Paracas Party

Hello again. I am trying to stick it out and blog regularly-ish until we leave...it’s not working out too well, as you can see.

This past Wednesday, March 17, we went on a family day trip to Paracas, Peru. We had wanted to visit here and had been looking forward to it since February. Paracas is about three hours south of Lima (driving) and is home to a national marine reserve and also really nice beaches.

We woke up at 3:30 to get ready. Our driver, Javier, picked us up at our apartment in a 16-passenger van. Just for us! Never had I been so glad of a big family in my life! ha. Javier waited for a while and then drove to another part of Lima for another lady who was coming. I thought she was just a passenger, but it turns out, Ursula was a tour guide! Big family strikes again!

We started on our three-hour ride. It was weird to see the roads so empty. Once we got outside of Lima, everything was just dirt. Hills and hills of dirt-sand stuff. We also saw a lot of “los pueblos jovenes,” or shantytowns. About thirty years ago in Peru, the Shining Path terrorists were killing many people in the mountains. As a result, those Andean mountain families moved to Lima in masses. There were no places for them to stay, so they just camped out pretty much where there were open spaces. The houses were just tin walls and roofs, not very good living spaces at all. Some of those communities are in Lima, like Pamplona Alta. But these homes were in the middle of nowhere! It was weird. Then there were new houses (still small and brick) in clumps. Ursula told us that some politicians give money to help build the houses (to earn support). Then the people paint the politicians’ names on the sides of their houses. I guess it’s a win-win situation.

We arrived in Paracas after at about 7:30. Ursula led us to the port to get in line for our boat ride. Dad wrote all our names down on a list, on which you had to say your nationality. It was pretty cool to see that there were people there from Germany, Russia, and the Netherlands! Then we got on the boat. It seated about 30 people I think, give or take a few. The boat guide spoke in Spanish and then in English, so I was very thankful for that. We went about fifteen minutes (motor boat) to an island with some Nasca lines! No one knows who made them or why, but they think that an ancient civilization used it for orientation (a sort of landmark that helped them know where they were). It was pretty cool. Nasca (with the famous Nasca lines in the ground) is within 3 hours of Paracas. Next we went to a bigger island, called Guano Island. It was rightfully named. I felt sick at the overwhelming stench of bird doo. It was rather large island with thousands of birds. I am not exaggerating for once. There were literally thousands of pelicans and seagulls. I am surprised no one on the boat got pooped on; there were many seagulls flying over us all the time. Way cooler than the birds were the sea lions! Yes, sea lions in their natural habitat! It was extremely awesome. They were lying on the rocks, and we even saw some in the water around the boat. We literally got 5 or 6 feet away from them! Later we stopped by a swimming lesson. A mother sea lion was teaching her baby how to swim! The pup was only about a foot long and could only doggie-paddle with its head above the water. Once, the mother disappeared, and the baby was swimming around, calling for it. Then suddenly, the mom popped up right next to the pup and barked. It was just really cool! We also saw the nursery, where all the pups were. There were females watching them, and also males. The males were just fighting, not watching the babies. Typical. That whole beach was really loud; all the barking and the wailing made it sound like something out of a horror film.

After the amazing boat ride, we decided to go onto the marine reserve. I was thinking that there was nothing to reserve because all of it was just hills and hills and stretches of this weird sand-dirt stuff. I cannot believe that people lived there. “Barren” is a good name for it. But the Paracas civilization did exist; they found a cemetery in a couple of the sand hills. The mummies are now in a national museum. The sand is good for something: sand boarding. It’s like boogie boarding, except on sand. A lot of people go to Ica (an hour away) to do that because the sand is softer there.

After taking pictures at some viewpoints, we all spent some time on the beach. It was refreshing to play in the waves for a while, but hiking up the enormous sand hill was not so fun. Following the beach, Ursula and Javier led us to a little cove on one end of the reserve. It was so cute!! There were three little seafood restaurants and a small bay with more of the sparkling sapphire waters. The seafood (“chita,” or rock fish) was really good. Probably because it was fresh—they still had a tray of freshly-caught fish on the counter. Then we sat by the water and watched Rebekah and Elijah swim. (The water was way too cold for my liking.)
On our way home, we got caught in some rush hour traffic (so frustrating!) but that was it. A long day, but extremely beautiful and restful. I really loved Paracas!