Islands and (literal) Shit. A Little Town. A Lot More Sand.

Lucky you, two posts so close to each other.

We stayed for 5 days in Paracas. There are 4 kinds of buildings in Paracas. There are hostels/tiny hotels, restaurants, tour agencies, and mini-marts. That’s it. We don’t know where the local population lives. There’s just no other buildings. There’s only a couple paved roads. It’s gloriously quiet sometimes. Sunsets look the best over the ocean and the desert. And you can get them both at the same time here.

There’s really not much to do. You can go visit the national reserve, which already talked about last time. The other thing is go see the Ballestas Islands. You have to get a tour boat there. We stop by and see this Candelabra, which is a giant candlestick carved into the side of a mountain by the ocean. No one knows how it got there. Theories include Freemasons, pirates, or bored indigenous people. No one lives there. It’s a collection of big rock islands. It is literally covered with birds. And bird shit. And nothing else. Evidently, the government only allows people to stay there every 7 years. Every 7 years, for 5 months, some lucky guys get to live there and harvest all the guano that evidently gets to be 2 meters deep. Seriously. The last harvest was a couple years ago. The smell here was absolutely incredible. So was the wildlife. Vultures, penguins, pelicans, seagulls, and sea lions were residents, and they all lived on the rocks next to each others. Absolutely worth the price. Just do it.

Next we went to Ica. Not much to see here. It’s loud, dirty, and smells bad. But there is the factory for the world famous Helena chocolatier. (May have just made up a word there. Spellcheck seems to think so.) So we watched some lady dip some candies, and hit the gift shop. Natalie is an expert on chocolate, and certified that this is the chocolate that dreams are made of.

The best part of Ica is not even in Ica. Huachachina, right outside the city limits is the modt famous part. It’s a little man made oasis right in the middle of the desert. It’s a straight up tourist trap. We were not impressed by this tiny body of water, the collection of dirty hostels, and artificially planted trees. But that’s not why we came here.

We came here for the dune buggies and sandboarding. Signed up for a tour for 40 soles ($13ish dollars), and off we went. So this dune buggy thing was awesome. Straight up and down giant sand dunes. I don’t how this thing did not flip. You get thrown around, hit hour head on the ceiling, and ass will be sore from the lightly padded seat. Think of the biggest, baddest roller coaster you’ve been on, and this dune buggy just took a shit on it. And the sand boarding was sweet as well. Like a slower version of snowboarding. And everyone goes down on their stomach because most of us can’t even walk correctly, much less ride on a board standing up going down a sand dune at a 70° angle. Then the buggy picks you up at the bottom, and you get to do it all over again. And take the late afternoon tour, because the sunset on the dunes is pretty spectacular.