. Eventually they were connected not only with other nearby plantations, but the tunnel network was extended all the way to the coastline. Slaves were, of course, property. And with that property came a tax. New slaves arrived at the port at Chincha and were relocated to the hacienda via these tunnels, without being seen by the government tax man. The tunnels were also used as cemeteries for slaves who died from being overworked or tortured, and surprisingly, these tunnels were only exposed for the first time after an earthquake in 2007 (a big one... 8.0!).
Slavery was outlawed in Peru in 1854, but the slaves at this hacienda continued to work for another 20 years as they were unaware that the laws had changed.
We followed Nilo into the tunnels and actually had a hard time keeping up with him. You have to use your cell phone flashlight (aren't we lucky to have cell phone flashlights?) because there is zero lighting in these tunnels. Can you imagine being a slave stuck in these narrow and low tunnels in the dark? (Takes a deep breath because that thought terrifies me!). We tried to take some pictures and video to document just how dark it was but that proved difficult when the pack ahead of us took off. The tunnels have many intersections, and if you don't keep up, you'll be left behind! (No worries though, because while Nilo was at the front of the pack, Monica was at the back, making sure we all got out safely!)
Aside from it's shady history, the property is now a beautiful hotel resort since it reopened in 2012 (after having to rebuild after the 2007 earthquake).
There is a really great (and kind of weird) painting at the Hacienda of what it looked like in 1834. I won't say why the painting is weird except that it involved... animals.
The courtyard area was really pretty!
There is even a little church on the property. The Jesuits had some land in this area that the original family purchased, but the church had already been a part of the original property that Rosa Josefa de Muñantones contributed as a part of her dowry for her marriage to Don Andrés Salazar. They were the original owners back in the 1600s.
This Rococco church from 1532 was stunning. We took a Peru Hop group photo here!
My favorite part of this tour was when Nilo had to tell us a part of the history of the hacienda that was a bit scary or controversial. He would walk over to Simeon (the kid sitting there near the stairs to the altar) and cover his ears! We spent a lot of time on buses on this trip, and this was the only child we encountered the whole time!
I just loved all of the potted flowers and the bougainvillea that were on this property.
Someone didn't have their sunglasses on.
We hopped (see what I did there?) back on the bus and drove to Paracas where we checked into our hotel, Hotel Residencial Los Frayles, before our afternoon activities.
We stopped for some lunch at Paracas Sky View Buffet, which did have some really nice views of the Pacific Ocean.
We had just enough time to throw our bags into the hotel room before our excursion out to the Paracas National Reserve sunset hike. I thought it was funny the shampoo came in little ketchup-like packets!
Other than the EXTREMELY rattly bus on an INSANELY bumpy road, of all the things we did on this trip, the Paracas National Reserve hike was in the top 3 for me!
I would be remiss if I did not capture this majestic bus that miraculously did not fall apart to or from the reserve.
Once we arrived ... in the middle of nowhere ... surrounded by absolutely nothing ... our guide Mickey said, "We are going to hike that mountain!" I actually laughed out loud! Oh wait. He wasn't joking.
Wait, for real?
Yeah ok. Here we go!
Todd isn't even tired at this point.
Our guide Mickey was like, "Do you want me to take a picture of you guys?" And then we found this on Todd's camera LOL! This is totally something my kids would do!
In all fairness, he DID take a nice picture of us!
We finally made it to the coastline and had an adventurous evening walking along the cliffs for different views of the Pacific.
Straight down, no railing.
The Paracas National Reserve was just stunning!
Humans for scale here. It's hard to understand just how big this place was!
Mickey knew all of the cool pictures to take over the desert sand as the sun was setting.
This picture looks more terrifying than it was - Mickey did a good job framing this one.
The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah... and I spy Todd up there! Our photographer extraordinaire Ze Carlo took this picture from the back of the pack.
If Iceland felt like the moon, Peru feels a bit like Mars!
Absolutely breathtaking.
Everything in the United States felt very far, far away when we were here.
Finally the sun was starting to set.
I think this was my favorite view!
Since it was my favorite view of the evening, we had to take a selfie here.
You'll definitely find me staying far back from the edge of the cliffs here.
And of course, Mickey took an awesome picture of the bunch of us jumping at sunset. Can you find me and Todd? Yes, I look like I'm in pain because it takes everything this old lady's got to jump this high! (I run several times a week and I have bad knees so leave me alone!)
Then Mickey said, "Do some kind of a pose!" Todd did a yoga pose. I did... Charlie's Angels!
I've been a lot of places, but this one is right up there among the most beautiful!!
Goodbye sun over the Pacific Ocean.
I swear this looks like a painting - it's just so brilliant.
The cirrus clouds began to turn pink once the sun set, and the Paracas National Reserve continued to evolve in it's beauty.
Mickey waited for everyone to get to this spot and then poof... disappeared over the cliff. No kidding, It was pretty straight down and some of the people we were with on the trip said, "I don't think I can get down this steep hill!" You just had to go down side step and pray you didn't bust your butt.
It's always difficult to comprehend scale, but Ze Carlo took this picture from the back of the line. This area was relatively flat compared to what we had just come down. Our bus was waiting for us just offscreen to the left.
I needed a drink after that crazy hike down! And the bus. Oh that poor, poor bus.
All over Peru, there a lot of wild dogs. They're all so sweet, but sorry pup... no snacks for you!
Paracas has a lively little nightlife right down on the sea walled coastline. Apparently a lot of people from our bus went out to karaoke with the Peru Hop crew, but we opted to go to bed instead!
El Chaco is the name of the beach area and the boardwalk where all of the restaurants are here in Paracas. Shhhhh! This plastic guy is sleeping over here!
We went back to the hotel and we had a coupon for a free drink so of course, we used it. All of the hotels we stayed at were lovely and had amazing outdoor space.
Isn't this hotel so pretty?
We closed the bar down (ahem... at 10 pm!) so we went back to our room and took one final picture of the day of the view toward the El Chaco area of Paracas.
Until next time, Paracas!
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