15 May: Lima
We woke up in our hostel "Albergo Verde" in Miraflores, a
safe and
lively
district
of
Lima. Our
objective
of the day
was
to
plan
our
trip
around
Peru and
reserve
buses,
trains,
hotels and
excursions
to
facilitate
our
travels.
We are
both a bit
apprehensive
about
travelling
around
Peru as
our
Spanish is
limited
and it's
reportedly
not a safe
destination.
We'll have
to be
extra
careful
with
our
luggage
and
valuables...
We arrived in a travel agents recommended by "Le Guide du
Routard"
late
morning.
We planned
our
itinerary
and the
travel
agent
proposed
hotels,
buses and
excursions.
During a
late lunch
(9
Sol -
2.25€ the
menu -
what a
change
from
Polynesian
prices!) we studied
the
proposal
and
decided
what to
reserve
and what
to drop.
The
standard
of living
here
is
low,
yet
all
the
tourist
excursions
are really
expensive.
For
example,
the day
trip to
Machu
Picchu for
the four
of us was
700
US$,
so we
dropped it
and
decided to
make
alternative
arrangements.
Unfortunately
what the
Guide du
Routard
doesn't
explain is
that
travel
agents
here book
everything
via tour
operators
and both
parties
take a
heavy
commission:
you end up
paying
about 50%
extra
!!!
We
learnt
the
hard
way...
After returning to the travel agents to order what we wanted, we
went to a
shopping
mall to
try and
book Machu
Picchu
train
tickets
ourselves.
The rail
ticket
office was
closed so
we spent
nearly an
hour
in
another
travel
agent's
trying to
book the
tickets.
We gave up
in the
end, when
the
announced
price went
up and a
20 US$
charge was
requested
for credit
card
payments...
In the evening we went to a nearby restaurant in Miraflores for
dinner.
Our first
day in
Peru
wasn't a
success,
but we
hope we've
paved the
way for a
more
leisurely
stay...
 |
 |
| Lima by
night |
The kids at
the
Lorca
Mall
playground |
16 May: Lima to Paracas
We had to return to the travel agents this morning to pick up all
our
vouchers
for our
trip.
François
kindly
volunteered
to do so
whilst
Jenny and
the girls
went to
visit the
Gold
Museum. We
took a
taxi
to
the
museum
and
ordered
the same
driver to
pick us up
at
12:00.
We
were
shocked to
see that
the museum
only
opened at
11:30,
so
we had
an
hour to
kill
and
thus
only
30
minutes
to
visit
the
museum...
We walked
to a
nearby
cafe for a
drink to
pass the
time.
When
we
returned
to the
museum, we
managed to
phone the
taxi to
delay
our
departure
to 12:15.
We
couldn't
stay any
later as
François
was
expecting
us at
12:30 and
we all had
to be at
the bus
station at
13:00. We
quickly
toured the
gold
museum:
there were
interesting
gold
funeral
artefacts,
earrings,
nose
clips,
masks,
tunics,
etc and
several I
nca
mummies,
including
babies.
The girls
were
horrified
and
fascinated
at the
same
time!
The traffic on the way back to the hotel was bad and instead of
the 15
minutes it
had taken
us to
arrive, it
took us 35
minutes to
return.
François
was
worried
sick that
something
had
happened
to us:
we
had no
phone, no
ID papers,
no guide
book, only
a
map...
The same taxi drove us to the bus station and we checked-in for
the bus to
Paracas.
The bus
was great.
The four
of us were
seated
at
the
front
of
the
upper
deck
with
a
great
view,
we
were
served
food
and
drinks
and we
watched
Superman
the film.
The
scenery on
the way was
desert
like with
ghost-like
towns on
the way:
hundreds
and hundreds
of
abandoned
breeze
block
shacks
scattering
the landscape. We
arrived in
Paracas
with the
sunset at
around
6pm.
We settled into our 3-bedded room in the Hostel Sainta Maria
before
going to a
restaurant
on the
port for
dinner.
The town
is
small
but
noisy:
music
plays
24/24 and
cars beep
their
horns
non-stop...
Everybody
was awake
at 2:30am,
nobody had
a decent
night's
sleep...
 |
| Travelling to
Paracas
by
bus |
17 May: Ballestas Islands and Paracas
We had to wake up early this morning for our boat excursion to
the
Ballestas
Islands.
We were
surprised
at the
number of people
waiting
for an
excursion at
the port.:
where did
everybody
come
from?!
After half
an hour or
so we were
bundled
onto a
speed boat
and we
began our
journey
out to the
islands.
Fortunately
we had our
fleeces
and gortex
jackets
with us as
it was
chilly in
the wind. We
stopped at
the
Paracas
peninsula
to see a
chandelier
image dug into
the
mountain
side. The
image is
177m high
and 54m
wide and can only
be seen
from the
sea. It is
believed
that it
dates from
the early
1800's but
nobody
really
knows why
it was
created
and it's
mystifying
how it was
drawn.
It's a
taster
before our
visit to
the Nazca
lines that
we'll see
in a
couple of
days.
The coast was lovely and sunny but the Ballestas Islands were
surrounded
by mist:
an eerie
atmosphere.
The
islands
were covered
with
millions
of birds
(seagulls
and 3
species
of cormorants),
penguins
and seals.
The smell
of
bird droppings
was
pungent.
It was
great to
see
close-up so
many wild
animals in
this
nature
reserve,
living
together in
harmony.
The seals
have a red
sand
breading
beach on
the island: it
was
covered
with
hundreds
of seals
and baby
seals. Other seals swam
in the
water
around the
boat and a
couple
even
showed off jumping
around us.
It was a
great
expedition.
Afterwards we went on a second excursion by minibus to the
Paracas
National
Reserve.
It's a
desert on
the edge of the coast.
There are
gigantic
sand dunes
and fossilised
shells 45
million
years old,
covering
the
ground.
The
contrast between the light sands
of the
desert,
red sand
beaches
and blue
seas are spectacular. The
famous
cathedral
cove was
unfortunately
destroyed by
the 2007
earthquake
followed
by
a tsunami
with a 7m
high wave, as were
the towns
of Pisco
and
Paracas
along the
coast. On the way back we
saw pink
flamingos
from a
distance
in the
reserve. Back at Paracas
we walked
along the
port and
tried
unsuccessfully
to get cash from
an
ATM. After
paying the
hotel (who
don't take
credit cards),
we only
had a few
dollars
left.
It'll
be dinner
on a tight
budget
tonight...
Fingers
crossed we'll find an
ATM
tomorrow
at Nazca!
 |
 |
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| The chandelier
on
the
Paracas
peninsula |
Penguins on
the
Ballestas
Islands |
Seals! |
 |
 |
 |
| In the Paracas
National
Park |
Beautiful
colours:
yellow
desert
sand,
red snad beach, blue sea! |
In the Paracas
National
Park |
BACK
| 
